Import Account and Contact Information into Dynamics CRM 4.0

There are many ways to import Account and Contact information into Dynamics CRM 4.0. Below is a simple method I used to Import Account and Contact Infomation into Dynamics CRM 4.0 from Navision 4.0.

Step 1: Export Customer information from Navision to CSV file using Dataport.

Step 2: Create Data Maps for Account in Dynamics CRM 4.0
1) Go to Settings --> Data Management --> Data Maps.
2) Click on New button to create a New Data Map.
3) Enter a name in the Name field, eg. ImportCustomerAccount.
4) Select Account in the Record Type dropdown list.
5) Type a brief description for the Data Map.
6) Click on the Attributes.
7) Click on Load Sample Data to and then Browse a sample data file. The sample Data file can be a CSV file with just a few records in it. If the file size is too big, you may need to delete records from the csv file. Just leave a few records will do.
8) Map each field in the sample file to a field in Dynamics CRM 4.0 Account table. Field to take note is the No. field in Navision Customer Card. Map this field to Account Number field in Dynamics CRM.
9) Click on the Save and close button once the mapping is done.

Step 3: Import Customer information from CSV file into Dynamics CRM.
1) Go to Workspace --> Imports.
2) Click on the New button.
3) Click on the Browse button to browse your CSV file.
4) Click on the Next button to continue.
5) Select Account as the Record Type.
6) Click on the Search button to look for the Data Map created earlier.
7) Click on the Next button to continue.
8) Select an owner for the Accounts to be imported.
9) Select whether you want to import duplicate records or not. For me, I do not allow duplicate.
10) Click on the Next button to continue to the final step.
11) If you want the system to send you an email notification after import has been completed, tick on the "Send me an e-mail message when the import is complete" checkbox.
12) Click on the Import button to start the import. Once Import button is clicked, the Import Data Wizard will disappear. Import status can be checked from the Import screen again.

Step 4: Export Contact information to CSV file using Dataport.
It is important to export a field that can relate Contacts to Customer in this CSV file. I used Customer No. field to relate contacts to Customer.

Step 5: Create Data Maps for Contacts in Dynamics CRM 4.0
1) Go to Settings --> Data Management --> Data Maps.
2) Click on New button to create a New Data Map.
3) Enter a name in the Name field, eg. ImportContacts.
4) Select Contacts in the Record Type dropdown list.
5) Type a brief description for the Data Map.
6) Click on the Attributes.
7) Click on Load Sample Data to and then Browse a sample data file.
8) Map each field in the sample file to a field in Dynamics CRM 4.0 Account table.
Please take note that Customer No. field in the CSV file cannot be mapped to the Contacts's "Parent Customer" field in Dynamics CRM. The Contacts information is stored in ContactBase table in SQL Server 2005 database. The Parent Customer is stored in AccountID field in the ContactBase table, which is a Foreign Key field to AccountBase table. The data type for this field is UniqueIdentifier. Thus it will only accept the AccountID value from the AccountBase table which is also a uniqueidentifier.Therefore, I will map the Customer No. field in CSV file to ExternalUserIdentifier field instead.
9) Click on the Save and close button once the mapping is done.

Step 6: Import Contact information from CSV file into Dynamics CRM.
1) Go to Workspace --> Imports.
2) Click on the New button.
3) Click on the Browse button to browse your CSV file.
4) Click on the Next button to continue.
5) Select Contact as the Record Type.
6) Click on the Search button to look for the Data Map created earlier.
7) Click on the Next button to continue.
8) Select a owner of the Accounts to be imported or your user id as the owner.
9) Select whether you want to import duplicate records or not.
10) Click on the Next button to continue to the final step.
11) If you want the system to send you an email notification after import has been completed, tick on the "Send me an e-mail message when the import is complete" checkbox.
12) Click on the Import button to start the import. Once you click on the Import button, the Import Data Wizard will disappear. You can check the Import status from the Import screen again.

Step 7: Create Relationship between Accounts and Contacts

Both Accounts and Contacts records have been imported into Dynamics CRM but there is no relationship between the Account records and Contact records yet. We can know which Contacts belong to which Accounts by referring the AccountBase."AccountNumber field and ContactBase.ExternalUserIdentifier field.

Open the SQL Server Management Studio, use SQL statement to update the AccountBase.PrimaryContactId field with the ContactBase.ContactID where AccountBase.AccountNumber equal to ContactBase.ExternalUserIdentifier. Next is to update the ContactBase.AccountID field with AccountBase.AccountID.