Every Rentman trial starts with a sample database of contacts. You can quickly add your own contacts by importing a contacts file, or you can add contacts one by one in the contact module.

In this article, we walk you through the steps of importing your contact list into Rentman.

Preparing your import file:

Here's what you need before importing your contacts:

A .xlsx (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets) or .csv file with your contacts' information. If you don't have one yet, You can download the template from the import window in Rentman. You can also download an example file with explanations at the bottom of this article to use as a reference to create a contact file.

Use clear headers (titles) in the first row of your file.
Don't import more than 64 columns in one go.
Include at least the most important information (e.g. Name, Last Name, Folder).
The folder path of an item must be specified in the Folder column, like this: Freelancers/audio technicians
Make sure the file doesn't have multiple sheets.
Do not insert images in your .xlsx file. You can add them later in the software.
Make sure all information in the file is entered as text, and without markups (bold, italic, colors etc).
Set up a logical folder structure in the contact_phone Contacts module so you can stay organized and find your contacts faster.

Importing contact persons

If your contact also uses contact persons, you can create columns in your contacts file that contain information about unique contact persons. These columns are useful because contact persons who belong to the same contact can have their own phone number, email address, and other unique information. In your file, your contact person columns could look like this:

Create multiple contact persons per contact
If the contact that you would like to add has more than one contact person, you can still import them all at once. To import several contact persons, each contact person needs to have a row in your import file. Each row then has information from both the contact and the contact person, as can be seen in yellow in the example below.

Import your contacts file

import contacts 720.gif

Go to the contact_phone Contacts module.
Click on More options more_vert and choose Import.

Select the type of import you want to do:

Import all rows as new item	Rentman creates a new contact for every row.
Update existing items with new data	If you want to update the contacts in your database, read how to do it in our article about updating data.
Add new items and skip existing ones	Rentman does not import contacts that are already in your database

Indicate if you want to import contact persons associated with your contacts.
Upload a contacts file in accordance with the "Terms" listed.
If you do not have a file with your contacts available yet, you can download our template above the upload button "Download a sample file here"
Indicate if your file contains a header (column titles). If you select yes, the first row of your file will not be imported.
For each column, the system matches the header names with the column names in Rentman. Check if all matches have been correctly made, and adjust where necessary.
If you selected "Yes" on importing contact persons in Step 4, the system will attempt to match the columns in your file either with Contact columns or Contact person columns. Check if all column matches have been made correctly and adjust where necessary.
Click "Next step" when all columns have been properly matched.
Select a root folder of your own folder structure. The root folder is the folder at the top, and it contains your folder structure. New items will be placed in this folder. If you have defined folders in your import file, these items will be placed under the chosen root folder.
Warning: If your contacts file doesn't contain a Folder column, all contacts will be placed in the same root folder. This means that your contacts will not be organized, and it may be difficult to find contacts. We recommend creating your own folder structure, and specify the correct folder path for your contacts in the Folder column.
Optional: If you selected "Add new items and skip duplicate rows" or "Update existing items with new data" in Step 3, you need to select match columns so that the system knows which entries to update. For example, if you are updating the contact persons of all contacts, you could select "Name" as the match column as it is unique for every contact being updated and is not being updated itself. The match column should never be the column you are trying to update.
Warning: These columns may not contain double values in the import file, as they are used during the import to identify which item or serial number should be skipped.
Click "Next step" and check the preview of your data one last time.
Note: Only the first 10 rows will be shown in the preview.
Click Import
After the import has finished, a window will pop up with the results. If your data has been imported successfully, you can Close the window, or choose to "View imported contacts". If the import (partially) failed, please read the Insight into your import result section below.

Insight into your import result

Sometimes it happens that the import might fail (partially or totally). If this happens you can find all your answers in the import result like:

Which rows (contacts) failed
Why these rows (contacts) failed
Which rows (contacts) have been imported successfully

At the bottom of the import result, you can download a file that contains all rows that failed, accompanied by the reason of failure. This gives you direct insight per row what the reason of failure is.

Some reasons why the import fails:

Too much data - Large files could take too long to be processed, and some information might not be imported. If this happens, delete the last import, split up your list in smaller files and import them separately.
Wrong formatting - Every information in the file must be entered as text, and without markups (bold, italic, background colors, etc).
Multiple sheets - If your .xslx file has multiple sheets, it can't be imported in Rentman.

Delete an import

When an import goes partially wrong, the best choice is to delete the information and do it all over again. Every time you import contacts, Rentman creates a tag with the format "import-date-hour". Simply select the tag of your latest update and delete those items.

delete contacts import.gif

Update contacts in your database

If you have already imported your contact list, but you need to make some bulk changes, you can update the items in your database.

Importing extra input fields

Set up the extra input field in the settings Configuration module
Create a column with the extra input field value in your .xlsx file.
When importing the file, match the new column with the extra input field (you'll find it in the 'Extra' section of the columns).

Download our import file example