Data Migration 1: Overview of Importing Your Data

Links to other Data Migration Articles: 

• Data Migration 2: Using the Data Import Templates
• Data Migration 3: Best Practices - Relationship Information
• Data Migration 4: Best Practices - Financial Information

Most MonkeyPod users are moving from their previous platforms where they may have stored years or even decades of historical financial and relationship data. Data migration allows MonkeyPod users to migrate information so that you can keep historical information.

How do I import data into MonkeyPod?

In general, the process works by having you put all of your existing data into a collection of spreadsheet templates, then sending those through our importer to bring all your data into MonkeyPod.

To make the process as simple as possible, we have provided a step-by-step site where you can upload your sheets as .csv files. You can find it by going to Your Organization Name   and then clicking on "CSV Data" under the Imports heading. 

Here is a list, with links, to commonly used import templates.

1. Chart of Accounts - To import your Chart of Accounts you would use this template
2. Entities - to bring in any donors, supporters, vendors, volunteers, etc..you would use this template. We recommend putting everyone on one list to be able to easily label entities that fall into multiple roles 
3. Donations - to bring over any donations from the past
4. Checks - to bring over any checks you have written in the past

What do people usually bring over?

Most people are bringing over Donors, Email List Subscribers, and Donations at first. Below you will find an overview of the process in general. We strongly encourage you to read these additional articles which further specify how to bring over entity information and how to bring over financial information into your MonkeyPod.

To bring over your Entities:

1. Take a look at your roles in MonkeyPod and add any you may need.
2. Be sure to add a role for each email list you want to bring over.
   1. This will be a temporary role to hold everyone who is on your email lists during the import  process
3. Take everyone from your Email List and your Donor List, that's right, all of them and combine them into one spreadsheet.
4. Add them to the Entities Import Template with their appropriate roles. Listed in the last column. 
   1. Remember! someone can be more than one role! This means that each entity will be one line with multiple rows
   2. For Example: someone who is a donor AND on the general donor email list may have the roles "Donor, GeneralEmailList"
5. Perform your import!
6. Delete the roles you created for your email list holder.

To bring over your past Donations:

Remember, each line of your import file will be an instance of a donation. This means that if someone has given 23 times to your organization, their name/email/donor ID will show up 23 times in the import file!

1. Read our article on bringing in your Financial Information
2. Format your donations so that they conform to the Donations Import Template
3. Perform your Import!
4. Do the adjusting entries as specified in our article on bringing in your Financial Information

!!! You will have to re-enter recurring donations. One way to do this easily is to make a Fundraising Page that you can send to people to re-enter their information!!!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. 1. Is there an easy way to manage duplicates in my MonkeyPod? Would I be able to import everything and then dedupe?
   1. Yes! MonkeyPod has a built-in Duplicate Manager that can help dedupe after the data migration is complete.
2. What's the best way to bring in my financial data? 
   1. Check out this article specifically on bringing over your financial information
3. What's the best way for me to bring over my relationship data?
   1. Check out this article specifically on bringing over your relationship information
4. Is there an article on how to use the data import templates?
   1. Yes! - Check out our article on Using the Data Import Templates!
5. Is there help available for me to talk to someone?
   1. Yes! - Join us for Welcome Wednesdays - These are our Open Office Hours
6. Can I just pay someone to do this?
   1. Yes! - email support@monkeypod.io and let us know you would like to purchase this service!

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