Getting Started and Data Import – Take 44 / NextAgency

Who this is for: agencies loading their own data into NextAgency using the import tools in the portal.

Not sure this is your path? If our team is scripting your data in for you, read NextConcierge: Preparing Your Data for Migration instead. The advice differs in a few important places, so it is worth being on the right one.

How the importer thinks

Understanding this makes everything else in the guide obvious.

The importer takes one spreadsheet at a time. You tell it which of your columns goes to which NextAgency field, and it loads the rows. There is a template you can download, but you do not have to use it. If your own sheet has the right information in it, you can map your own headers.

One import can bring in a lot more than cases

A case import is not limited to cases. From a single sheet it can load:

Cases
Contacts
Notes
Tasks
Dependents
Benefits and policies
Sub-agents, by name

If all of that is on one sheet, that is fine. It goes in on one pass.

Splitting your data across several sheets is not a requirement. Agencies do it for very large imports, or simply because their export came out of the old system that way. It is a choice, not a rule.

What always comes in on its own

Commissions. Always a separate import, and always after your policies exist. Every commission row has to attach to a policy already in the portal.
Documents and files. Handled separately every time, and specific to the job.

Sub-agents: two ways in

A case import can create a sub-agent from a first and last name, and that is all it does. It will not carry an address or the rest of a sub-agent's detail.

There is also a dedicated sub-agent importer. Use that one if you hold full records on your sub-agents and want them loaded properly.

Records are matched on values, not on hidden identifiers

When a row needs to attach to something that is already in your portal, the importer finds it by matching real field values. Those values have to match exactly.

A note on record IDs from your old system

If you have exported your data from another system, you may have columns full of internal ID numbers: client ID, policy ID, commission payment ID. The self-service importer does not use these, so there is no need to chase them down for this path.

Keep them in your file anyway if they are already there. They cost nothing, and they are extremely useful if you ever ask our team to clean up or reconcile your data later. Just do not hold up your import trying to obtain them.

1. Set up your portal before you import

Less needs to be in place ahead of time than people expect. Two things genuinely have to exist first.

Set up first	Why
Custom fields	Any column with no natural home in NextAgency needs a custom field created before you can map to it. This is the one real prerequisite. Skip it and you will have to re-run the import to bring that data in
Users and brokers	Broker of record and assigned team members have to exist as users. A row pointing at a name your portal does not have will not find it

Missing values do not stop you

If your sheet contains a sales status, carrier, or product type your portal has never seen, the importer does not silently fail. It stops, tells you the value does not exist, and asks whether you want to add it. Say yes and it carries on.

So settling these in advance is about consistency, not necessity. Three spellings of the same carrier will quietly become three carrier records, and you will be merging them later.

The real exceptions

Dropdown custom fields. If you built a custom field with a fixed set of options, the values in your sheet have to match those options exactly. The importer will add a new carrier for you; it will not add a new option to your own dropdown. This one catches people out often, so check your sheet against your dropdown before you import.
Business type and market segment. These lists are fixed: individual, small group, and large group. Where your value does not fit, either map it to the closest match or put your original value into a custom field so you do not lose it.

2. Build the sheet

Start from the template, or map your own headers

The import screen offers a template to download. It is the fastest route because the field names already match, and it marks which fields are required. If you would rather work from an export you already have, that is supported too. You will map your headers to our fields during the import.

There are two templates, Group and Individual, but three ways to run the import, because groups split by size:

Individual, for individual and senior clients
Small group
Large group

Pick the one that matches the data in your sheet, and keep individual and group data in separate sheets.

Do not worry too much about group size. A group can be switched between small and large at any time after the import, so cleaning that up later is no trouble at all.

Required fields

Field	Group sheet	Individual sheet
Name (the group or company name)	Required
First name and last name		Required
Broker of record	Required	Required
Sales status	Required	Required

Rows missing a required field will not import.

Sales status is where the record sits with you: client, prospect, and so on. Every case needs one. If you segment your book in a way our defaults do not cover, you can add your own statuses, either beforehand or when the importer prompts you.

Broker of record has to match the user name in your portal exactly.

If you are importing tasks along with your cases, a task needs a title and a due date.

Creating new records versus updating existing ones

You choose which you are doing when you start the import, and the requirements differ.

Creating new records needs the required fields above. Fast Start Step 4: Adding Cases walks through the import screen itself, and includes a bulk importing video.

Updating existing records does not need broker of record or sales status. It needs enough to identify the record you are updating, plus the fields you want to change. How To Bulk Update Case Records is the full guide to that path.

To make sure you are targeting the right record, the importer uses validating fields:

Updating	Validated on
Cases	Name, or first and last name, plus date of birth, SSN, carrier, or product type
Benefits	Carrier, plan name, policy number, and product type

The safest way to build an update sheet is to export what you already have from NextAgency and edit that, rather than retyping. A record that does not exist, or a name spelled differently than it is in the portal, including a difference in capitalization, will simply not be found.

First and last name always have to match before anything else does. Date of birth, SSN, carrier, and product type only come into play afterward, to choose between two records that already share the same name, they cannot substitute for the name itself. So a spreadsheet using a nickname such as "Matt" where NextAgency has "Matthew" will not find a match, even with everything else correct.

One row per record

This is the layout the importer expects, and it is where most homemade spreadsheets need work.

A case with three policies is three rows, repeating the case name on each row, with the benefit fields different on each. Not one row with three sets of benefit columns.

Instead of	Build
One row per client, with `Medical Carrier`, `Dental Carrier`, `Life Carrier` across the columns	One row per policy, repeating the client name
One row per group with `Contact 1` and `Contact 2` side by side	One row per contact
A column counting how many dependents someone has	One row per dependent, with names and dates of birth

If your data is laid out the wide way and reshaping it looks like a big job, that is a good moment to talk to us about the managed path. NextConcierge is our team doing the reshaping and the loading for you.

Sheet hygiene

Headers on row 1. No banner, logo, or title rows above them.
No duplicate or empty column headers. Two columns with the same name, or a populated column with no header, will stop the import.
No leading or trailing spaces in your values. A carrier called Aetna with a space on the end is not the same as Aetna. This one causes more failed rows than anything else on the list. Select your data and use Find and Replace, or run the values through TRIM, before you import.
One tab of data. The importer reads a single tab, so put everything on one.
No merged cells.
No subtotal or total rows mixed in with the data.
No blank rows at the bottom. Press Ctrl + End to see where your data really ends.
No hidden rows or columns, and no filters left on.

3. The columns that cause the most trouble

Column	What goes wrong	Fix
Policy number	Leading zeros stripped by the spreadsheet, or extra text in the cell such as `A12345 (dental)`	The cell should hold the policy number and nothing else, exactly as your carrier writes it. Format the column as Text before typing in it
Carrier	Several spellings of the same carrier, so you end up with several carrier records	One spelling per carrier, matching your portal where the carrier already exists
Product type	`LTD`, `Long Term Disability`, and `Disability Long Term` all in one file	Pick one value and use it consistently
Dates	Mixed formats, two-digit years, or dates stored as text	One format, four-digit years. A year typed as `48` can be read as 2048
Premium and amounts	Currency symbols, text, parentheses around negatives	Plain numbers. Negatives stay negative. Decide whether you are loading monthly or annual premium and be consistent
Phone	Two numbers in a cell, or an extension typed on the end	One number per cell
Email	Several addresses in one cell	One per cell
Name	First and last name in one column	Separate columns
Address	Everything in one cell	Street, second line, city, state, and ZIP in their own columns
ZIP code	Leading zeros stripped, so `07030` becomes `7030`	Format the column as Text
Dropdown custom fields	A value in the sheet that is not one of the options you built	Match the option list exactly. The importer will not add options to your own dropdown

Protecting a column from your spreadsheet program

Spreadsheet software converts anything that looks like a number into a number, which is what strips leading zeros and turns long numbers into things like 9.12E+08.

In Excel, before you type anything into a column: select it, then Home, then set the number format to Text.

If you are opening a CSV that already contains policy numbers or ZIP codes, do not double-click it. Instead:

Open a blank workbook
Data, then From Text/CSV
Choose the file, then Transform Data
Set the ID, policy number, phone, and ZIP columns to Text
Load

In Google Sheets, use File, then Import, and uncheck "Convert text to numbers, dates, and formulas."

4. Import in the right order

There are really only two imports here.

Your case import. Cases, contacts, dependents, notes, tasks, and benefits, all on one sheet. Put as much of your data on this as you have.
Commissions. These come afterward, because every commission row attaches to a policy that already exists in the portal.

Files and documents sit outside both of those and are handled on their own.

You can choose whether an import creates new records or updates existing ones. When you are updating, the values the importer matches on have to match what is already in your portal exactly, so it is worth exporting what you have and working from that rather than retyping. Benefit updates in particular match on carrier, plan name, policy number, and product type.

Get the policy records right on the way in

This is the single highest-value thing you can do while building your case sheet.

NextCommission works best when the policy information in NextAgency matches exactly what your carrier has. Same policy number, same product type. When it does, running commissions month to month is quick and largely hands-off. When it does not, every month starts with a round of matching by hand.

Your case import is the cheapest moment to get that right, because you are typing the policy details anyway.

Test with a small batch first

Do not load 4,000 rows on your first attempt.

Copy your sheet and delete all but about ten rows, choosing a mix: a simple case, a case with several policies, one with unusual characters in the name.
Import that.
Open the records in NextAgency and check them properly, including the fields you mapped by hand.
Fix whatever the test revealed in your full sheet, then import the rest.

That one habit prevents nearly every large cleanup job we see.

5. Commissions

Commission imports work differently from the rest, and it is worth reading this section before you build the file.

You import one carrier at a time. You choose the carrier, then load the statement data for it. So if you have one big spreadsheet with several carriers mixed together, split it into one file per carrier before you start. This comes up most often after a carrier acquisition, where the same book pays under two or three related carrier names.

Your commission sheet needs at least these columns:

Product type
Paid-to date
Policy number
Commission amount

Every commission row attaches to a policy that already exists in NextAgency. The link is made on three things:

Matched on	Where it comes from
Carrier	Chosen by you when you start the import
Product type	The policy record in NextAgency
Policy number	The policy record in NextAgency

There is no partial or approximate matching. If the policy number on your policy record does not match what the carrier put on the statement, the commission has nowhere to land.

Two things that commonly interrupt a commission import: a stray space before or after a policy number, and the same policy number appearing on more than one policy, in which case you will be asked to pick the right one yourself.

So the real work is in your policy records, not your commission sheet. Before your first commission import:

Make sure your policies have policy numbers, and that they match the carrier statements.
Make sure the product type on each policy is right, especially where a client holds more than one product with the same carrier.
Check for clients or employees in your portal with no policies attached. A commission has nothing to match to on those.

This is why the first commission import takes longer than the ones that follow. It is policy cleanup, not the import itself. Once your policy records are right, monthly imports are quick.

Two situations worth flagging before you start:

A statement that does not say which product a payment is for, where the client holds two products with that carrier. Nothing in the data can resolve that, so you will need to decide how you want it allocated.
A long history of back commissions. Loading years of statements one carrier at a time is a large job by hand. Most agencies bringing over historical commission data have us do it through NextConcierge instead.

Splits and sub-agents can wait

You do not need to load a sub-agent before you load commission splits. Both can go in at the same time, and a split added or changed afterward applies to the commissions that are already in the system. Loading sub-agents first keeps your naming tidy, but it is not a sequencing requirement.

Each split needs a rate and a basis: percentage of commission, percentage of premium, or a flat amount.

If you hold full records on your sub-agents, addresses and the rest, load them through the dedicated sub-agent importer rather than letting a case import create them from a name.

6. What a spreadsheet import will not cover

Some things are not a spreadsheet job:

Documents and attachments. Files cannot be attached to the right client through an import sheet.
Activity logs from another system. Notes and tasks are fine, and both come in on the case import. What cannot come across is the log another platform keeps of who did what and when. Worth knowing if your current system calls its tasks "activities," because those are tasks to us, and they do import.
Wide exports that need reshaping, where one client's data is spread across dozens of columns.
Very large books. Past roughly a thousand cases, the volume alone makes a self-service pass impractical.

Any of those, or any combination of them, is what NextConcierge, our managed migration service, is for. It is also worth a conversation if you started down the self-service path and found your export is in worse shape than you expected. There is no penalty for switching, and the earlier you do it, the less rework there is.

Before you import: checklist

Printing this page gives you the checklist to work through while you build your sheet.

☐Custom fields created, and users and brokers set up in the portal
☐Group and individual data kept in separate sheets
☐Required fields filled: name (or first and last name), broker of record, and sales status
☐Broker of record spelled exactly as it appears in your portal
☐Dropdown custom field values matching the options you built
☐No duplicate or empty headers, and no stray spaces before or after values
☐One row per record, repeating the case name where a case has several policies
☐Headers on row 1, one tab, no merged cells, no total rows, no blank rows at the bottom
☐Policy number and ZIP columns formatted as text, leading zeros intact
☐One date format, four-digit years
☐Carrier and product type values consistent
☐Policy numbers and product types matching what your carrier statements show
☐Amounts as plain numbers
☐Ten-row test import done and checked
☐Commissions split into one file per carrier, and run after the cases are in

A few terms

Term	What it means
Mapping	Telling the importer which of your columns goes to which NextAgency field
Fixed list field	A field that only accepts values from a set list, such as business type or market segment. Sales status, carrier, and product type are not fixed: the importer can add a new value for you during the import
Wide versus tall	Wide spreads repeating information across columns. Tall puts one record per row. Tall imports cleanly
Validating fields	The fields the importer matches on when you are updating records that already exist

Need more help? Please contact our support team.

Who this is for: agencies adding or updating the people linked to their cases, like a spouse, an HR contact, or an office manager.

Not sure this is your path? If you're bringing in a brand new client or group, use Preparing Your Spreadsheet for Import instead; it loads cases, contacts, benefits, and more all on one sheet. The Contacts Import only works with people, and only on cases that are already in NextAgency.

Contacts vs. cases

A contact is the record for a person: their name, email, phone, and other details. It's always linked to a case (or several), the way a business card is tied to the company it came from. A case is the client, group, or account itself.

This is the most common mix-up we see, usually from agencies coming off a system where "contact" and "case" meant the same thing. The Contacts Import can add a new contact to a case or update a contact you already have, but it can't create a case. If a row's Case Name doesn't match a case that's already in your portal, the import stops right there and tells you so, even in New mode. Run a Case Import first for anyone who isn't already a case, then come back to add or update their contacts.

Starting an import

From the Contacts page, click Import.

The Import button on the Contacts page

Choose which kind of import you're doing: New, to add contacts that don't exist yet, or Existing, to update contacts you already have.

Choosing New to create contacts, or Existing to update contacts you already have

Both choices map to the same fields and work the same way once you're in the wizard. The only difference is whether the importer is looking for a contact that's already there. For an Existing import, it matches on Case Name plus first and last name, so make sure those line up exactly with what's already in your portal.

Building your sheet

Download the Contacts Import Template, or map your own spreadsheet's headers to NextAgency's fields during the import.

The Select File step: Download Contacts Import Template, and the upload area

A header that matches one of NextAgency's own field names exactly, such as First Name, Last Name, or Case Name, locks into place automatically on the Map Headers step; anything else you map by hand.

The Map Headers screen, with Case Name locked to NextAgency's own Case Name field

A few fields worth knowing about:

Field	What it does
Case Name	Links the contact to a case that's already in NextAgency. Has to match an existing case exactly.
Relationship	The contact's relationship or role on that case (spouse, office manager, and so on). Can't be mapped unless Case Name is also mapped.
Set Primary	Makes this contact the case's Primary Contact. Their name, email, and phone then show right on the case header and Summary tab. Accepts Yes, True, or 1.
Contact: Set As Primary Email / Contact: Set As Primary Phone	When a contact has more than one email or phone number on the sheet, marks which one is primary.

Save your mapping as a template

Once your headers are mapped, click Save Template, name it, and click Save. It shows up under Select Template on your next Contacts Import, so a recurring import (a monthly roster update, say) doesn't need remapping every time.

The Save Template window, named and ready to save

Running the import

Click Continue, give the import a name so you can find it later, and click Import.

The Import Name step

The import runs in the background. Your Contacts Imports list shows its status, and once it finishes, any new or updated contacts are on their cases.

When the import stops to ask you something

NextAgency checks the whole file before importing anything, so if any row has a problem, nothing in that file imports until it's fixed; a bad row doesn't just get skipped while the rest goes through.

Case Name doesn't match anything in your portal: the row fails with "[Case name] is not present." Nothing is guessed or created; run a Case Import for that client first.
More than one case shares that name: you're asked to pick the one you meant.
More than one existing contact shares the same name (Existing mode): you're asked to choose which one to update, rather than the importer guessing.

Open a failed import from your Contacts Imports list to see exactly what went wrong, row by row.

A failed import, with the exact row and reason it didn't match

Fix your sheet (or resolve the prompt, like picking the right case) and reimport.

Common questions

Why didn't my import create a new case? It can't. The Contacts Import only adds or updates people; it never creates the case (client or group) they belong to. Run a Case Import first, then add or update contacts.

Why does my import say a case "is not present"? The Case Name column didn't match a case already in your portal exactly, including spelling and capitalization. Check the case name in NextAgency and fix your sheet to match.

How do I make someone the case's main point of contact? Map the Set Primary column and set it to Yes for that row. Their name, email, and phone will show right on the case header.

Denise Okafor now showing as the case's Primary Contact, right on the case header

Please contact our support team if you have any questions.

Who this is for: anyone whose contact or case import stopped with errors, and anyone looking back at what an earlier import brought in.

Prefer to watch? Fixing Import Errors and Using Previous Imports (Video)

New to importing? This article starts once an import has already run. To upload a file and map its headers, see Importing Contacts (New and Existing) first.

Why an import stops

NextAgency checks the whole file before it imports anything. If any row has a problem, nothing in that file is imported until it's fixed, so a bad row is never quietly skipped while the rest goes through. Instead, the import shows as Failed on your imports list, with a count of what needs attention.

A failed import on the Contact Imports list, with its Errors count

Opening the error screen

Go to your imports list: Contacts > Import for contact imports, or the Case Imports list for case imports.
Click the import's Errors count. The error screen opens, with one numbered line for each thing to fix.

The error screen, with one numbered line per problem

Most lines can be fixed right on this screen. When a line is fixed it turns green and shows Added.

More than one contact with the same name

When you're updating existing contacts and more than one contact in your portal shares a name, NextAgency doesn't guess which one you meant. The line reads "There is more than one contacts with this name...".

Click the highlighted name.
In the Select Contact window, choose the contact you want to update. The email, phone number and created date help you tell them apart.
Click Save.

The Select Contact window, listing both contacts with the same name

Your pick applies to this import only. When you click Validate / Import, the contacts you've picked won't come back as errors, and the same pick covers every row in the file with that name, so you only choose once. A brand new upload starts fresh, so you can pick a different contact next time.

Tip: contact picks are sent when you click Validate / Import, so make them last, right before you click it, and don't leave or refresh the page in between.

More than one case with the same name

The same thing happens when a row's Case Name matches more than one case. Click the highlighted case name, choose the right case in the Select Case window (it shows each case's created date, status and stage), and click Save.

The Select Case window, listing both cases with the same name

A tag, vendor, carrier or general agent that isn't in NextAgency yet

If your sheet names a tag, vendor, carrier or general agent that doesn't exist in your portal yet, the line asks whether you'd like to add it. Click Yes and NextAgency creates it on the spot, then marks the line as fixed.

A missing vendor, carrier and tag, each with Yes and No

The new tag, vendor or carrier is a normal record from then on, so you'll find it in your settings and library like any other.

The case, vendor, carrier and tag lines fixed and showing Added, with the contact line still to do

Running the import again

Once every line shows Added, click Validate / Import. NextAgency checks the file again with your fixes and, if nothing else needs attention, runs the import. You're taken back to your imports list while it runs.

Every line showing Added, ready for Validate / Import

If a line can't be fixed on this screen, such as a case name that isn't in your portal at all, correct your spreadsheet and run a new import instead. Re Map Headers on the error screen lets you change which column goes to which field without uploading again.

Your imports list (previous imports)

Every import you've run is listed on your imports list, newest first: Contact Imports for contacts, Case Imports for cases. The list checks for updates on its own while an import is running, and you can search it or sort it by most columns.

The Contact Imports list after the reimport, with the import Completed and zero errors

Column	What it shows
Name	The name you gave the import. Click it to download the file you uploaded.
Imported Records	How many records the import brought in. Click the number to see them.
Status	In Progress (with a percentage while it runs), Completed, or Failed.
Errors	How many lines need fixing. Click the number to open the error screen.
User	Who ran the import.
Created	When the import was started.

The Case Imports list has the same columns, plus the Market Segment of each import, whether it came from a spreadsheet or a form, and the import type (case, employee or form).

Lead Source on case imports

A case import can now set each case's Lead Source. Map your column to the Lead Source field on the Map Headers step.

New cases: get the Lead Source from your sheet. If the cell is blank, or you don't map the column, the case's Lead Source is set to Imported.
Existing cases you're updating: get the Lead Source from your sheet when the cell has a value. A blank cell leaves the case's current Lead Source as it is.

Common questions

Why didn't any of my rows import? NextAgency checks the whole file first and imports nothing until every error is fixed. Open the import's Errors count, fix each line, and click Validate / Import.

I picked a contact last time. Why is it asking me again? Contact picks apply only to the import you made them in. A new upload starts fresh, so you can choose a different contact if you need to.

Where did the tag (or vendor, or carrier) I created come from? Clicking Yes on the error screen creates it in your portal, the same as adding it by hand.

Can I get my original file back? Yes. Click the import's name on your imports list to download it.

Please contact our support team if you have any questions.

Merging cases instead? This covers contacts, the people linked to your cases. To merge two case records, see How to Merge Case Records.

You can merge contacts from the Master Contacts page or the Contacts tab within a case record. To do this, click on Actions > Merge.

Select the contact you’d like to merge, then enter the new contact’s first and last name. You can also choose which fields to merge, such as Emails, Phone Numbers, Tags, Notes, and Associations.
Once you click Save, the two contacts will be merged. The original records will be archived so you can still access their history.

Please reach out to our support team if you need any assistance.