Great! Now that all the preparation has been done, you're ready to start importing your data into Beacon.

Remember, before we started moving our data into Beacon's standard templates, we looked at how these templates are designed specifically to work seamlessly with Beacon's pre-configured, pre-mapped import templates. This means that much of the data mapping (telling Beacon where you want the data in your spreadsheets to live in Beacon) is done for you!

All the work you've just done now pays off; you now won’t need to manually map the majority of your data to fields in Beacon.

Step one: download your spreadsheets to csv. format

For each standard Beacon template that you've added data to, download a copy of that sheet in csv format ready to upload to Beacon.

Step two: create your templates

Head to Import templates > Manage templates at the bottom of your sidebar
Click "Install from library"
and choose the corresponding templates for the Beacon standard templates you've added data to.
1. i.e for my 'People' csv
2. I'll choose:
Change your template name if you want to and click Create.
Do this for each of the sheets you have added data to until you have a full set of templates ready to start importing your data.
Alternatively, select "Install all Self-implement templates" to speed up the process and have a full set of templates straight away.

Step three: editing your templates

Whilst the majority of your columns will already be 'mapped' to the correct fields in Beacon, in the previous step, you may have customised your Beacon account in two different ways:

By adding new dropdown values to existing core fields
By adding new fields to store additional data

You'll need to amend your templates if you have done so. Let's look at how!

Mapping new dropdown values

Where I added my new dropdown options as an exact text match for the values in my sheets, Beacon will automatically map my new options to the correct value in Beacon - so you won't need to make any changes:

If you have any values in your spreadsheet that are not an exact text match for the values in your dropdown field in Beacon, you will need to choose which 'Option' from your list you'd like to map it to

E.g

Becomes:

➕ ACTION: Replicate this process for all dropdown fields in your templates that you have added new dropdown values to

Mapping new fields

Where I added any new fields into Beacon, I need to make sure that these fields are now 'mapped' in my import templates; this will tell the importer where I want that data to live in Beacon when I run my import.

Your import template will look something like this:

So I now need to make sure any columns I've added fields for in Beacon have been mapped to the correct field:

Your column will show in blue once it is mapped.

➕ ACTION: Replicate this process for all 'NEW' columns in your templates for which you have added new fields in Beacon.

Advanced changes to your templates

ℹ️ NOTE: None of the following options should need to be considerations if you have followed all of the previous steps correctly. Only consider using these options if you're not using Beacon's standard import templates

You may have noticed that at the bottom of your import templates there are some additional options. Find out more about how to use these here:

Why are there multiple templates for the same record type?

You've likely noticed that for some of your sheets, there are multiple corresponding templates with very similar names.

Beacon’s import tool can only link data in a single column to one record type at a time. So, if a column in your spreadsheet includes data that refers to multiple record types, you’ll need to import the same sheet multiple times—once for each relevant record type.

For example, if the "Referred by previous database ID" column in your Cases spreadsheet includes IDs for both People and Organisations, you’ll need to run two imports:

One using "Self-implementation template – Cases (Referred by: Organisation)"
One using "Self-implementation template – Cases (Referred by: Person)"

Each template is clearly named to show which record type the record you're importing is being linked to

You only need to use the templates that match your data—you can skip the rest.