Import templates and mapping profiles
Two things make imports faster. An import template is a blank file whose headers already match the system's fields. A mapping profile remembers how the columns of a file you import regularly match the system's fields, so the next import needs no matching.
Overview#
Templates and profiles both work per record type: a fleet company imports vehicles and drivers, a merchant imports stores and staff. A template gives you a file laid out the way the import expects; a profile saves the column matching for a file that comes out of another system in the same layout every time. How an import runs is on Bulk import from spreadsheets; the fields are on Import file columns.
Import templates#
- Export Template on the Vehicles, Drivers, Stores and Users lists downloads the template for that record type. On a merchant, the Users list gives the staff template.
- The template is a CSV file with one header row — the field labels the import shows, such as First Name — and no data rows.
- Fill it in a spreadsheet and import it. Map Columns still runs; with the template's headers its suggestions should match each column to its field, and you review them as usual.
- The template is not a data export. To download your existing records, use Export to Excel; see Export to Excel on list pages.
Mapping profiles#
- Saving. When an import completes, its detail page asks "Save this column mapping as a profile for future imports?". Give the profile a name of up to 100 characters, for example the name of the system the file comes from, and choose Save Profile. The prompt does not appear when the import already used a profile.
- What it holds. A profile stores your file's column headers and the system field each one maps to, for one record type.
- Who can use it. A profile belongs to your organisation, not to the person who saved it: other users of your fleet company or merchant see it and can apply it when they import that record type.
- Applying. On Map Columns, pick it under Apply saved profile: and choose Apply. Only profiles for the record type being imported are offered.
- Full match. When every column of the new file is in the profile, matching is skipped and the import goes straight to the preview ("Profile applied — all columns matched. Skipped to preview."). For a file of more than 10,000 rows the rows are checked in the background first, and the import page says so. If the profile does not cover every required field, you return to Map Columns with an error.
- Partial match. When the file has columns the profile does not know, the profile fills in the columns it knows, and the screen says how many columns still need manual or AI matching. Profile columns missing from the file are listed.
The Mapping Profiles page#
Mapping Profiles in the Data Exchange section of the sidebar (shown to users who can add vehicles, drivers, stores or users) opens Saved Mapping Profiles, which lists your organisation's profiles with their type, name, number of columns, creation date and creator. A profile can be deleted from this list after a confirmation; deleting a profile does not affect imports that already used it. Profiles cannot be renamed or edited. To replace one, run the next import without applying a profile, then save the new mapping; the save prompt does not appear for an import that applied a profile.