Importer

The Importer is the central entry point for bringing data into the CRM from external systems. It also serves as the Review Queue for users who have the review_imports permission.

For the full cross-cutting workflow — source selection, CSV upload, column mapping, duplicate handling, approval, and rollback — see the Data Imports reference. Notes interactions are covered separately in Import Notes. For end-to-end guidance on a first migration into a new install — what to expect, the order to run imports in, and edge cases to watch for — see Onboarding — Migration.

Available Importers

• Import Contacts — people and organisations. Run this first; other importers match against existing contacts.
• Import Events — events, registrations, and (optionally) linked transactions from one CSV. One row per registration.
• Import Donations — donations and matching transaction rows. Contacts must already exist or be auto-created from row columns.
• Import Memberships — membership records against existing contacts.
• Import Invoice Details — historical transactions, grouped into invoices by a shared invoice number.
• Import Notes — structured interactions (calls, meetings, emails, tasks) from an activities CSV. See Import Notes.

Queue lock — one active import per content type

Only one import of each content type (e.g. contacts) may be in the pending or reviewing state at a time. If a previous import of that type is awaiting review, its card is shown as disabled with an explanation. You must approve or roll back the outstanding import before starting a new one of the same type.

Review Queue

Users with the review_imports permission see a Review Queue section at the bottom of the Importer page. It lists all import sessions in pending or reviewing status and allows reviewers to:

• Preview the first 20 new contacts and the first 20 staged updates to existing contacts.
• Approve — makes all new contacts visible, applies all staged field changes to existing contacts, and adds an audit note to each affected contact.
• Roll back — permanently deletes all new contacts from the import, discards all staged updates (adding a note to each affected contact), and removes the import session. Source ID mappings are preserved.

Session-level approval scope

Approve, roll back, and delete all act at the import session level — not the individual staged-update level. A reviewer with review_imports permission can approve, roll back, or delete the full session and every staged update it contains, regardless of which user authored the import or any individual row inside it. The import session is the unit of review by design: staged updates cannot be approved, rolled back, or deleted one-at-a-time, and no per-row ownership check is applied.

Import History

A link to View Import History is available at the bottom of the Importer landing page (visible to users with import_data). It shows all past imports with their status, row counts, and any errors.

Sensitive data rejection

The importer automatically rejects CSV files that appear to contain sensitive financial or personal identifiers. If a file is rejected, the entire import is cancelled — no contacts are created. See the Import Contacts help article for details on what is detected and how to prepare your file.

Permissions

• import_data — required to access the Importer and run imports.
• review_imports — required to see the Review Queue, approve imports, and roll back imports.

Either permission grants access to the Importer page. A user can import data without being able to approve it, and a reviewer can approve imports without being able to run them. The review_imports permission is a deliberate, narrow grant — it is not assigned to any role by default.