What Is Imported for Person Accounts?
The Data Import Wizard prevents creating duplicate person accounts by matching records according to one of the following fields: Account Name, Salesforce ID, Email, or an external ID field. In your import file, include a column for the field that you’re using for record matching.
Required Editions
| Data Import Wizard available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience |
| Data Import Wizard available in All Editions except Database.com |
Person accounts available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience Person accounts available in Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions |
Matching by Name
When you select this option, the Data Import Wizard detects existing records in Salesforce that have the same name. This type of matching is case-sensitive. If necessary, scan and standardize your record names before performing the import to prevent unintended matches.
Matching by Salesforce ID
A Salesforce ID is a system-generated, case-sensitive string of 15 or 18 letters and numbers that uniquely identifies each Salesforce record. When you select this option, the Data Import Wizard detects existing records in Salesforce that have the same Salesforce ID. You can obtain Salesforce IDs by running reports that include the ID field of the record.
Matching by Email
This option matches records in your import file with existing records in Salesforce according to the exact value in the Email field.
Matching by External ID
An external ID is a custom field that has the External ID attribute, meaning that it contains unique record identifiers from a system outside of Salesforce. When you select this option, the Data Import Wizard detects existing records in Salesforce with external IDs that match those values in the import file.
- This operation isn’t case-sensitive. For example, “ABC” is matched with “abc”. However, if the external ID field also has the case-sensitive Unique attribute, matching by external ID does not consider uppercase and lowercase letters identical.
- External IDs can be of type text, number, email, or auto-number. If the external ID type is auto-number, it isn’t available for matching, but you can use it to look up the parent record if it contains the external ID.
- Standardize External ID values before performing the import to prevent unintended matches.
- Multiple records with the same External ID within a file aren’t uploaded.
- Multiple external ID fields can find matching records in Salesforce when you use the Data Import Wizard.
- Only unique External ID fields are available to match by.
Ignoring or Updating Matching Records
When the Data Import Wizard detects existing records in Salesforce that match according to your chosen field, you can choose one of these actions.
- Add new records—If records in your file are new and don’t match existing records, insert them into Salesforce. Ignore records in your file that match existing records, and do nothing to the existing records.
- Update existing records—If records in your file match existing records, update the existing records. Ignore records in your file that don’t match existing records, and don’t insert them as new records.
- Add new and update existing records—If records in your file are new and don’t match existing records, insert them into Salesforce. If records in your file match existing records, update the existing records.
