Importing jobs

Importing jobs into HelpMaster is the most complex type of import. It requires careful data preparation and needs to be performed in a controlled manner.

Data preparation

A vital part of successfully importing job data is ensuring that the import file contains all of the required fields that are part of the job. This includes not only the job related fields like Job Type, Date logged, or Priority, but also linked entities such as Primary Client, Assets and Sites.

It is recommended that before importing any job data, you should first import all of the associated entities. In other words, use the HelpMaster Import screen to first import the following entities in the order below.

1. Sites
2. Clients
3. Staff
4. Assets

Use the specific entity type as the destination entity when doing this importing (i.e. Use the Destination entity Clients when importing clients. Use Assets for assets etc). The idea here is to import as much of the associated data into HelpMaster before trying to import the job data. When HelpMaster attempts to import job data, it will first search for the mapped field (for example Primary Client) to see if it in currently in the database. If it finds the client, it will link the job to it. Importing all clients first will ensure that this lookup process is successful and the job should be successfully imported.

Importing preparation

Make a full backup of your HelpMaster database. If the importing process should go wrong, or you map the wrong fields etc, you may wish to restore your database from backup.