COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

Downloading and Populating Import/Update Templates

Data Import Manager: Preparing the Import File

Note: Each procedure in this guide begins at the Contract Insight homepage, so any section can be followed on its own. Importing and updating data affects records across the application and should be performed by a Contract Insight System Administrator.

1. Overview

Once an import template has been created and its fields mapped, the next step is to build the file the import will read. Contract Insight generates that file for you: each template can produce a blank spreadsheet that already carries its own column headings, so the file starts out matching the mapping exactly.

The work then is to fill the spreadsheet in — one row per record — and save it as a CSV file, the plain-text comma-separated format the import reads. Getting the headings and the cell values right is what determines whether each row finds its record and lands in the right fields.

2. Downloading the Blank Spreadsheet

Steps:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Data Import.
2. Find the template in the Templates grid — type its name in the Search box above the grid and press Enter, or use the filter icon on the Name, Target table, Mode, or Created column.
3. Click the run button on the template’s row. The Run import screen opens, headed with the template name and showing the target table and, where it applies, the update-only mode.
4. Under Start from the blank spreadsheet, click Download blank CSV.
5. Open the downloaded file in Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet program.

Note: The blank file is generated from the template itself, so its headings already match the mapping. Starting from it is safer than building a spreadsheet by hand.

3. What the Blank File Contains

The downloaded file is deliberately minimal:

• A single header row holding the template’s CSV column headers, in the order they appear in the mapping — for example, Contract ID, Contract Title, Effective Date, Expiration Date
• No data rows — you add one row per record beneath the headings
• Plain comma-separated text, so it opens directly in any standard spreadsheet program

Note: Do not rename or delete the column headings. The import matches each column to a field by its heading text, so a renamed heading is not recognised and the data beneath it is not imported.

4. Checking What Goes in Each Column

Before filling the file in, expand What goes in each column on the Run import screen. The count beside it — for example “What goes in each column (4)” — is the number of mapped columns, and the table beneath explains each one:

• Column heading — the heading as it appears in the spreadsheet
• Holds — the field in the application that the column writes to, shown by its stored name, for example tblContracts_Contract_Title
• Notes — badges flagging how the column behaves

Two badges can appear in the Notes column, and a column can carry both:

• Matches existing records — the column is a condition field. Its value is what the import uses to find the record to update.
• Must match a value on the list — the column is a lookup field. Its value has to correspond to an entry that already exists in the relevant master reference list.

5. Populating the Spreadsheet

Steps:

1. Open the downloaded file and leave the header row exactly as it is.
2. Enter one row per record beneath the headings, keeping each value in the column its heading names.
3. In every column badged Matches existing records, enter the value that identifies the record — the row is matched on it.
4. In every column badged Must match a value on the list, enter the display text exactly as it is held in the application.
5. Complete the remaining columns with the values the records should carry.
6. Check the file over before saving: a row is only as good as the values in its condition and lookup columns.

Note: A row whose condition value matches an existing record updates that record. In an insert / update template a row that matches nothing is added as a new record; in an update-only template it is not.

6. Values That Need Special Care

• Lookup columns — the text must match the value held in the application exactly. Where a field is not marked as a lookup, enter the underlying id rather than the display text.
• Built-in flag fields — for Active, Allow Login, System Admin, and Force Password Reset, enter 1 for Yes and 0 for No.
• User-defined dropdown fields — these do not use 1 and 0. Enter the value as it is defined on the field, for example Yes, Y, No, or N.
• Condition columns — leaving one empty means the row cannot be matched, so it is treated as new data rather than as an update.

Note: Spreadsheet programs can reformat values as you type — long numeric ids may be shortened to scientific notation, and leading zeros dropped. Check that what is in the cell is what you intend before saving.

7. Saving and Uploading the File

Steps:

1. Save the completed spreadsheet as CSV (Comma delimited) with a .csv extension. Confirm the format if the spreadsheet program warns that features will be lost — that warning is expected for CSV.
2. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Data Import.
3. Open the template’s Run import screen again by clicking the run button on its row.
4. Click Choose File and select the saved CSV.
5. The file is processed against the template, updating the records its condition values match and inserting the rest according to the template’s mode.

Note: If the run screen reports that the template has no columns mapped yet, map its fields before importing — there is nothing for the file’s columns to be read into.

8. Quick Reference Summary