Importing while associating contacts with multiple companies

[NLipson]

Hubspot's import tool makes it possible to upload a contacts file and a companies file at once and associate contacts with companies using a common column (field).

My question is how can this be done when the reality is that at least some contacts have roles with multiple companies.

One theoretical example would be a PR professional who serves as the spokesperson of several companies and another would be a physician treating patients in both her private clinic and in the hospital that employs her.

How can this be done? I Have created a Google Sheet with contacts, companies and the desired, associated result.

Thanks,
Nathan

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @NLipson,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community!

It's possible to associate contacts with multiple companies via an import: you'd need a separate row for each company, like this: 

Please make sure to include the contact's email address in each row; it's used as a unique identifier for contacts in HubSpot - this way HubSpot will know that this is the same contact and won't create multiple contact records. 

The contact record looks like this after the import: 

 

I hope this helps!

Cheers
Mia, Community Team 

[NLipson]

Thanks @MiaSrebrnjak!

This gets me closer to what I need. However, what you are suggesting is essentially different than what I am trying to do. Please look at the Google Sheet I attached. It has the base data (companies and contacts) and the desrired state.

Yours,

Nathan

[MiaSrebrnjak · Accepted solution]

I see, you're working with 2 separate files for Contacts and Companies. I hope I'm reading your Google Sheet correctly! 

In this case, I recommend to do the following: 

• Add the Common field to both files and name it "Record ID" 

• Please also make sure that your Contacts file has a unique identifier that will prevent HubSpot from creating multiple contact records. HubSpot uses the email address as a unique identifier for contacts. If you don't have the contacts' email addresses, please consider using placeholder email addresses for the time being, like I did here:

• During import, choose the colum "Record ID" as the common column. If you've chosen the Record ID as a common column in this step, you don't need to map it in the next step. 

The imported records should look like this: 

Contact record with multiple associated companies: 

Cheers
Mia, Community Team

[NLipson]

Thanks, @MiaSrebrnjak!

Worked perfectly! I'd add one small clarification: not mapping means choosing "Don't import data in unmapped column" on the bottom of the mapping step.

[MiaSrebrnjak]

That's great, glad to hear that! 🙂 

Have a wonderful day,

Mia, Community team