Bulk Imports Overview

Discovery oversees a diverse array of entities, including Vendors, Clients, Locations, Services, and more, all with a deliberate focus on user-friendly operation. The creation and amending of each entities relies primarily on the traditional menu driven methods provided within Discovery.

Often times, large amounts of data for entities need to be set up or revised in Discovery. Due to the volume of set up or revision, the traditional method can become time consuming and tedious if performed in a serial fashion. 

There are two types of Bulk Imports that can be performed: Import or Update.

Bulk Importation is the creation of a new Discovery entity. Discovery addresses this issue with a powerful collection of Bulk Import templates allowing large amounts of entity data to be brought in at once. Each Bulk Import Import template (.csv) focuses on a single Discovery entity type at a time. Some Bulk Import Import templates rely on other entities to exist first (e.g. Vendor Accounts require associated Vendors be set up first).

Bulk Import Update amends existing Discovery entities. This is very useful when you have a targeted collection of entity records (e.g. Service or Client Account) that need one or more fields changed concurrently. This can be a powerful effort multiplier especially if the changes are repetitive for each entity record, although they do not need to be in order to leverage the Bulk import Update feature.

Bulk Importation

How to perform a Bulk Import

Please follow the steps below to import new entity data into Discovery:

1. Click on your username in the upper right hand corner of any page.

Click on your username in the upper right hand corner of any page.

2. Click on Settings.

3. In the left hand menu, click on Bulk Imports.

In the left hand menu, click on Bulk Imports.

4. Click on New.

Click on New.

5. From the Type selector, choose Insert.

Insert is chosen as you are creating new entities in Discovery. Update is used to update existing entities.

From the Type selector, choose Insert.

6. Next click Choose Files and locate the CSV template file.

Here we're using an example template.csv. This file does not exist and should not be used for an Insert file. The name of your template file should reflect the entities being created and are provided as a part of the Template download file bundle.

Next click Choose Files and locate the CSV template file.

7. Click on Save.

Click on Save.

8. The resulting page will show the processing status of the Insert file you've provided along with past Insert requests.

Once processing is complete, you should see the entities displayed in their respective pages within Discovery.

If you see an error message, there were one or more issues with the data you provided within the CSV template files. An error file download will be provided to help determine what adjustments need to be made before the Insert request is attempted again.

The resulting page will show the processing status of the Insert file you've provided along with past Insert requests.

Where Can I find Bulk Import templates?

All bulk import files are included in a single downloadable file available for download on the Bulk Imports page under Settings. Please find more detailed information for each Bulk Import template below:

External Reference IDs

Most Bulk Import templates can leverage an external reference ID. This allows you to utilize existing reference labels from your current database or system for all entities in Discovery (vendors, locations, clients, etc.). Moreover, external reference ID's can be substituted for required "_id" fields in Discovery's Bulk Import templates allowing for faster importation of data. To learn more about how external reference ID's are used, please see the External Reference ID's article.