Bulk Updating Data Using Import Records

Emburse Certify’s Import Records tool allows Administrators to bulk import or update user information, including; User Allowances, Approval Limits, Delegates, Departments, GLDs, Expenses, and User data.

This article shows you, a Certify Administrator, how to bulk update user records and expense information using the Import Records tool.

Please Note: Certify recommends pasting the column headers for the below tools into your preferred spreadsheet software, and then copying that data over into the text boxes provided.

Step 1: From your Certify homepage, navigate to the Configuration screen by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner. 

Step 2: In the recently added Certify Tools section, select Import Records

Step 3: Select the type of import from the dropdown menu.

Click Next to start importing the necessary records.

1. Allowances. 

Another way to access the Data Import Wizard- Allowances page is to select the View and Edit Allowances section of the Configuration page. From there, Administrators can click the Bulk Upload button on the top right of the screen. 

 

Paste your data from your preferred spreadsheet software into the textbox. All fields aside from Allowance Code are mandatory: 

• User Email – Enter the User’s email.
• Allowance Name-- Select a specific name for the allowance, which represents what the allowance is for.
• Allowance Code-- Enter an (optional) internal code.
• Start Date/ End Date– The date range determines which expenses apply to the allowance. If an expense’s date falls within the date range of the allowance, it counts towards that allowance.
• Amount – Enter the amount a user can spend within the established time frame and expense categories.
• Currency – Enter the type of Currency used for the allowance.
• Inactive – Enter True/ False to make the allowance active.
• Prevent Report Submission – Selecting this option prevents a user from submitting future expenses until an allowance expires, if a user exceeds their allowance.
• Categories– Select one or multiple categories depending on business requirements. The categories selected determine if an expense applies to an allowance.
  • If you are creating an allowance with multiple categories, simply list the header Categories once, and then add categories in the proceeding columns. Do not need to list the column header Categories more than once.

Please Note: For more information about user allowances in Certify, refer to this Help Center Article. 

2. Approval Limits

To bulk update Approval Limits, paste the Approver’s Email Address, preferred Currency, and their new Approval Limit.

Please Note: For more information about approval limits in Certify, refer to this Help Center Article. 

3. Delegates

Administrators can now update more than one user’s delegate at a time from the Data Import Wizard - Delegates page. 

Paste each delegate user’s email address (Authority Email), their delegate’s email address (Delegate Email), and what level of access should be granted to the delegate; Submitting expense reports, Approving reports, running Reports, and booking Travel.

The ‘Full Control’ option refers to granting access to all four tasks.

Please Note: For more information about delegates in Certify, refer to this Help Center Article. 

4. Departments

Administrators can use the Data Import Wizard - Departments page to bulk update multiple department fields at once. 

Similarly to the other Data Import Wizard pages, paste the values from the textbox into spreadsheet software, and re-paste with updated values. 

Values from ‘Suppress Billable’ onward need to be populated with ‘TRUE’ or ‘FALSE’ as seen below: 

Indicating a value of ‘TRUE’ for the Inactive field will result in a deactivated department. Most users will not find this of use. 

5. Dimensions

Administrators can bulk import or update departments, categories, or general ledger dimensions using the Data Import Wizard – Dimensions page.

Select the dimension you would like to update using the Dimension Field dropdown menu.

Please Note: Administrators also have the option to select a Dimension Key to determine the column that makes the upload value unique.

Paste the dimension values into the textbox, remembering to include the column headers.

6. Expenses

Administrators can bulk import expenses to a user’s wallet or to an expense report using the

Data Import Wizard - Expenses page. 

Follow the instructions above the textbox provided, before pasting the required values for the imported expense.

In the example below, an expense for $100 will be sent to tav.acc.test@gmail.com’s wallet. The user can then add this expense to an expense report. 

To move expenses directly to an expense report, simply populate the Report Name, Start Date, and End Date fields.
This creates an expense report with the given name and dates if one does not already exist. If a matching expense report exists, the expenses are sent to that report instead of the user’s wallet. 

In the below example, the two listed expenses will be moved to an expense report called ‘Testing Import Expenses’:

7. Users

On the import page, paste the user’s Email, First/ Last Name, Department Name, and Department Code to upload them into Certify. Column headers should remain at the top of the textbox.

Optional Selections: 

On the primary Import screen, there are a number of options to make your import experience smoother. This section details each of these options:

• Notification Emails -- Enter the email addresses needed to send the import summary.
• User Key – Toggles which column Certify uses to uniquely identify each user.
• Promote Approvers -- Leave this box checked. 
• Incompatible Approvers --Shows users assigned incompatible approvers or accountants unable to meet the role requirements.
• Send Welcome Emails – Check this box to send welcome emails to all users in the import who have not received a welcome email before. 
• Deactivate Absents – Check this box to deactivate all users that do not exist in the uploaded file.
• Key on Dept Name -- Check this box when a department does not have a code. 
• Auto-Create Department -- Check this box when uploading users with new departments that do not already exist.

Step 5: Administrators then can use the Download button to obtain a CSV of current data already uploaded to Certify. This file can be edited and re-uploaded Choosing and Uploading the file, before Populating it back into Certify.

Step 6: To preview what the system will accept, make sure the Commit Changes is set to No, as shown below, then click Next.

Click Back after confirming the import will work as expected. 

Step 7: To finish importing the data, set the Commit Changes dropdown to Yes, and click the Next button to confirm. 

An email notification and import summary are sent once the import is complete.