In this article, we'll take a look at how you can import your data into Keela and some important bits and pieces of information along the way.

Navigating to the Imports tab in Keela

(1) To begin the import, navigate to Organization Settings > Import tab

(2) Click on New Import

Choosing your Import Settings

After you click on the "New Import" button shown above, a pop-up window will appear that will allow you to choose some settings for your import.

Note: There are many more settings for the Contacts Data Type (Number 2 in the below screenshot) than there are for Donations, Revenues, Memberships and Volunteer data.

1. Select a CSV File from your computer
2. Specify the Data Type (In this case, we have chosen Contacts)
3. If you are importing Transactions, you can set a Default transaction type (Donation or Revenue). This means you do not need to add a "Transaction type" column to your file just to import Revenue transactions.
   1. If you are only importing Donations or Revenue, use Default transaction type to specify which type applies to the entire file — no extra column needed.
   2. Note: If you include a Transaction type column in your file, the value in each row will override the Default transaction type you have set.
4. Choose the date format Keela should apply to the dates in your file.
5. Confirm how Keela should check for duplicates (these options will not appear for Donation, Volunteer or Revenue data)
6. Confirm how Keela should handle any duplicates if found (these options will not appear for Donation, Volunteer or Revenue data)

Note: We cover the Duplicate Checking options (steps 4 & 5) in more detail here.

Click on the Save button to save these settings and move to the next screen.

Matching your Columns to Fields within Keela

Columns and Fields will automatically match if they are exactly the same

In our Data Formatting articles (Contacts, Donations, Revenue Membership and Volunteer articles), we spent some time discussing the Accepted Fields that data can be imported into in Keela. If the column headers in your spreadsheet match these fields exactly (the same spelling and punctuation), Keela will do this matching process for you!

Note: Your file should include column headers (a header row) so Keela can match columns to fields.

Note: This even includes Custom Field columns. Just be sure to set these up in your Keela account before importing so that Keela knows what to look for when matching up columns.

If a Column Header doesn't match an existing field in Keela, you can match them manually

If your column headers do not match Keela's Accepted fields exactly, you'll need to match these manually.

Match the headers from your excel sheet to the correct field in Keela by clicking Select Field above each column in your spreadsheet.

Once you're satisfied with the field matching and duplicates management, click the Start button to begin the import into Keela!

Tip: If you see validation errors, you can continue the import without fixing all errors right away. If you do, the import may finish with a “Completed with errors” status.

Import Validation

Import Validation will help keep your data clean and reduce the quantity of erroneous data being uploaded into Keela. When importing a CSV to Keela, the system will automatically check the first 10,000 lines of the imported CSV to ensure that the requisite data is following Keela’s formatting guidelines. If any errors are found, Keela will provide a description of the error(s) and the row(s) that were affected. Keela will display up to 20 individual errors per error code and identify which rows contain this erroneous data. Once this data has been corrected, you can proceed by re-uploading the CSV file.

Want to learn more about this? Head Import Validation Error Codes and Import Statuses.