Bulk (mass) updates of members or contact records

Overview

Updating a single record is fairly straightforward, just find the record you want and edit as as needed. If you need to update a lot of records at once, there are some you can perform directly within the system - and in most other cases you can use export/import.

These mass updates can be performed directly in Wild Apricot:

• Update the privacy settings for all members (i.e.which fields in the member profile to show or hide from others) : Settings -> Member profile page, see Privacy settings
• Clear the contents of a custom field for all contacts - just delete the appropriate field and recreate it again, see Customizing your contact database fields. (System fields cannot be deleted so this method will not work on those fields)

There are however many other bulk changes that cannot be performed directly e.g. say you want to change the Renewal due date for multiple members. This is where the Export and Import features of Wild Apricot can come in handy.

Getting started with bulk changes using export and import

First Export the records you would like to update (filter them out e.g via Advanced search - Contacts )

This will generate a spreadsheet with all your contacts/members data.

Using this spreadsheet you can update your contacts information by adjusting the values in the Excel columns ( see Import Field Guide for limitations)

If the specified User ID (aka Member ID) or Email already exists in the system then the existing record is updated. Email can be updated if you also specify a valid User ID User ID cannot be changed - it is automatically generated by the system If you specify a new Email and leave User ID empty (or specify a non-existent ID), a new contact record will be created. A new contact record is also created if you leave both User ID and Email fields empty.

Clearing Custom Fields, Date and Notes Values using Import

You can also use this process to clear or erase the values stored in your custom fields, system date fields and the system "Notes" field.

• Custom / "Notes" fields: To erase the contents of these fields "CLEAR"
• System date fields: To erase date fields like "Renewal date" (i.e. member does no longer needs to renew) use "NEVER".

Example

For example, let's say we want to clear the custom field called "website" and the "Member since" date via export/import.

First, export the desired contact records, and then update the exported Excel file as illustrated below:

Now save the file and import it back.