This article explains how to import your contacts and companies into MyCase using our Contact and Company Import Spreadsheets.
OVERVIEW
Please Note: This article is intended for people importing contacts from other legal practice management systems (Time Matters, Abacus, Clio, Rocket Matter, etc.). There are more specific instructions for importing contacts from non-legal specific programs:
You will be exporting your contacts from your current practice management solution, copy and pasting them into our Contact or Company Import Spreadsheets, then uploading those spreadsheets into MyCase. Here are the steps:
1 - Export Contacts or Companies From Your Current System
Export your contacts from your current practice management system. We recommend you export the information in a CSV or Spreadsheet format.
2 - (Optional) Create Custom Fields
If you would like to import information beyond the standard Contact & Company fields that come within MyCase, or link cases to contacts during the import process, we recommend that you add in the Custom Fields that you would like to import in your Settings first.
Open the Settings page by clicking your name in the top right corner
Navigate to the Custom Fields section on from the left toolbar. For more information on creating Custom Fields, please click here.
3 - Download the MyCase Contact or Company Spreadsheet
Navigate to the Import/Export section from the left toolbar in your Settings
Click on the download template hyperlink for Contacts or Companies
4 - Copy Exported Data into the MyCase Contact or Company templates
Open the file you initially exported from your previous system. Then, open the MyCase Contact or Company Import Spreadsheet. You should now have two separate spreadsheet files open on your computer.
Copy and paste the information from the first spreadsheet onto the MyCase Contact or Company Import Spreadsheets. You will notice that the MyCase Contact Import Spreadsheet has columns with pre-filled headers (first name, home phone, address, etc.). Make sure that you are copying the data into the correct columns (ex: first name should be copied into the first name column).
Required fields:
The “First Name & “Last Name” columns are the only required fields for creating a Contact in the system.
The "Company" name is the only required field for creating a Company record.
There cannot be duplicate emails among any contacts (both people and companies). If you would like to include duplicate emails, you may add this to the Private Notes column.
Helpful tips:
Creating a "Case Link IDs" custom field allows you to link contacts to their corresponding Cases during import. Drop that same “Link ID” you gave the corresponding case under the “Case Link IDs” column in your contact import sheet. Make sure to add in Custom Fields in your settings to allow for this. For Cases, name the custom field “Link ID”, for contacts name the custom field “Case Link IDs”. (You can alternatively link your contacts to cases manually after you’ve completed the import.)
If a client is linked to more than one case, you can add multiple “Link IDs” separated by a comma to have them connected upon import
Do not remove unused columns, just leave them blank if you don’t need to use them. The name and order of the columns must remain the same during import.
Entering TRUE in the “Archived” column will import contacts into the Archived tab in MyCase; all of their information will still be brought over.
5 - Save a CSV file from the Contact or Company Import Spreadsheet
Once you have copied over all of your contacts or companies and double checked that everything was placed in the correct column, it is now time to create a CSV export of the spreadsheet. Typically, in programs like MS Excel, you can click "Save As" and choose an option to save/export as a CSV file.
6 - Import the CSV File into MyCase
You're almost there! Open the Settings page by clicking your name in the top right corner, then:
Click Import/Export from the menu on the left
Choose Contacts & Companies
Click the blue Import Contacts button (pictured below).
The Import Contacts window will appear. Choose the CSV (including Outlook) option. Then, use the file browser to find the CSV file you just saved and upload it into the system. MyCase will then create your contacts and make them available to use.
We recommend importing less than 1000 records at a time or the import may error out. If you have more than 1000 records to import, we suggest breaking the import up into multiple spreadsheets.