Upload Locations in a .CSV File

A how-to guide to easily uploading locations in bulk by either 1) mapping an existing location file to our fields or 2) using our upload template.

Option 1: Add Locations via .CSV File by Mapping Fields

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Bullseye allows users to easily upload locations in a .CSV file by mapping your .csv fields to the Bullseye fields. This option saves time because you don't have to worry about changing the names of your fields to exactly match our format. Instead, you can point each of your fields to our fields. Currently, this method does not work with accounts that are using categories or attributes. See the option for Using the Import Template below if you have categories or attributes.

To get started, go to  Manage Locations > Import

You'll see the screen below:

Select the  Map Import Fields option as in the example above. Under the Upload file option, browse to your file and Select Import Locations. Under Choose Upload Action, select either Update, Append or Update and Insert.  

Update will replace all data and is only to be used if you have a complete location list to upload. If you use this option, report data will be lost on locations that existed previously in Bullseye and will be included in your update.  If you want to avoid this and need to upload a complete file, see the Template option below. Use append if you are adding locations to the existing list. Select  Import Locations and you'll see a screen similar to below:

Your column headers can be seen in the left column CSV field. On the right side, you'll see the Bullseye fields that your fields need to point to. Bullseye will attempt to find a match if the spelling of your field is similar to one of ours. Go through every field, and confirm that our matches correspond to the correct fields in the CSV file. You may need to change some or all of the fields by selecting on the right, depending upon how much your headers differ from our field names. When you have completed this, select  Import on the bottom right.

Once you select  Import, Bullseye will run the import. You may receive errors depending upon the condition of your data. Refer to the Fix Upload Errors step and Format Instructions at the end of this article for help on formatting data.

Option 2: Add Locations via .CSV File using the Import Template 

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This option must be used if you have categories or custom attributes in your locator, but it also works if you don't have categories/attributes. We recommend using the  Map Import Fields option if you don't have categories/attributes because that option is usually faster.

1. Download the location template from your account 

Go to  Manage Locations > Import, then select the option Use Import Template.

If this is the first time you are uploading, you'll need to use our template with the spreadsheet column headers. Once you upload for the first time, you can keep the template you downloaded and keep adding locations to it as needed every time you need to upload.

Click on  Download Template and you will be prompted to download the file. Once you obtain the Bullseye Location Import Template, you’ll have the correct file type to upload (.csv) with the correct column structure. You will need all the required fields (LocationName, Country, Zip_PostalCode). For US clients, State_Province is also required to be populated. You don't need to have columns you are not going to use, but the column headers need to be spelled correctly, or you will receive an error when you upload. 

2. Enter your location data into the downloaded Bullseye Location Import Template .csv

Assuming you have your locations in a database or spreadsheet, you can copy and paste the data from your internal file into our file, on a column to column basis. For instance, you may have a column called “Store Name” or something similar which contains the name of all your locations. The Bullseye Import Template requires specific values for column headers. If column headers do not match, the entire column will be ignored. There are also 3-4 specific column headers that are required. These vary slightly depending on the country you are uploading. See .csv import notes below. 

By comparing your .csv columns with ours, it would be pretty easy to surmise that the aforementioned column called “Store Name” would go into the “LocationName” field. You can copy the contents of the column and paste it into our column.

3. Check the data for formatting

Certain data elements require specific formatting. For instance, Canadian postal codes have 6 alphanumeric characters separated by a single space. Look through your database and identify and fix and data that is not formatted appropriately. Refer to Tips for Formatting for information on how data should be formatted. Once you are done entering the data, save the file.

4. Upload the data

To upload the data, go to  Upload File, and browse to the file. 

Under  Choose Upload Action, select Append, Update, or Update and Insert.  

• Append: Adds the locations in your .csv file to the locations already in Bullseye.
• Clear and Append:  Replaces the data in Bullseye with the locations in your .csv file. If you use this option, report data will be lost on locations that existed previously in Bullseye and will be included in your update.
• Update and Insert: We recommend this option for most updates. This option allows you to retain important report data for your locations. For details see Using the Update and Insert Option.

After you have chosen the upload action, select  Import Locations. Bullseye will attempt to import.

5. Fix Upload Errors

Often there will be some issues with the data even if you check for errors before you import. The larger the data file, the more likely this becomes. After you upload the file, you may get error messages.

To view specifics on the error, select  View Errors on the right. You'll see more details on the error so you can address the issues:

You will see a screen that looks similar to the above, though your errors may vary. Below are some formatting instructions which will help you with formatting the data correctly. Keep revising the data until you get the data uploaded. Contact us if you need help.

Create Location Logins

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If you want locations to manage their own location data, you can create Location Admins through the .CSV import. All you have to do is include a username for each location and a user will be simultaneously created for each location when the .CSV file is uploaded. A password will be automatically generated for them.

If you are using the location template to import your locations, enter the username in the Username_Email column. If you are using your own file and mapping the fields, add two columns to your file where you can enter a username. See the formatting instructions below for more details on these fields. 

When creating users keep in mind that users must be unique. You cannot use an existing email address as a username or use the same email address for more than one location in the .CSV file. Users can be assigned to more than one location, but this cannot be done through the CSV import. To create multiple logins for a single location you will need to add the user through the Bullseye admin. See Allow Locations to Manage their own Data.

Once your file is successfully uploaded, you have the option to send the users a welcome email with their login information. 

Go to  Manage Locations > Email. You should see a list of locations that have a Location Admin assigned. Select the locations you want to send the message to. Change the Message Type to "New Location Welcome" (See this article to learn more about this default email and how it can be modified). Click Send Email.

Remove Duplicates and Merge Categories

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Data duplication can occur when the exact same data is copied or entered more than once, especially when it is being retrieved from multiple systems. If the file you are uploading contains duplicate locations, the .CSV import provides two options that will remove duplicate entries during the import:

The Remove Duplicates option will look for entries that are duplicated based on the exact match of location name and address information (Address 1, City, State, Postal Code and Country). The import will only upload the first unique location and check for duplicates in the rest of the data.   

Sometimes the file can contain records that are duplicated because one location might be associated with multiple categories. The format of the file will contain the categories in a separate column as text and for each category, the location information and address will be duplicated such as in the example below:

In this case, the Merge Categories* option can be selected in combination with the Remove Duplicates option. When both of these options are selected, the import will look for entries that are duplicates but that contain different categories. It will combine the records into one location with multiple categories assigned to it.

Both of these options can be used with your own .CSV file or with the Bullseye .CSV template and you can Append or Update locations. These options only work for data contained in the .CSV file, not for data that is already stored in Bullseye. If you make a mistake or would like to check for duplicates in data that is already in Bullseye, you can export all of your locations and re-upload them, select  Update to replace all data and select Remove Duplicates and Merge Categories. This will ensure that all your data is duplicate free.

*This option will only be visible if we make a configuration for you. We will need to map your categories to our IDs in the database. Contact us for assistance.

Format Instructions for your .csv file

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