Updating deals in bulk - xls import?

[Edyta7510]

Hi All, 

Here's our use case: 

For each deal in HubSpot we have some custom properties reg. margin /cost of goods sold (COGS). When deal is created, sales team enter these manually (all our products/services require custom values for these). 

Once per month (on average) the finance team runs a report on the actual cost of goods sold (these get updated as sales terms evolve, etc). Today they gather this info in a massive xls spreadsheet. Is there a way we could manage bulk deal updates by uploading this spreadsheet? If so, what are the requirements? (formatting, etc). 

Or perhaps there is another solution that would be more intuitive? 

Of course we want to minimize manual work (entering these values one by one on hundreds of records), but also want to make sure we do not mess up what's in CRM (end up with duplicates, overwrite data, etc). 

Thanks!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Edyta7510,

Is the finance team pulling this information from HubSpot in the first place? If yes, the export should by default include the Deal ID. This is a crucial element for a re-import.

When using the import wizard, you can choose to update records based on the object ID (in this case the Deal ID). HubSpot will then look up deals based on this ID and update properties accordingly. (This is the same behavior as importing contacts, only that with contacts HubSpot does this by default based on the email address. You can find an explanation of this object ID deduplication here.)

Everything else would have to follow the usual import requirements. Each column should correspond to a property, each row is a deal record. Formatting doesn't play a role here.

Without the Deal ID, HubSpot would indeed create duplicates for each row in the import file.

So to summarize, your finance team would have to use a HubSpot deal export for their monthly report and they would have to keep the Deal ID in that file so that you re-import this file.

Let me know if this would be a feasible workflow. If not, any additional context that you can provide would be useful.

Best regards!

[Edyta7510]

Thanks @karstenkoehler 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Edyta7510,

Is the finance team pulling this information from HubSpot in the first place? If yes, the export should by default include the Deal ID. This is a crucial element for a re-import.

When using the import wizard, you can choose to update records based on the object ID (in this case the Deal ID). HubSpot will then look up deals based on this ID and update properties accordingly. (This is the same behavior as importing contacts, only that with contacts HubSpot does this by default based on the email address. You can find an explanation of this object ID deduplication here.)

Everything else would have to follow the usual import requirements. Each column should correspond to a property, each row is a deal record. Formatting doesn't play a role here.

Without the Deal ID, HubSpot would indeed create duplicates for each row in the import file.

So to summarize, your finance team would have to use a HubSpot deal export for their monthly report and they would have to keep the Deal ID in that file so that you re-import this file.

Let me know if this would be a feasible workflow. If not, any additional context that you can provide would be useful.

Best regards!

[Edyta7510]

Hi @karstenkoehler 

Many thanks for this prompt response. 

They manage this process in Salesforce today (the solution will be retired in the long term, there is no plan for us, for now, to connect HubSpot and Salesforce for that reason). 

If I understood correctly, this is how this could be managed: 

1. Export relevant deals to xls

2. Delete any irrelevant columns to minimize any risks for mistakes (maintain deal ID + custom properties that will be modified). 

3. File is reimported and updates are reflected on deal properties. 

Please let me know if this is how this should be managed. 

Also, if some properties do not require value update, shall original values be kept or they should be left blank? I believe the original values should be maintained, but not 100% sure. 

Big thanks!

Edyta 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Edyta7510,

Those steps are correct. If there are property that don't need to be updated, you can choose to not import those columns during the import.

Best regards!