Rather than add organizations one at a time, you can bulk add several organizations at once 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 also add or updatemultiple usersandmultiple custom object recordsat once.

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Summary: ◀▼

You can bulk import or update multiple organizations using a CSV file, saving time compared to adding them individually. The CSV must follow specific formatting rules and size limits, and you must be an admin to perform imports. The process supports core organization data and custom fields but has limitations like no guaranteed import order and no duplicate entries in one file. Import history logs track progress.

Rather than add organizations one at a time, you can bulk add several organizations at once 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 also add or update multiple users and multiple custom object records at once.

Note: If you would like to bulk import both organizations and users, you must bulk import organizations first. For information on bulk importing users, see Bulk importing users.

Bulk importing organizations can't be undone. Before importing the CSV file that contains the information of all your organizations, test that same CSV file with a single organization record to make sure the upload works as intended.

This article includes the following topics:
  • Limitations for bulk importing with the data importer
  • Creating the CSV organization data file
  • Importing organizations with the data importer

Limitations for bulk importing with the data importer

You can import a core set of data about users and organizations. To import data not listed in the table below, you must use the Zendesk REST API instead. See Importing users with the Zendesk API.

  • When using the data importer, the import CSV file can't exceed 1 GB in size. We recommend a maximum of 500,000 rows. That is one header row and up to 499,999 rows of data. Furthermore, each row can't exceed 128 KB in size.
  • The import CSV file can contain a maximum of 200 columns.
  • The import CSV file can't guarantee import order for rows.
  • Don't include the same user or organization more than once within a CSV file. Doing so can cause your import to fail.
  • There's no guarantee that records are created or updated in the order they appear in the CSV file.
  • You can only import one CSV file at a time. Therefore, if you have more data than the maximum number of rows supported for the CSV file, you must create separate files for each batch and import them one after another. When you're not using the data importer, up to two batches are queued and run in the background. If you want to import more than two batches, you need to wait until the first batches are finished importing to add more.
  • You cannot use the bulk importer to import contact information from end-user Facebook or X (formerly 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, use a CSV organization data file. This section explains how to set up your CSV data file.

Here are some important things to keep in mind when creating your file:
  • The file must be a properly formatted CSV and saved using UTF-8 character encoding.
  • The first row of the CSV file is the header row.
  • 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.
  • In your header row, use either domain_names or default, depending on your import method. They can't be used together.
  • 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 organization.
  • Add line breaks to notes or multiline custom fields by pressing ALT+ENTER on Windows or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on macOS.
The following table lists the fields that you can include in the file.
Table 1. Organization import data
Field Description
name Required. The organization name.
external_id Optional, but recommended; required if you intend to use the data importer to update these records in the future. A uniquely identifying value, such as an employee or customer identifying number in an external system.
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. Use this field instead of the default header when using the data importer.
domain_names The organization’s domain names for user mapping. If you're including more than one domain name for an organization, separate them with a pipe character (|).
group_id 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, you can set tags for the organization. Separate each tag with a pipe character ( | ).

When you bulk import organizations, the tags in your CSV file replace the existing org tags. To avoid this from happening, consider using the Tags API to update tags instead.
organization_fields.<field key> When you perform a bulk organization import, you can import a custom organization field by specifying the organization_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.

organization_fields.subscription_date

To locate the field key for an org field, see Finding the field key or field ID for a custom field.

If a field value is not formatted correctly, the import will fail, and you will see details about the error in the import history log. For custom date fields, use either the YY/MM/DD or YYYY-MM-DD format. For checkbox fields, use either True or False. To set the value of drop-down field, use the tag you added when you created the drop-down list.

Note: Lookup relationship fields aren't supported when importing organizations on the data importer page.

See Adding custom fields to organizations.

Importing organizations with the data importer

You can use the data importer to import a CSV file that creates new organizations or updates existing organizations, and captures logs of all attempted imports through the Data importer page.

Your import is added to the queue, and the organizations are added to Zendesk Support when the import process is complete. This should take around an hour per file to complete, but it does depend on file size and queue size.

To create or update organizations with the data importer
  1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tools > Data importer.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Under Target destination, select Organization.
  4. Under Import options, select one of the following:
    • Create records only: Only new organizations are created. Any data in the CSV file pertaining to existing organizations is ignored.
    • Update records only: Replace data for the existing organizations listed in your CSV file. The external_id is required to update organizations. Any data pertaining to new organizations is ignored.
    • Create and update records: Create new organizations and update data for the existing organizations listed in your CSV file.
  5. Under File upload, drag and drop your file or click to upload and select your CSV file from the file browser.

    If you need to change the file you've selected, click the delete icon () next to the file name.

  6. Click Next.
  7. Review the Field mapping list.
    • If the field mapping is correct, click Next.
    • If the field mapping isn't correct, click Back. Edit your CSV file to adhere to the format requirements and then reupload the file.
  8. Review the summary of import details in the confirmation dialog and then click Start import.

    After the import starts, the imported changes can't be reverted. To check the status of an import, check your import history.

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