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Importing Transactions From Another System After Initial Import

Maggie Dubyk
  • Updated

 

Importing Transactions After Initial Import

If you have already done the initial import of your historical transactions, but you are still excepting transactions through another system external to Keela, this article will guide you through how to update Keela on a regular basis so you can keep track of those external transactions in Keela.

 

Important note: this article will focus specifically on importing transactions that are processed through an external system on a regular basis. 

  • If you have not yet done your initial import, we recommend exploring our Data Imports articles so you can import your transactions into the system. 
  • If you want to transfer your recurring existing recurring donations that exist in another system into Keela, we recommend the article Moving Your Existing Recurring Donations into Keela

 

Before Getting Started

Before we get started, if you are accepting transactions through another system, you may want to first consider accepting transactions through Keela. This will save you loads of time, so you do not have to export from your other system and import transactions into Keela on a regular basis. If you are not quite sure what it would entail to start accepting transactions in Keela, here a couple of resources. 

  • Benefits of Keela Donation Forms (video) - this video will give you insight into how donation forms work and show you firsthand how contacts and donations are automatically logged in Keela when someone donates via a Keela form!
  • Moving Your Existing Recurring Donations into Keela - this article will show you how you can import historical transactions from your other system and set up your ongoing recurring transactions in Keela. This way your recurring donations are logged in Keela automatically moving forward. 

If your goal is to save time & effort while increasing efficiency, we definitely recommend the above methods for processing and recording transactions!

 

Importing Transactions from Another System

If you prefer to keep accepting transactions through another system rather than Keela Forms, and you would like to track these transactions in Keela, we recommend the following steps. 

 

Step 1 - Determine Importing Schedule

Before you get started, we recommend that you determine how often you will want to import transactions into Keela that are processed through another system. For example, some organizations might want to do a weekly import of external transactions to make sure Keela is always up to date, while others might import external transactions on a quarterly basis.

This is totally up to you and your organization's preferences! It may help to have an importing schedule to make sure there are no transactions missed and your reporting is up to date.

 

Step 2 - Export Transactions 

Once you have an idea of your import schedule, the next step will be to export transactions from the external system that you want to import into Keela. See our articles on Exporting from Third Party Systems for tips on exporting from various third-party systems. 

 

Step 3 - Format Your Data

Now that you have your exported transactions, you will need to format them so they meet the required format for import into Keela. 

 

In your spreadsheet, you will want to make sure you include one of the three (3) columns below. This way Keela can find any duplicate contacts that already exist in the account and merge the new transactions into the existing contact's record. 

  1. Origin ID - if the contacts already exist in Keela, and you originally imported them with an external Origin ID, you can use this same ID so Keela can match the incoming transactions to the existing contacts. 
  2. Primary Email Address - if you do not have an Origin ID, Keela will look for a Primary Email Address to match new transactions to existing contacts. 
  3. Full Name - if you do not have an Origin ID or Primary Email, Keela will look for a Full Name to match new transactions to existing contacts. 

 

Important note: if the contacts that you are importing transactions for do not already exist in Keela, and you want to import their contact information (e.g. address, phone number, etc), we reccomend that you do a contact import before you import transactions. If you would need to import contacts first, you will want to follow the requirements in our article on Formatting Your Contact Data Spreadsheets. After the contact import, you can proceed with the transaction imports. Note: if you do not have any contact data that you want to import, and you just want to import transactions, you can skip this step!

 

Step 4 - Import Your Transactions

Now that you have your spreadsheets formatted and ready to go, you will want to follow the steps in our article on Importing Your Data into Keela. Once you import, you should be all up to date and can repeat the import cycle as needed!