Introduction
The Dataloader can save you a lot of time when you need to load a large set of records into Accelerate, eliminating the need to manually key them all in.
Currently you can only upload the following file types, but this list is constantly growing:
Expand to view dataloader uploader types:
Expand to view dataloader uploader types:
Assets
Bank Accounts
Cashflows
Contacts
Contracts
Contract Notes
Contract Payments
Credit Lines
Drivers
Guarantors
Leads
Opportunities
Opportunity Notes
Proposals
Proposal Notes
Relationships
Relationship Notes
Tasks
Vehicle Contracts
Vehicle Orders
Follow the steps below to get started:
User Access
Make sure the user who's uploading the data has the right permissions to use the needed dataloader types.
You can check and change these permissions in Settings > Users > Edit User > Dataloader Access
Create your CSV file
Create a CSV file of the records that you want to upload.
Note: This needs to be in a format that the uploader will recognise and needs to include all the information that is required in Accelerate.
Download a copy of the DataLoader Template:
Save each relevant tab as a CSV file and populate the columns with the data you want to upload
The following rules should be followed when populating the CSV
The following rules should be followed when populating the CSV
Mandatory columns have red headers
Columns that are mandatory under certain circumstances have blue headers. For example, in Assets one of
CONTRACT_REFERENCEandPROPOSAL_REFERENCEneeds to be populated and in RelationshipsREGISTERED_NAMEis mandatory when theLEGAL_FORMis not “Private Individual”.
Relationships CSV should contain information on any company (excluding information on individuals at that company), sole trader, partnership or private individual that you deal with.
The Contact CSV should contain information relating to contacts at any corporate entity that is listed in the Relationships CSV
The Driver CSV should contain information relating to drivers at any corporate entity that is listed in the Relationships CSV
The Vehicle Contracts sheet represents vehicles that are already on contract for a given relationship. These can optionally be linked to a driver.
Any field with a name ending in Y_N can only accept the values Y or N
Date fields should be specified in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”
Datetime fields should be specified in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss
The following fields will be validated on load and should therefore be verified prior to upload : EMAIL_ADDRESS, POSTCODE, TELEPHONE_NUMBER, MOBILE_NUMBER, COMPANY_REGISTRATION_NUMBER, VAT_NUMBER
Do not put notes into telephone or mobile number fields (e.g. Call after 9pm). These fields must contain the phone number only.
Certain field can only accept specific values e.g. LEGAL_FORM. These fields and their values are listed in the file formats spreadsheet, on the Instructions tab.
Contracts with a
PRODUCT_TYPEorFUNDERas 'Outright Purchase' will not be created as contracts and these rows will be ignored.
Vehicles will only be created if there is a
CAP_IDandASSET_TYPEor you have opted to do a chargeable VRM lookup at the time of upload.
Please note that the VRM lookup is chargeable even for failed uploads, so please check your data carefully prior to upload.
Mandatory fields can be populated with an arbitrary value if the value is genuinely unknown, e.g. SURNAME on contracts can be set to 'Unknown' if only the first name is known.
FUNDER is not mandatory, however it will be set to 'Unknown/Migration' if not populated or the value is not listed on the Funders tab in the file formats spreadsheet.
Uploading to Accelerate
In order to upload your files, you must put your organisation into 'Data Load Mode'.
This will ensure that no automated actions are fired as the data is loading.
To do this head to Settings > Organisation Settings and click the Set Data Load Mode button.
Note: The Set Data Load Mode can only be turned on between 18:00 and 22:00.
When you're ready to upload your files, click ‘Settings’ in the menu, then click the ‘Dataloader’ button.
Note: If you are on a dedicated instance your URL will be different - contact your system administrator.
Files MUST be uploaded in the correct order. If you are uploading relationships, cashflows and proposals then you must upload them in the order relationships, proposals then cashflows as you cannot upload a proposal without the relationship being created first.
This will display a screen where you log in with your accelerate credentials
The next page will prompt you to choose the datatype you intend to upload.
Upon clicking 'Next,' you will be prompted to choose who to notify after the upload and select the file you wish to upload.
You can either notify yourself (uploading user) or the administrators.
The file must be CSV and must be UTF-8 encoded. It must also be in the same format as the corresponding tab in the template document referenced above for the file to be recognised, if it's not then you will receive a message saying the file format is not recognised.
All mandatory fields must be populated, especially the first column as any record with a blank first column will be ignored. If your file is very large then this may take a few minutes to upload, this speed is limited by your internet upload speed.
Once the file is uploaded, you will be shown a screen previewing the data to be uploaded to Accelerate:
Double check this information carefully to make sure you have put the data in the correct column, nothing is missing and everything is in the correct format. Clicking Confirm will upload the records to Accelerate. These records will upload in the background, you will be presented with a “Thank You” page and you can close your browser if you wish. When your data has finished uploading, you will receive an email (which will go to all users that are administrators of your organisation) confirming the upload has finished and detailing any errors that have occurred.
If there are any errors, then you will need to correct these errors in your file and then upload a modified file that only includes the files that failed. If you upload records that were successful again then they will be created again as duplicates.
If you are uploading a lot of files or are changing the way you use Accelerate by uploading new files, then please contact the Support team for guidance.
Common Issues
Due to the nature of this functionality, the issues that are encountered are nearly always data related so it is very difficult to list common problems as what may have happened a few times for one client may never happen for you. Below are a few things you can check:
Expand to view the issues frequently encountered:
Expand to view the issues frequently encountered:
Triple check your data meets the rules above, especially that all mandatory fields are populated and that all fields are in the correct format
Make sure your files are in the correct format and there are no encoded characters or broken lines. Using a good text editor like Notepad++ is ideal as Excel is likely to helpfully change the format of some fields.
Be very careful using Excel for viewing the file, especially if the file contains phone numbers as Excel will remove leading zeros e.g. 01234567890 will be converted to 1234567890 as Excel sees this as a number.
Check that email addresses are all valid, if you receive the error "CK_CONTACT_E_ADD_6" then there was a problem with the email address. Email addresses cannot be ".", "unknown" or a website URL.
If you receive error messages in the email summary, then only those records will have failed. You will need to create a new CSV file, with only the failed records if you want to upload these again.
Relationship Reference (otherwise known as external reference) is different to relationship ID
Any error messages should be read properly and the data checked prior to raising with the helpdesk. Often the reason for the error is detailed in the error message or it is obvious when looking at the data. Of course, if this isn't the case and the reason for the error remains unclear then please contact QV Systems Support on LiveChat providing full details of the error(s) received and the file you are uploading.