This is my first RE import and I am afraid my impatience may be getting the best of me. I feel like this should be fairly obvious and straight-forward, but am struggling with making sense of all the steps. I was given a csv file containing changed addresses from our recent direct mail campaign. My thinking was that I could (using the constituent id as the identifier) just import those back into RE, overwriting the pre-existing incorrect addresses. But in my test run (of one record) - that didn't work. The pop-up error message told me that I needed an import id. So in reading through the user guides, knowledge base, etc. I learned that I needed to first create an import file. But once that file is created, do I then have to manually enter all the changes from the first file into this new one before importing it into RE? I am looking at about 4,000 new addresses from several lists that together totaled around 25,000 records. I feel like I am missing some glaringly obvious step here.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Leah TAustin, TX
Leah,
If you truly want to overwrite the existing addresses you will need Address Import IDs added to the file. They need to be exactly the Import IDs on each of the the existing addresses. I do not actually recommend overwriting addresses but rather keeping a history of the old address (marking it as a previous address type). You can import them as new addresses and mark them as primary in your import but unfortunately this will not mark the old address as previous and will also be a problem for any records with linked addresses (spouses, etc.). The linked addresses will remain with the old address and you will need to query to find them and manually fix each one.
I know this is a live and learn situation but you will want to next time export any corresponding Import ID with any files you are sending out for changes (address import IDs for NCOA, phone AND address import IDs for a phone search, etc.) and instruct your vendor to send this ID back on the file. This will allow you to either overwrite the existing records file or you can choose to keep the records as they are and just use the column if IDs to create a file which can import the new phone type of Previous Address to the old address. There is no possible way using any vendor other then BB to have the import automatically change the linked addresses to the new address. If you choose to not use Blackbaud this will always be a manual process if you are keeping old addresses (which I highly recommend).
It is for this reason that I recommend the BB AddressFinder service rather than any external vendor regardless of price. The headache it causes is not worth the savings in my experience. I would, if I were you, use your file as an import file and import them as new addresses. The headache of creating an import file and matching 4,000 rows of data is just not worth it in my opinion.
If your organization's policy is to overwrite bad addresses with the new (ours is - not my decision) then you can add the Import ID field to your data file. There's a nifty little solution in the KB BB124766 which shows you how to create a query from a data file. Check it out! Once you've generated the output query, just put the ConsID, ImportID, AddrImpID & any other fields you need into the output & export the new file. You can easily match it up in excel with the existing data (use the exact function on both ConsID fields to verify your columns are aligned properly).
This is one of my favorite RE tips - I use the output query just about daily!
Good luck to you.
Without the VBA Module I doubt the KB Solution BB124766 is any help, unfortunately. Do you know how long it would take to create a query using specific record for 4,000 records. I can't even imagine.
Melissa Graves: Without the VBA Module I doubt the KB Solution BB124766 is any help, unfortunately. Do you know how long it would take to create a query using specific record for 4,000 records. I can't even imagine.
But I would still be very hesitant that the Address Import ID coming out of RE is the same as the one that came out a few weeks ago when she exported the data to send to the vendor. If they "always" overwrite addresses then maybe - but I still would be hesitant.