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JennattaJennatta 

Mass upload activity with excel connector

How can I massively upload activity into salesforce using excel connector? For example, my company just sent out a direct mailing to a list of 400 contacts exported from salesforce, and I want to record this activity massively rather than having to manually record the 400 mailings under each individual (under activity history), which will take hours. Is there a way to do this?
AMartinAMartin
Hi Jenna,
 
Before you do this, you'll need the sfdc id for each Contact who was sent the mailout but this is relatively easy using the Excel Connector.  If you don't have the sfdc id, rerun the original report that gave you the list of eligible contacts for the mailout but this time include the "Contact ID" field. 
 
After you launch the Excel Connector, select the Task object.  Then, at a minimum, you should select the following fields:
 
Activity ID  -  has to be the first column in the Excel worksheet, the value of the field is "NEW".
Subject  - populate with an appropriate value
Status - populate with appropriate value (ex. "Completed")
Due Date  - populate with appropriate value
Assigned To ID  - the name of the Account Manager or the person with a sfdc license who is responsible for the mailout.
Contact/Lead ID  - the sfdc id of Contact who received the mailout
 
To upload the info to sfdc, select the Activity ID cell, then click on the "Insert Selected Row" option from the Excel Connector menu. 
Once you've uploaded a couple of rows of data and verified that it is correct and in the desired format, you can select all the Activity ID cells and then click on "Insert Selected Row" to upload all rows at once.  If you find you've uploaded incorrect data, you can either select the Activity ID cell and then "Delete Object" to delete the entire row or you can correct the info in the Excel Cells and then select "Update Selected Cells".
 
Here's the link to the Excel Connector helpfile.  It shows how to Insert, Delete and Update data.
 
Hope this helps.
 
Aiden
 
 
 

Message Edited by AMartin on 04-15-2007 01:30 PM
JDeraJDera
I saw that you mention to select Task, and this will of course make an entry into open activities.  It looked like from what I read that Jenna was looking for a mass update into activity history, maybe I am wrong, but that is what I was in need of.  How would that be accomplished?
AMartinAMartin
Hi,
 
Changing the status of the Task to 'Completed' or some other value that designates the task is closed will cause the record to be displayed in the Activity History related list instead of the Open Activities.
 
Aiden
Angus77Angus77
Hi Aiden,
I'm following these directions to add activities to existing leads but I'm a bit confused.

If I query and get the table that recognizes the Lead ID that I need to update, how then do I turn that table into an import of the activity records? I seem to be missing a step. I pulled the table down, added the fields you indicated, including 'new' for the activity ID. The Connector doesn't recognize "new" and therefore isn't updating the record.

Any insights would be great.
AMartinAMartin

Hi Angus, First, you have to run a salesforce report to capture the Lead Id's of the Leads that you want to link to these new activity records. Export the report to Excel. Second, on a separate worksheet or workbook, launch the Excel Connector, select the Task object and select the fields mentioned in the previous post. The first two rows of your second workbook should look like this:

Task

Activity ID      Status        Subject      Due Date Only     Assigned To ID    Contact/Lead ID   

Copy the Lead ID's from your initial report and paste in the Contact/Lead ID column. The Activity ID column has to have a value of "New". The Assigned To ID column will be the name of an active sfdc user. (If the person's name is really long, you'll have to use their sfdc 15 digit unique ID).

Populate the other columns as needed. Select the Activity ID cell, then click on the "Insert Selected Row" option from the Excel Connector menu. If this works, the value of "New" will be replaced with the sfdc ID of the new activity record.

Let me know if still need help. Aiden

Message Edited by AMartin on 09-25-2007 08:49 AM
LiquidJLiquidJ
THAT WAS GOOD ADVICE...YOU HELPED ME ALOT, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT FOR EVER!!!
 
DOES THIS WORK THE SAME FOR ADDING EVENTS TO A LEAD??
CAN YOU WALK ME THROUGH THAT AS WELL.???
 
IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
AMartinAMartin
The steps for uploading an Event to a Lead should be the same as uploading a Task to a Contact.  Just follow the previous instructions substituting Event for Task and Lead for Contact.  I don't know if you can add invitees with the Excel Connector.
agermanagerman
I am in the process of adding a new user and bringing his database from his old CRM over to my salesforce. I am glad I found this tool because transferring his previous conversations (activities) with our clients is a priority for us.

I noticed in the previous examples there is not a column for "comments" - Are we able to import the comments from the activities or are Date, Status, etc. the only fields we can populate?
Harry JamesHarry James

You can populate all the fields.

Use the Description field for Tasks.

 
InsightSchoolsInsightSchools

Hi!  I am using a Professional version.  Is there another way to mass upload activities by not using the Excel Connector which only comes with Unlimited or Enterprise versions?  Please email any ideas or thoughts to benn@insightschools.net.  Very much appreciated!!
agermanagerman
From the Excel Connector thread at http://blogs.salesforce.com/features/2006/05/excel_connector.html

"Open Source tool which works with professional, enterprise, and unlimited edition."
BlankaBlanka
Hi everyone,
 
I have been trying to mass insert tasks using Excel Connector ( I am pretty new at using the Excel Connector) and I was thinking that the system will send my users an email notification as well after the tasks were inserted, but it looks like it doesn't. I have tested it with three different accounts, same account owner and the account owner has not received an email, but the new tasks were inserted.
 
Has anybody ever tried to do this before?Is there a work around ?
 
Any ideas would be more than appreciated.
 
Thanks
 
Blanka
Eric TobiasEric Tobias
I'm having the same issue... also wondering how the "Reminders" field gets populated?  When I enter a task through the SF interface there's a checkbox for a reminder, but I don't see a corresponding field when I describe the table using the Excel Connector.
 
Am I missing something?
BlankaBlanka
Hi Eric,

I was told that using Excel Connector there is no email notification that will be sent to the users. So, what I ended up doing is to create a workflow rule and I activate the rule JUST before mass assigning the tasks. This sends the email to the users and after 30 minutes I deactivate the rule so that users do not receive email notifications every time tasks are being created or assigned to them.

On the other hand the reminder should work - you just need to make sure that you use API 13 before you run your query - this gives you that option as well. So, when you log into Excel Connector, click on Advanced and change the number from 6 (at least that is the version I have) to 13....this is what it should show: https://www.salesforce.com/services/Soap/c/13 and then select the TASK table and this gives you the option of Reminder set (TRUE or FALSE) and Reminder Date.

Let me know if you need more assistance.


Thanks
Blanka
AMartinAMartin

Hi Eric,

You are indeed missing something.

The Excel Connector hasn't been updated for a couple of years now so when you install it, it is referencing a much older API.  I believe it's version 6 or 7.  You need to force the Connector to reference a newer version of the API to see the newer sfdc system fields like Reminder.

Click on the sforce Connector button...
Select Options from the menu...
Click on the Advanced tab...
Check the option "Specify Default Server URL on Startup".
Copy the text https://www.salesforce.com/services/Soap/c/14.0 into the URL textbox.
Click "Apply".

hth.

Aiden

 

 
Eric TobiasEric Tobias

Blanka and AMartin... thank you!  That was the solution I needed.  Everything is working swimmingly now.

Cheers!
Eric TobiasEric Tobias
Next question, I am doing a mass upload of old notes into our new SF account.  I can't overwrite the "Create Date", "Created By ID", "Last Modified By ID", or "Last Modified Date" fields.  I'm not surprised by this, however it does make things painful not being able to modify at least either created or modified data.  Everything shows up under my login with a created date of the upload date.  Thus years worth of data appears as today's notes.
 
Any ideas on this?  It also makes things much less useful since the default sort is by create date.  Everything has the same create date, so the notes come through, essentially, in random order.
 
I've tried a few tricks with sticking the date in the "Title" field and sorting descending, but no combination so far gives valid data.  "Valid" meaning newer notes at the top of the list.
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!