Rather than add organizations one at a time, you can bulk add several organizations by importing a CSV (comma separated values) file. You can use bulk import to add organizations or update organizations. You must be an administrator to bulk import organizations. You can add or update several users at once (see Bulk importing users).
Limitations of bulk importing users and organizations
You can import a core set of data about users and organizations. For example, using bulk import, you can import the data described in the table below; however, you cannot import timezones, photos, language preferences, etc. To import data not listed in the table below, you need to use the Zendesk REST API instead. See Importing users with the Zendesk API or Importing organizations with the Zendesk API.
- The import CSV data file must contain no more than 2000 rows of data (one row for the header and the rest for the user or organization data).
- You can only import one CSV file of 2000 or less rows of data at a time. Therefore, if you've got more than 1999 users or organizations to import, you need to create separate files for each batch and import them one after another. Up to two batches are queued and run in the background. If you want import more than two batches, you need to wait until the first batches are finished importing to add more.
- You cannot use bulk importing to import contact information from end-user Facebook or Twitter accounts. Instead, use the Zendesk REST API. See Importing users with the Zendesk API.
Creating the CSV organization data file
To bulk import organizations, you will use a CSV organization data file. This section will discuss how to set up your CSV data file.
- The file must be properly formatted CSV and saved using UTF-8 character encoding.
- The first row of the CSV file is the header row, and you must include it in the file.
- The header row must contain any required fields in the table below, plus any other fields listed in the table below that you want to include.
- Included fields must appear in the header row in the order they are listed below.
- If you are not importing data for a field, do not list it in the header row.
- Empty columns of data in the file will overwrite any existing data for that user.
- Add line breaks to notes or multiline custom fields by pressing ALT+ENTER on Windows or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on a Mac.
Field | Description |
---|---|
name | Required. The organization name. |
external_id | If you have a uniquely identifying ID, other than the organization's name, you can include it here. |
notes | Notes about the organization. Notes are visible to agents only, not to end-users. |
details | Detailed information about the organization, such as the address. This information is visible to agents only, not to end-users. |
default | This is for mapping users to an organization. Enter one or more email domains, separated with spaces.
See Automatically adding users to organizations based on their email domain. |
shared | True or False. Sets the organization as a shared organization. |
shared_comments | True or False. Allows all users in the organization to add comments to each other's tickets. The shared field must also be set to true. |
group | Enter a default group for the organization. See Mapping a group to an organization. |
tags | When user and organization tagging has been enabled for Zendesk Support (see Adding tags and users to organizations), you can add tags to the organization. Separate each tag with a space. |
custom_fields.<field key> | When you perform a bulk organization import, you can import a custom organization field by specifying the custom_fields. prefix and the field key.
For example, for the field key subscription_date, use the following to set the imported values for this field. custom_fields.subscription_date Note: To locate the key for a custom org field, click the Admin icon (
![]() If a field value is not formatted correctly, the import will fail and you will receive an error report specifying which records failed to save. For custom date fields, use either the YY/MM/DD or YYYY-MM-DD format. Important: To set the value of drop-down list options, use the tag you added when you created the drop-down list.
|
Importing the CSV organization data file
You can import new organizations or update information for existing organizations.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select People.
- Select Bulk Organization Import (located in the right column).
- Choose the type of import you want:
- Create new organizations
- Update existing organizations
Important: Update actually means replace. In other words, if you select Update existing organizations, it replaces the existing data for the listed organizations in your CSV file. You only need to include the fields that you want to update in the file. If you have empty columns of data it will overwrite the existing data for that organization.
- Either click Choose File or the Let me paste in data instead link.
- Click Import.
Your import is added to the queue and the organizations are added to Zendesk Support when the import process is complete. See Limitations of bulk importing users and organizations. You'll receive an email when the import is complete.
You can use the files attached to this article as a template to help you import organization data.
40 Comments
Hi Jake,
Any chance you could provide a screenshot of how you have this set up in your excel sheet so I can take a look?
Feel free to omit any personal data in there.
Thanks!
Sure thing!!
Everything works except for the custom_fields portion.
I figured it out - I was thinking custom_field needed to be included in the cell but actually I was supposed to change the header of the table with the field key and then supply the answer in the cell. Makes sense now.
Thanks for the quick reply and offering to help.
That'll do it Jake!
Glad you were able to get this working on your end :)
Hi all,
I've bulk imported three organisations (as a tester before I do this to all) and although it worked (yay!) it did not connect automatically to the users I have on the system.
So basically, I already have the users from these organisations on the system (as they've messaged us before). They are not assigned to an organisation and I did write the domain correctly (e.g. email is abc@companyname.com and I put domain as companyname.com). I even tried putting their email addresses in the domain area with spaces but that also did not solve the problem.
So I am a bit confused why they are not showing up in the organisation (it says 0 users). However if I try to add them as users it says end user already exists. The same happens if I try to add the user into the organisation as it tells me this organisation already exists so now I have organisations that are just not connected to anything and don't know how to fix.
Any help would be appreciated!
Hello Tamara,
So users are typically linked to the organization as a result of your matching domain. The ideal workflow is as follows:
1. Organization gets created with Domain
2. User gets created with email address domain that matches Organization
3. User gains membership to the Organization
Important distinction:
However, if the Organization gets created after the user, that user must have the matching domain and validated their user account's email or have created a ticket after the organization was created.
If you have any additional questions about how this works I encourage you to take a look at the article Creating, managing, and using organizations
Hi Devan,
I found this solution to not be very effective as I cannot expect all our users to validate their account, and I'm adding a lot of organisations right now (as previously only users were added). Therefore I had to delete the organisations.
Only upon deleting them I realised there is actually a very simple solution which is a drop down list in each user called organisation. There I can pick which organisation they belong to. Would be useful if I was given that advice as it is actually a relatively quick fix in comparison to asking every user I have to validate their account. However, thank you for the advice!
Hello Tamara,
Sorry, my solution didn't address your issue better. Glad you were able to find a workaround though and please let us know if there is anything else we can help with.
What is the reason for only being able to update 2000 at a time?
Hello Rachel,
This is a limit set to protect against abuse mistakes that can take place through errors via automation. Though if you would like to see this changed, I would recommend posting your thoughts in our product feedback forum.
Best regards.
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