Linking Constituent Record to Guests

Lindsey Stanfill

I did an import of all the guests at a recent event. I included the Constituent Import ID (also tried just the Constituent ID) and event imports however the guest lists don't link to the constituent record. I can't figure out why. Help! 

Keri Barnhart

Lindsey Stanfill:

I did an import of all the guests at a recent event. I included the Constituent Import ID (also tried just the Constituent ID) and event imports however the guest lists don't link to the constituent record. I can't figure out why. Help! 

Are the constituents listed as participants in the event already and you're adding their guests, or are you trying to create event participants from scratch?

"Guests" can mean different things here, so I want to make sure I understand what you're asking.


Also, unrelated to the terminology or what you're trying to import, do check your security permissions. There's an interesting one where in order to add anything to Constituents' Event/Participant info, you have to be able to edit the constituent record itself (even if you're not given permission to specific things on the record). So if you don't have Constituent -> Add, Edit you can't import event stuff to them.


This is a screencap of the constituent security permissions that allow my users to link a participant to a constituent.


But if you're okay on this, we can look at your import settings to figure it out.

Lindsey Stanfill

I have full Admin rights so I would assume I can edit constiutents. I have updated all "guests" as particpants in a seperate import. 


Basically we had sponsors (we did not use the sponsor label for anyone) that have guests. I am trying to import the guests with the correct sponsor (which I have) I just can't get the record to link. 

Keri Barnhart

Okay, yeah, if you've got admin rights then that won't matter. (Just in case it helps someone else, though, I'll leave it!)


Here are the column headings for my last guest import:

ReGGuestOf REGInvite REGInviteDate REGKeyInd REGType GuestIsPart GuestImpID GuestTitl1 GuestFirstName GuestLastName Registrant Import ID Invited [Date] I Guest Yes Guest Import ID Mrs. Jane Smith

EventID

2018EventID

The import id to match the guest to constituent has to be the Participant Import ID, not the regular Constituent or Import ID, I think.

(ETA You don't need GuestImpID or the Invite stuff, but the rest is required. I always create a Guest Import ID that matches the original constituent ID to help with double-checking the import/preventing duplicates, and I'll add an A or B to the end for additional non-constituent guests. We typically have thousands of people invited to our events and only one or two guests who aren't also constituents.)

Lindsey Stanfill

Did all that! I don't know what is going on!

Keri Barnhart

Lindsey Stanfill:

Did all that! I don't know what is going on!

Well, what the heck! Can you add any of the guests manually?

Lindsey Stanfill

Keri Barnhart:

Lindsey Stanfill:

Did all that! I don't know what is going on!

Well, what the heck! Can you add any of the guests manually?

 

Yeshowever this was kind of a test for an a HIGE guest import of 1600. I don't want toi enter all those! 

Keri Barnhart

Lindsey Stanfill:

Yeshowever this was kind of a test for an a HIGE guest import of 1600. I don't want toi enter all those! 

!!! That is a lot.

Okay, my next question is whether there is an error message when you try to import. Is there a field missing or unexpected content in a field or something? That is usually where I go wrong - I'm using a saved import profile but didn't refresh the field matching properly, so something is misaligned.