Importing a list of contacts

Settings, Import contacts reads a CSV once. It is not a connection to anything: nothing watches a practice-management system for changes, so when somebody's details change you edit the contact or import again.

The blank file

Download the blank CSV from that page and send it to whoever keeps the list. It carries the four headings and no rows, so there is no example line to remember to delete — anything left under the headings comes back as a real contact.

What the columns hold

• Legal name, and it is required. This is the name that reaches a certificate.
• Email, and it is required. This is where a signing link goes.
• Preferred name. What a message greets them as.
• Mobile. Needed only for a recipient whose identity check travels by text.

Row 1 is the header and is skipped. What the headings SAY does not matter — rename them into your own words if you like — but the ORDER of the columns does, because that is what the import reads.

When some rows do not go in

An import is not all-or-nothing. The rows that worked are saved before you see the report, and the ones that did not are listed by row number with the reason — the numbers match your spreadsheet. Fix those rows and upload the whole file again: an address that is already a contact is skipped rather than added twice.

An address already held by somebody else in your book is refused rather than merged. Two people who genuinely share a mailbox need two entries, and the import does not get to decide they are the same person.