The Import Contacts feature lets you add up to 5,000 contacts to Honeit at once from a CSV or Excel file, either from your Contacts page or directly into a project. Note: Importing only creates new contacts. It never updates or overwrites a contact that is already in Honeit.
Table of Contents:
How to import contacts
Before you start: Make sure your file is formatted correctly before you upload it. The easiest way is to start from the template, then check your file against Setting up your file, Supported fields and Accepted values and formats below. A correctly formatted file means fewer rows to fix after your import.
Open the import window
Go to Contacts and choose Import Contacts. To add contacts directly to a project, see Importing contacts into a project.
Add your file
Drag your file into the window or click browse your computer. Honeit accepts CSV or Excel (.xlsx) files with up to 5,000 contacts and 5 MB. Not sure how to set up your file? Click Download the template for a blank file (honeit-contacts-template.csv) with all the column headers ready to go.
Confirm your workspace (if you use workspaces)
If you have a workspace selected, Honeit shows the workspace name and waits for you to click Start import. Clicking Cancel or closing the window removes the file, and nothing is uploaded until you start. With no workspace selected, the import starts as soon as you choose your file.
Watch the progress
The window shows each step and keeps a live count of contacts that were added, skipped or need fixing. You can close the window at any time. The import keeps going, a progress card stays at the bottom of the page and View reopens it.
To cancel partway through, click Stop import. Contacts already created are kept and the remaining rows are not added. A stopped import does not send an email or notification.
Review your summary
When the import is finished, you will see how many contacts were Added, Skipped and Not imported. If any row was skipped, not added or saved with a note, click Download results to see what to fix.
Start another import
Click Close on the summary, then Import Contacts again to start a new upload. If contacts were created, your contacts list refreshes. If an import is still in progress, Import Contacts reopens that import instead.
New contacts belong to the person who uploaded the file and are added to the workspace that was selected at the time of upload.
Importing contacts into a project
You can also import contacts directly into a project. The import works the same way, and new contacts from your file are added to that project.
Go to Projects and open the project you want to add contacts to.
On the project's Contacts tab, click the add contact button and choose Import Contacts.
Add your file and follow the same steps as above.
All the file rules, fields and results described below apply to project imports too.
Setting up your file
File types | .csv, .txt, .tsv and .xlsx (only the first sheet is read) |
Not supported | .xls, .xlsm, .xlsb, .ods and Numbers files. Save them as .xlsx or CSV first. |
Size | Up to 5,000 contacts and 5 MB |
Encoding | UTF-8 or Windows-1252 |
Separators | Comma, semicolon or tab |
Header row | The first row must contain your column names. Capitalization, spaces, underscores, hyphens and accents do not matter. Columns can be in any order, and you can leave out any optional column. |
Unrecognized columns | Ignored. Your summary lists them. |
Same field twice | The last column is used. Your summary lists it. |
Blank rows | Skipped. They do not count toward the 5,000 limit. |
If a value in a CSV contains a comma, such as San Francisco, CA, wrap it in quotation marks. In Excel files, whole numbers are kept as whole numbers and date cells are read as year-month-day.
Why was my whole file rejected? Honeit will not import a file that can't be read, is missing an Email column, has no data rows, has more than 5,000 rows, is larger than 5 MB or is an unsupported file type. In that case no contacts are created and no email or notification is sent. Files over 5 MB are usually stopped before they upload. Check your file against the table above and try again.
Supported fields
Only Email is required. Everything else is optional.
Field | Type and limit | What happens with a bad value |
Email (required) | Email address, up to 254 characters | Missing or invalid: the row is not imported. Emails are saved in lowercase, and spaces and a leading |
First name | Text, up to 100 characters | Longer text is shortened and the row is added with a note. |
Last name | Text, up to 100 characters | Same as First name. |
Full name | Text, split into first and last name, up to 100 characters each | Used only when First name and Last name are both empty. |
Phone | Phone number | Not recognized: the contact is created with the phone left blank and the row is added with a note. If the phone matches a contact in your account or an earlier row in the file, the row is skipped. |
Location | Text, up to 255 characters | Free text, such as a city. Longer text is shortened. |
Current title | Text, up to 255 characters | Headline or current role. Longer text is shortened. |
Pronoun | One of four values (see below) | Anything else is left blank and the row is added with a note. |
Time zone | Time zone name (see below) | Empty or not recognized: your own time zone is used. Unrecognized names add a note. If you don't have a time zone set, Pacific Time (US & Canada) is used. |
Social link | Web address, up to 5 links (one per column) | Links must not contain spaces. |
Tags | List, up to 30 tags of 80 characters each | Separate tags with commas, semicolons or pipes. Extra tags are dropped and the row is added with a note. |
Summary | Long text, up to 20,000 characters | Line breaks are kept. HTML is saved as plain text, not formatted. |
Notes | Long text, up to 20,000 characters | Line breaks are kept. Saved as written. |
Shared | Yes or no | Empty or not a yes/no value: your account's usual sharing setting is used. A value that isn't yes or no adds a note. Sharing through an import does not send an email to your team. |
Send text reminders | Yes or no | Yes is only saved when the row has a valid phone number. Yes with no phone is ignored and the row is added with a note. Empty uses the usual default. |
Send email reminders | Yes or no | Empty uses the usual default. This column is only in the template if your account has the email reminder setting. |
Accepted values and formats
Pronouns
Spaces, slashes and accents do not matter. She / Her and sheher are both saved as She/Her.
You can write | Saved as |
She/Her, She, Her, She/Her/Hers | She/Her |
He/Him, He, Him, He/Him/His | He/Him |
They/Them, They, Them, They/Them/Theirs | They/Them |
Other, Otro, Otra, Autre | Other |
Yes or no values
Used for Shared, Send text reminders and Send email reminders.
Yes | true, t, yes, y, 1, on, shared, public, team, oui, sí, compartido, partagé |
No | false, f, no, n, 0, off, private, unshared, non, privado, privé |
Phone numbers
Numbers without a country code use the phone country of the person uploading the file.
International numbers should start with
+and the country code, for example+44 20 7946 0958. A leading00is treated as+.An 11-digit number starting with 1 is treated as a US or Canada number.
Extensions written as
ext,extensionorxfollowed by digits are removed.
Time zones
Full names such as Pacific Time (US & Canada), London, Tokyo and America/Los_Angeles work, as well as these shortcuts:
You can write | Saved as |
PT, PST, PDT, Pacific, Pacific Time | Pacific Time (US & Canada) |
ET, EST, EDT, Eastern, Eastern Time | Eastern Time (US & Canada) |
CT, CST, CDT, Central, Central Time | Central Time (US & Canada) |
MT, MST, MDT, Mountain, Mountain Time | Mountain Time (US & Canada) |
UTC, GMT | UTC |
UK, London | London |
Understanding your results
Each row is checked on its own, so one bad row never stops the rest of your file.
Added | The contact was created. |
Added with a note | The contact was created, but a value was shortened, dropped or changed. These still count as Added. |
Skipped | The email or phone number matches a contact already in your account, or an earlier row in the same file. The existing contact is not changed. |
Not imported | The contact was not created, usually because the email is missing or invalid. |
While an import is in progress, the third count reads Need fixing, which includes rows not added and rows added with a changed value. If a row was already skipped or rejected because of its email, a phone match on that row is not reported separately.
Fixing rows and uploading again
Click Download results on the summary or open the file attached to your email. The file is called contact-import-review.csv and includes only rows that were skipped, not imported or added with a note.
The columns are Row, Status, your contact fields (with social links after the other fields) and What to fix, which explains each issue in plain language. If a row has several issues, they are all listed in that cell. Send Email Reminders is only included if it is in your account's template.
Status | Meaning |
Added with a note | Created. What to fix explains what changed. |
Already in your account | Skipped. What to fix says whether the match is in your account or earlier in the same file. |
Not added - see what to fix | Not created. What to fix gives the reason. |
Make your corrections and upload the same file again. Contacts that were added cleanly are not in this file, so they won't be created twice. The Row, Status and What to fix columns are ignored on the next upload.
Note: Values that start with +, =, - or @ get a mark added at the start so Excel doesn't treat them as formulas. Excel hides this mark. Phone numbers starting with + are the most common example.
How you are notified
When an import is finished, the person who uploaded the file receives both of the following. Neither is sent if the import was stopped or the file was rejected.
A notification in Honeit
Click the bell to see it. It reads "Your contact import is finished," "Your contact import finished with N rows to review" or "Your contact import did not finish," followed by the file name and how many contacts were added or need review. Workspace imports also name the workspace. Clicking the notification opens your import summary.
An email
The subject line shows the same outcome and the file name. The email includes the counts for Added, Skipped and Not imported (plus Added with a note, when there are any), the workspace name when relevant and a link back to your summary in Honeit. The results file is attached when any rows need a look.
Exporting your contacts
You can also download your contacts from Honeit as a CSV file.
Go to Contacts and choose Export Contacts.
Under Contacts created, choose Any time, Last 30 days, Last 12 months or a Custom range.
Under Fields to include, select the fields you want. All 16 are selected by default: First name, Last name, Email, Phone number, Location, Headline, Summary, Last call, Date created, Date updated, Owner, Tags, Pronoun, Social links, Shared with team and Workspaces. Click Clear all to start from scratch.
Click Export. The button shows how many contacts will be included.
When your file is ready, click Download CSV.
Your download is available for 24 hours. After that, start a new export for a fresh copy.
💡 Pro Tips
Start with the template so your column names match from the beginning
Select the right workspace before you import, since new contacts are added to the workspace selected at upload time
Import from inside a project when the contacts are all for the same role, so they are added to that project in one step
Feel free to close the import window and keep working while your contacts are added
Use the results file to make corrections instead of re-uploading your original file
Need help? Contact us at support@honeit.com.