Learn From My Import Mistakes, Not Yours

Learn from your mistakes. I wholeheartedly agree with that old adage—for the most part. But when it comes to the life of your database, I think that preventing errors is best for us all. Given that I’m involved in educational training, I have the luxury of playing and experimenting in a safe Raiser’s Edge sandbox, which allows for some trial-and-error and a whole lot of learning from my mistakes. This is particularly helpful when using tools that have system-wide effects, such as Import. In this post, I’d like to share some import tidbits—because trial-and-error in a live environment is definitely something I do not recommend.

You cannot ‘undo’ an import
Let’s get the most important stuff out of the way first. The repercussions of a bad import job are permanent—so always create a backup of your data before running an import. If needed, you can restore from backup, but extra preparation and caution before the import can save a lot of extra work.

Take the time to properly prepare your import file
Patience is not one of my virtues. When it comes to import, however, I have learned that time spent upfront on the data file can save much time and headache when actually importing the data. Once I tried to import someone else’s file without properly understanding the structure. The result? A messy import and messy data.

Pay attention to the location and name of your import files
I’ve made this mistake for the same reason I made the previous one. Let’s just say that rushing through an import is a disaster waiting to happen. I usually keep all my import files in the same folder, which can be helpful. But when all files are named accounts1, accounts2, and so on, it’s really easy to pick the wrong file. Depending on how many files you import, consider adding the date and import type to your file name. Raiser’s Edge provides many checkpoints along the way to ensure your import is a success, but be alert—data that you really don’t intend to import can still get imported, as long as it is formatted appropriately. I rejoice every time I see the “valid import file” message, but I no longer trust that I am automatically importing the correct data just because the file is valid.

.xls and .csv are not the same thing
This one gets me almost every time. Because I use Microsoft Excel to prepare my import files, and the default file type is not .csv, I usually end up having to re-save my .xls files as .csv files after trying to import the .xls file.

Take the time to test
Earlier, I spoke against trial-and-error activity that can potentially affect a large number of records. However, importing only one or two records can be a great way to test importing without any widespread negative effects.

Create a query of your imported data, and check it
This seems too obvious to even mention but trust me, I’ve made this mistake as well. I worked with a customer who didn’t realize until a couple of weeks after an import that they had transposed last names and first names. Unfortunately, because too much time had passed, they could not just restore from backup.  

If you are new to importing or would like to learn more about this powerful and timesaving tool, check out the Raiser’s Edge: Import 1 and Raiser’s Edge Import 2 instructor-led courses.