Contacts - Importing CSV to update contact file
When I create invoices, Xero uses the first name field of the primary person in the contact record as the name after “Dear”. I create my contacts by importing them from another system via CSV, but there does not appear to be any way to populate that field automatically on import. That means I have to manually edit the contact in Xero every time I create a new one.
As a developer, I cannot begin to explain how irritating that is when you are doing it for the 200th time.
Peter Strong
shared this idea
Thanks for clarifying this for me Peter, I really appreciate the detail. The good news is that you can export your Contacts to a CSV then add in the FirstName and LastName details and reimport the file to update the Contacts. You can find more information in our Xero Central article. But if you need an extra hand you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊
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Peter Strong
commented
Apologies, I don’t think I was clear about where this field is used in the Xero invoicing process, and how I am trying to populate it.
When I create an invoice and send it by email, I use the basic email template, which begins with the salutation **“Dear [Contact First Name]”**. This pulls the first name from the **Primary Person** section of the customer’s contact details.
I know you can populate this field by importing a contact via CSV. However, I create my contacts initially by importing an invoice, which will allow me to populate all the other contact fields if this is a new contact, but not the first name field. . As a result, I have to go into each new customer record and add the first name manually, which is frustrating given that all the other customer details can be imported automatically from the CSV.
Is there a way to include the Primary Person first name in the Invoice CSV import that I may have overlooked