Import contacts
Bring a spreadsheet of customers into Lahuta from a CSV file and choose where each column goes.
If your customers live in a spreadsheet or another tool, export them as a CSV file and import it. You choose which column becomes which field, check a preview, and Lahuta adds the contacts or updates the ones you already have.
Before you start
- Save or export your list as a
.csvfile with a header row, one person or company per row. - A file can have up to 1,000 rows. Split bigger lists into several files.
- People and companies are imported separately. The import uses whichever tab you're on, People or Companies.
Import a CSV
Go to CRM → Contacts and pick the People or Companies tab.
Open the arrow next to Add contact and choose Import CSV.
Drop your file on the box, or click it to browse. You can also select or paste CSV, paste the text and select Load CSV.
Check where each column goes. Every column in your file gets a row showing its header and a couple of sample values. Lahuta recognizes common headers like name, email and phone and maps them for you. Change any row with its dropdown, or pick Skip column to leave it out.
Optionally, use Add to groups to put everyone you import into one or more of your groups.
Look over the Preview. The footer tells you how many rows will import. Select the Import button, which shows the same count, for example Import 120 rows.
When it finishes, a summary tells you how many contacts were created, how many were merged with existing contacts, how many were added to groups, and how many rows or values were skipped. Select Import another file to run the next one.
Fields you can map to
Under Contact fields, each column can go to one of these:
| People | Companies |
|---|---|
| Full name, or First name and Last name | Company name |
| Phone | Phone |
| Address | Address |
| Website / URL | Website / URL |
| Job title | Description / notes |
| Linked company | Image URL |
| Description / notes | |
| Birth date | |
| Image URL |
Linked company connects each person to a company by name.
Import extra columns into a group
Your file may have columns that aren't contact fields, like "Favorite glaze" or "Membership tier". Those can come in as columns of a group.
When you import from the Contacts page, pick exactly one group under Add to groups. Each dropdown then also offers:
- Existing columns, to fill one of the group's columns.
- New column…, to create a column. Give it a name and a type: Text, Number, Date, Single select, Multi-select, Phone, URL, Email or Address.
You can also import from inside a group. Open the group, open the arrow next to Add contacts and choose Import CSV. The dialog is titled with the group's name, and every row you import joins that group.
How matching works
Lahuta matches each row to an existing contact by email address or phone number.
- A match is updated, not duplicated. Empty fields are filled from your file. Fields that already have a value are left as they are.
- An archived contact that matches comes back into your address book.
- A row with no name, email or phone is skipped. If you haven't mapped a name or email column, a warning tells you before you import.
- A value of the wrong type, like text in a Number column, is dropped. The rest of the row still imports.
Importing doesn't subscribe anyone to your newsletter.
Adding newsletter subscribers from a list
To add a list of email addresses as newsletter subscribers, don't import them as contacts first. Go to Marketing → Newsletter → Members and either:
- Select Add subscribers, choose Paste emails, and paste the addresses. Contacts are created for addresses you don't have yet.
- Select Invite and use Upload a list to send each address an invitation to subscribe.
Only add people as subscribers if they agreed to hear from you. See Newsletter for how the two differ.