Importing Accounts in Sherpa

General Overview: The Import Accounts feature is a mapping tool that can be used to import accounts from an Excel Spreadsheet into the Accounts area of Sherpa.  Any user has access to this feature, however, only users with the Account Approval rights in Manage Users can actually approve the accounts being imported.  The Account Import Feature can be found under the Account Tools menu option.

Mapping Your Spreadsheet: The first thing you have to do before importing the spreadsheet is map the fields into Compass using the Mapping Tool; this means you are showing the Sherpa product what fields you would like each column in the spreadsheet to go to.  In the Account Import area, go to the Mappings option.

1. Select the Add New button.
2. Enter a name for this mapping (any name that will help you remember the format of the spreadsheet in case you want to import another with the same formatting).
   

3. Select (Highlight) the Name you just created in the Mappings box. This will open up all the links to the various fields you can map to – the links will show in the box below it.

4. Highlight the database field in the list and choose the appropriate column from the drop-down list at the bottom of the mapping screen.  Note that Account Name and Address are required to be mapped before it will save the map you’re working on – once these are mapped, your work will save automatically.  During Account Imports you can choose to set a contact being imported as the Main Contact in Sherpa. Make sure you have the column Set Main Contact added and a value of Y, N, Yes, or No in the field and it will update accordingly on accounts being imported.

5. When completed, click Close.  To delete a mapping, highlight the mapping name and click Delete.
   

Example Spreadsheet for the mapping above

Importing Your Spreadsheet: Once you have the spreadsheet mapped, you can import the accounts and information into Sherpa.

1. Select the Mapping name from the dropdown and the Region you want the accounts assigned to.
2. Click Open File and browse to the spreadsheet.
3. Check the accounts you want to import using the check boxes on the left, or, click the Check All option (UnCheck All will clear what's been checked). If the row is highlighted pink, it means that an account already exists in the system with the same name, address, and phone number (this ignores spaces and any characters other than a name and number).
4. Use the Update Existing Accounts button to update the information on any accounts that matched to an existing account in Sherpa (the accounts highlighted in pink). If there are new details such as a new phone number or new contact person to be added to the account, this information will only carry over if this box is checked.
5. Click Import Accounts to have the accounts added.

 Account Approval Process: Whether you have the Account Approval Customization feature turned on or not (Also see Account Approval Customization section in the User section of the manual), any accounts added using the Import Account feature will still need to be approved in the Account Approval area, despite the user's credentials for adding accounts in Manage Users (if using the Account Approval Module).  

To give a user authorization to approve accounts, check the "Can Approve Accounts" option in Manage Users.

To approve accounts, the Account Approval area can be found in the Account Tools Menu if given access to approve accounts.

You'll see any accounts that have been imported in the list.  Click the dropdown under the Approval column for each account and choose either Approve (it will be assigned to the territory Rep), Deny (it will be removed from the database and approval queue), or None (keep in the queue and do nothing).  If approved, the account will automatically be accessible by the Sales Rep assigned to the territory, or you can manually assign the account as a Named account by going into the account and putting the reps name on it or using the Batch Edit feature (see Batch Edit section below).

You can also double click on the account name to go to the Edit Account area for that account and make any changes to the account info, classifications, as well as assign reps (if it is a Named Account or multiple reps are assigned).

Batch Edit: You can choose multiple accounts at once to assign to a specific named rep or region by using the Batch Edit button.  Use the check boxes next to the account name to choose all the accounts to want to assign to the user.  You can also use the Check All button to select all, UnCheck All to deselect all, or if you use the Check All option, you can individually uncheck accounts by un-checking the box.  Once you have selected the accounts, click the Batch Edit button.

To add to a named rep, check the Primary Rep check box and choose the rep from the dropdown you want to assign the accounts to.

If you have multiple regions, and you want to assign them to a specific region, check the Region check box and choose the region name from the dropdown.

Click the OK button.  
Choose whether you want to make the accounts as Approve, Deny, or None.
Click OK and the accounts will be named to the chosen rep, or denied, or changed to None.  Cancel will close the window and discard the request.

Approve All Accounts: To simply approve all accounts that have been imported, click the Approve all Accounts button instead of doing a Batch Edit or individually approving or denying accounts.

It will change the status on all accounts in the list to Approved, and when you click the Submit button, they will be assigned to whoever imported the accounts.