Bring records in from a file

What can be brought in

A firm moving to Docavra brings its old registers in from spreadsheets. Today the parties register (clients, other sides, witnesses and everyone else the firm deals with) can be brought in; more registers follow.

Bring a file in

1. Open your profile, Imports, and choose Bring in a file.
2. Choose what the file brings in, then Download the template. It is a CSV file with the headings the import reads: fill one row per record under them, in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, and save it as CSV (comma separated).
3. Choose the file and Bring it in. The file goes straight to the firm's store; it can be up to 25 MB.

The import then runs in the background. The file is scanned for viruses, every row is checked, and the rows are written a batch at a time. Its page shows how far it has got, and you are told when it finishes. You can leave the page and come back.

The parties file

Each row is one person or one organisation:

• Type: Person or Organisation.
• A person: First name and Last name, and Other names and Title where you have them.
• An organisation: Organisation name, and its Organisation kind (company_limited_by_shares, company_limited_by_guarantee, partnership, sole_proprietorship, ngo, government, trust or other) and Registration number where you have them.
• Email and Phone, where you have them; each is kept as the party's main one.
• Tags, separated by semicolons.

A row whose email belongs to a party already on file is not added again.

Rows to fix

A row that cannot be written (a missing name, an email that is not an address, a party already on file) is listed with the reason. Where some rows were wrong, the import's page offers Rows to fix: a CSV of those rows with a column saying why, and the line each was on. Correct them there and bring that file in.

The parties import writes every right row and lists the wrong ones. An import that must take all or nothing says so before you bring the file in: one wrong row there and nothing is written.

Stopping an import

Stop on the import's page halts it after the batch in hand. Rows already written stay written.

Who may bring records in

Bringing records in needs the data.import permission, which the firm administrator and the managing partner hold, and the permission each record needs (adding parties needs party.manage).