Bulk importing records

This article will help you import candidates/contacts/companies records to Recruit CRM from a CSV/XLS file.

Shubham Chouthai avatar
Written by Shubham Chouthai
Updated this week

The first step towards successfully implementing any ATS/CRM is migrating your data. Importing data to Recruit CRM is extremely simple! All you need to do is upload the XLS or CSV file with your data into the system.

If you have a file in XLSX format, you'll first need to convert it into XLS.
Here's how you can do this

Before you import a file, please make sure it has column headers.

If your spreadsheet has additional columns that are not available in Recruit CRM, you first need to create custom fields to map those columns into the system.

Special characters like "<,>, & OR;" present in the file, crash the code for import. You need to remove these before importing the file.

🗒️ How to import your spreadsheet to Recruit CRM?


1. Navigate to Candidates/Contacts/Company and click on the drop-down arrow on the right side of the "Add Candidate/Contact/Company" button.

2. Select Import CSV / XLS and upload the file you wish to import.​

3. The next crucial step is to map the fields in your file to those in Recruit CRM.

Key points to note for mapping!

Here are some key points to help you do the mapping right:

  • If there are columns that you do not wish to import from your datasheet, you can skip those columns by simply selecting "Don't Import This Column" from the drop-down.

  • Once the field is mapped, it won’t be available in the drop-down for mapping again.

  • Make sure the field type matches the type of value in the column. For example, if you are trying to map the column “Work Experience”, you need to find a field that accepts numeric values viz the Number field. If you’ve mapped it to a field that is a text field, then the values for the column Work Experience will not be imported to Recruit CRM.

  • If you have a column in your spreadsheet that doesn't match any existing field in Recruit CRM, you will need to create a custom field.

4. You will then get the option to Merge or Not to Merge duplicate records.

Recruit CRM lets you merge duplicates based on any one of the unique parameters for each entity. Those unique identifiers are:

For candidates: Email ID, LinkedIn URL, and Contact number

For contacts: Email ID and LinkedIn URL

For companies: Name, Website URL, and LinkedIn URL.

5. When clicking on the 'Merge Duplicates' option, the system will prompt you to select one unique parameter based on which you would like to merge the duplicates and during import, the system will check and merge duplicates based on that one parameter that you select from the three.

The 'Override Data' toggle provided below allows you to choose whether imported data should override existing records in the database.

Enabling the override option ensures that duplicate records in the database are updated with the latest information from the imported spreadsheet. If information is not present in the spreadsheet, existing data will remain unaffected.

When the toggle is set to 'OFF', merging duplicates won't override any existing data in Recruit CRM; instead, it will solely update the empty fields on the record with new information present in the CSV.

6. Once this step is completed, the system will present you with two additional options:

  • Add to Hotlist:

    This will take you to the Hotlists page. If you choose the “Add to Hotlist” option, you’ll get to see all the existing hotlists in your account and will have the option to create a new one as well.

  • Import now:

    This will directly import all records to Recruit CRM without tagging them to a hotlist.

7. Now you just have to click on the 'Import' button to import all records and you’re done!

You have the flexibility to include both companies and their corresponding contacts within the same CSV/XLS sheet. This allows for the seamless import of both company details and the associated contacts working within those companies into your database in one go.

When bulk importing companies, it's important to understand even if you opt for the 'Do Not Merge' option, the system automatically merges the companies from the backend based on unique parameters i.e. Name, Website URL, and LinkedIn URL.

Opting for the 'Merge Duplicates' option enables you to merge the contacts being imported along with the companies, based on the unique parameters i.e. Email ID or LinkedIn URL.

​Hope this helps!

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