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Importing Contacts

Upload a CSV or XLSX and tell us what each column means. Nothing is guessed silently. You see and confirm the matching before a single row is written.

Before you start​

Download a starter file from Template on the contacts page. Its headers are first_name, last_name, email, phone, address_line1, city, postcode, and they match with nothing to change.

Your own file does not need those exact headers. First Name, Mobile, Post Code and dozens of other spellings are recognised.

Your file must have a phone number column. Contacts are dialled by phone number, so a file of email addresses alone cannot be imported.

The steps​

  1. Click Import Contacts.
  2. Choose the destination folder. Every contact in the file goes into it. You can pick the folder before or after the file, but Continue stays unavailable until one is set.
  3. Drop your file in, as CSV or XLSX up to 10 MB. We scan it and show how many rows there are and how many will import.
  4. Match your columns. Each column in your file gets a row showing its name, up to three example values, and where we think it belongs. Change anything that looks wrong.
  5. Click Continue, review the summary, tick the confirmation that these contacts can be contacted, then Import.

Large files finish in the background, so you can close the panel.

Matching rules​

Before the import can start:

  • One column must be the Phone.
  • One column must be the First name, or a full-name column set to Name (split into first and last). We split on the last space, so "Ada Lovelace" becomes Ada and Lovelace, and "Mary Anne Smith" becomes Mary Anne and Smith.
  • No two columns can fill the same field.
  • Every column in the file must be matched or set to Do not import this column.

If you map both a first name column and a full name column, the split fills only what the first name column left empty, row by row. So the first name column wins wherever it has a value, and the split covers the rows where it is blank.

Anything that breaks a rule is called out on the column it belongs to, and Continue stays unavailable until it is fixed. Rules about the file as a whole rather than one column, such as no Phone column being mapped, appear in a message above the list instead.

Cold calling is not allowed on YourCalls, so the last step asks you to confirm that the people in your file can be contacted. Import stays unavailable until you tick the confirmation, and we record who confirmed and when. It reads:

I confirm everyone in this file is an existing customer of [your company name], has asked [your company name] to contact them, or has agreed to calls and messages from [your company name], including calls from an AI assistant. Nobody in it has opted out. Cold calling is not allowed on YourCalls.

Where each column can go​

  • A built-in field: name, phone, email, address, contact preferences.
  • One of your fields: anything under Your fields.
  • Create a new field: makes a new field of your own from this column. Set its name and type inline, choosing Text, Number, Date or Yes or no. Choice fields are not offered here, because we cannot know your full list of choices from a sample. Create those on the Contact Fields page first, then pick them from Your fields.
  • Do not import this column: the column is not stored as a field, but its values stay searchable and are kept with the original imported row.

The matching is saved. The next file with the same columns arrives pre-filled with what you chose last time.

Once you change a column, the counts from the scan no longer describe what will be imported, so we stop showing how many will import and how many will be skipped. The total number of rows stays on screen. Every row is checked again while the import runs.

What happens to problem rows​

A row is skipped when:

  • it has no phone number, or one we cannot read;
  • its phone number already belongs to one of your contacts;
  • the same phone number appears twice in the file;
  • it has no first name, from either the first name column or the full-name split;
  • a value does not fit its field, such as text in a number field or a date we cannot read.

The scan checks the phone number and the built-in fields, so the first four reasons are listed for you before you commit. A value that does not fit one of your own fields is only caught while the import runs, and it shows up in the finished import's failure count rather than in the preview.

When the scan finds problems, the list of them opens on its own. To go ahead anyway, click Import anyway at the bottom of that list. If you close the list without doing that, Import stays unavailable until you reopen the list with Review issues and click Import anyway there. You can also choose another file instead.

Skipping is per row. Everything else in the file still imports.

Duplicates are matched on the phone number, and a duplicate is skipped rather than merged. Nothing on the existing contact is changed by an import.