Importing data from ACT

Learn how to import your data from ACT

Overview

What does importing contacts mean? 
Importing contacts is how you can mass-load your contacts into Salesforce CRM.

Why is importing your contacts important? 
Importing contacts helps get all your contacts into your Salesforce CRM application in minutes so you can spend your time growing your business instead of entering phone numbers and email addresses.

Exporting contacts from ACT!

NOTE: This tutorial was created using ACT! by Sage 2009, version 11.0. If you have a different version of ACT! your process for exporting contacts may be slightly different. View your ACT! help notes if you have questions.

1. Launch ACT! and open your database.
2. Select the File menu and click Export to open the Export Wizard.
3. Click Next to get to the Specify Destination step.
4. Select Text Delimited file type.
5. Choose Filename and location for exported data.
6. Select Comma Separated Values (*.csv) in the ”Files of type” dropdown menu and click Open.
7. Click Next.
8. Select Contact Records as the type of records you want to export.
9. Select All records and click Next.
10. Select Comma for field separator character.
11. Select the checkbox for Yes, export field names and click Next.
12. Leave the export field order list alone and click Next.
13. Click Finish.
    NOTE: ACT! does not actually export the data as a .csv so you have to re-open the file and resave it as a .csv file.

• Open the file you saved.
• Select the File menu and click Save As…
• Change “Save as type” to CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) and click Save.
• Click Yes to replace the existing file.
• Click Yes to change the form.

NOTE: If you want to import contacts from multiple users, follow the additional steps below. If you are only importing contacts for one user, proceed to the next section.

9. Repeat Steps 1–8 to export the contacts for all users whose contacts you want to import into Salesforce CRM.
10. Merge all files into a single CSV file using Excel or a similar application.
11. Review your data for accuracy.
12. Add a column titled Record Owner and add the user’s Salesforce CRM username to this field in the format jsmith@acme.com or Joe Smith. This step ensures that each user’s data is correctly owned by that user in Salesforce CRM.
13. NOTE: All users named in the CSV file must be created in Salesforce CRM before importing.
14. Save file and proceed to the next section.

Import your contacts into Salesforce CRM

1. Log in to Salesforce CRM.
2. Click the Contacts tab.
3. Click the Import My Accounts & Contacts link in the Tools section.
4. Click Start the Import Wizard.
5. Select ACT! from the radial dial and then click Next.
6. Click the Browse or Choose File button to select the file to upload and then click Open.
7. Click Import Now! to import your data.
8. Click Finish when done.
9. Click the Contacts tab and click Go! to check your work. You can see the contacts that have just been imported.