Loading and tidying data

Xperios Essentials, section 7 of 7. Importing from a spreadsheet, joining duplicate records, and erasing somebody properly.

What you will be able to do

• Load a batch of records from a spreadsheet without writing anything you did not intend
• Read an import template's colours before you fill it in
• Find the records that look like duplicates
• Join two records for the same person, knowing why nothing happens otherwise
• Know what anonymising does, and what it cannot undo

Step 1 of 7

Importing a batch rather than typing it

Data Import brings records in from a spreadsheet, a few hundred at a time rather than one at a time by hand. Teachers, resources, schools, organisations, activities, groups and group members. Schools and organisations are separate imports, as are groups and group members, because each pair holds genuinely different information.

Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

Importing a batch rather than typing it — press Escape or click to close

1. Importing a batch rather than typing it

   Data Import brings records in from a spreadsheet, a few hundred at a time rather than one at a time by hand. Teachers, resources, schools, organisations, activities, groups and group members. Schools and organisations are separate imports, as are groups and group members, because each pair holds genuinely different information.

2. Start from the template, and read the colours

   Download the template for the type you are importing and it arrives with the right columns in the right order, annotated. The headings are colour-coded. Red means mandatory, so every row must have a value. Green means at least one of the green columns must be filled in. That is how Xperios asks for some way of contacting somebody without minding which way you give it.

   The green group is Address Line 1, Post Code, Land Line and Mobile - any one of them will do.

3. Nothing is written until you are satisfied

   You can add columns of your own, notes to yourself while you work, and they are ignored. Only the standard columns are read. Upload, and the file is read in your browser rather than sent anywhere. Every row is checked before anything is written, and you are shown what the import will do. Fix the spreadsheet and upload again as many times as it takes. Try ten rows before you try a thousand.

4. Finding records that look like each other

   Now tidying. To find records that look like each other, run the query called Contacts, Duplicate or Similars. It lists them. But before you do anything, check it really is a duplicate. One person has one record and can hold several roles, so a tutor who also has a child in lessons is not two accounts gone wrong.

5. There is no Merge button

   Here is the part nobody guesses. There is no Merge button. Xperios merges as you save. When you edit a contact and save it, it looks for others that match and joins them up. Which is also why records sometimes merge when you were not expecting it. It is the save that does it.

6. Three pieces have to agree

   What counts as a match is specific. Two records join when at least three pieces of data on the main Details tab agree, and the name is only one of those three. So a pair where one has an address and a phone number and the other has only a name will not join, however obvious it looks to you.

   The reliable way: put the same placeholder into Address Line 1 and Post Code on both, save so they merge, then clear the placeholder out of the record you are left with.

7. Erasing somebody, properly

   Finally, erasing somebody. Anonymise removes a person's name and personal details while leaving the invoices, payments and attendance they are part of, with nothing on them saying who they were. It is administrators only, it appears only on an archived contact, and it cannot be undone. Archive first. That is the reversible step.

The recap

• In an import template, a red column heading is mandatory - every row must have a value.
• A green heading means at least one of the green columns must be filled in, and Xperios does not mind which.
• Columns you add of your own are ignored. Only the standard columns are read.
• There is no Merge button. Xperios merges as you save - editing a contact and saving it looks for others that match and joins them up.
• Two records join when at least three pieces of data on the Details tab agree, and the name counts as only one of the three.
• The query Contacts - Duplicate or Similar(s) lists the records that look like each other.
• Anonymise is administrators only, works only on an archived contact, and cannot be undone.

Now take the test

Six questions, in Xperios under Training. Everything it asks is in The recap above.

If you want the detail

• Data Import — every type, and what the review shows you
• Two records for the same person — the walkthrough, including what a merge actually removes
• Anonymising a contact — who can, and the seven-day wait