Large Imports but excluding people that already have records

Options
Courtney Klein 2
Courtney Klein 2
Tenth Anniversary First Comment Blackbaud Certified
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
My new organization does mass imports 5,000+. My predecsor has already left and didn't teach anyone how to import these files but exclude people who already have records in RE. So my question is - how do you find out who already has records in RE in the excel document? Is there a program you use or a kinda of feature in RE that will locate everyone with an RE record already so then I can exclude them in the import?



My apologies if I am not explaining this well.



Courtney
Tagged:

Comments

  • Clay Morgan
    Clay Morgan
    Tenth Anniversary First Comment Blackbaud Certified Facilitator Level 1
    This is what I would try:



    1. Export RE constituent records.

    2. Open the exported file in Excel and add a column to identify as "exported" records.

    3. Do the same to the "new" file - add a column to identify as "new." records.

    4. Combine the files into one spreadsheet. Make sure the "new" records start at the bottom of the export list. This way any dupes are removed from the "new" list.

    5. Let Excel de-duplicate the list.

    6. From the result, only import the records marked "new" into RE.

    7. After importing into RE, use the duplicate constituent removal tool to check results.



    Have not tested this but it makes sense to me. Hope this helps. - clay
  • Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    Check the "Use duplicate criteria for new records" checkbox on the General tab of the import and be sure to create an exception file.  It will probably give you more "possible duplicates" then actual duplicates.  Then you'll have to go through the exception file manually to see if it really is a duplicate.  If it isn't a duplicate then leave it in the exception file and run that through import with the "Use duplicate criteria for new records" unchecked.  It's a bit of work but better than checking all 5000+ records and/or entering them manually.



    -Josh
  • Nicole S
    Nicole S
    Ancient Membership 500 Comments 100 Likes Photogenic
    Josh's method is the built-in RE method and probably what I would use -- any import is going to be a pain in this area.  You will have some dupes imported any way, and you'll have some kicked back that aren't.



    Clay's method is also a more manual option, but in my experience only works with exact dupes.  So if an address is Street on one list but St on the other or Robert/Bob, Excel will not recognize it as a dupe.  So make sure you do some clean up.  RE uses an algorithm that can be a little more forgiving. 



    Either way, much better than manually entering.
  • Rachel Gazzerro
    Rachel Gazzerro
    Tenth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Facilitator Level 1
    For 5000+ it's may be difficult, but I like to copy & paste emails into a query, export the emails found, and automatically remove those individuals from my list. I say this is difficult becase:

    -you may have more than one email as a 'phone type'; I get around this by selecting 'phone number' for any 'phone type'

    -you can only copy & paste up to 500; I get around this by selecting 'phone number' as many times as needed and pasting in the emails. For example, my query will look like

          Phone Number one of XXX,XXX,XXX

          OR Phone Number one of XXX, XXX

    For 5,000+ you'd have to do this 10x. My imports are usually only a a few hundred to 1000, so this isn't difficult. However, I find this is more accurate than the import duplicate checker. 



    FYI, in excel, be sure to use the TRIM function so extra spaces at the end of emails don't mess up results

Categories