Canopy Tip: We encourage you to reference our detailed Import Templates video here!
This guide provides steps to locate, download, and accurately complete the Canopy Import Template. We’ll cover the full import process, including specific requirements for individual and business clients, best practices for avoiding duplicate entries, and troubleshooting common errors. Follow these tips, tricks, and steps to ensure a smooth transition of your data into Canopy!
Finding the Import Template
To find and download the import template, follow these steps.
1. Navigate to the client list
Click Clients in the global navigation bar
Select Client List
2. Use the three dots at the top right corner to find Import clients
Note: You could also choose to start the import from the Contact List. Either way is fine!
3. Download the template by clicking on the blue Download template button.
4. Open the downloaded spreadsheet in Excel
Note: Open this template on a desktop version of Excel and be sure to enable Macros when the workbook populates for a smoother experience!
5. Get your client & contact information ready to go
This helps the next stage go much faster!
Fill out the Import Template Worksheets
In this stage, you're ready to add client and contact data to the Canopy Import Template. Before you start entering information, take a look at the spreadsheet and see how it's organized.
The spreadsheet is color-coded to help you organize your information.
Orange | Fields for Client Information |
Blue | Fields for Business Information |
Grey | Fields for Primary Contact Information |
Red | Field for Spouse Contact Information |
Purple | Fields for Additional or Unlinked Contact Information |
In this workbook, you will find a set of worksheets to import your existing clients and contacts into your Canopy account. The tabs are broken up into the following sections:
Individual Clients: Examples of these types of clients include single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, etc. A primary contact is required for each individual client.
Business Clients: Examples of these types of clients include businesses, non-profits, trusts, properties, etc. A primary contact can be assigned but is not required.
Unlinked Contacts: These contacts are ones you would like to import but do not want to assign them to a client yet. They can be assigned to a client after import.
Required field for Individual Clients is:
Client Name
Naming Structure Tip: Client names should be structured in a way that you want to sort your client list. Feel free to use the following recommendations for naming structures for individual clients.
{Last Name}, {First Name}
{First Name} {Last Name}
{Last Name}, {Primary Contact First Name} & {Spouse First Name}
{Primary Contact First Name} & {Spouse First Name} {Last Name}
Required fields for Contacts are:
First Name
Last Name
Importing one contact to multiple clients: Canopy detects if a contact is the same as another by analyzing the following fields:
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
DOB (date of birth)
SSN (social security number)
To ensure duplicate contacts are not created, use the same First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, DOB & SSN.
Here are some examples below:
Example 1: Matching a Contact
Scenario: Shelley Anne Pierce is listed as an individual client and also as a business contact for her company.
Correct Matching:
Field | Individual Client Entry | Business Client Entry |
First Name | Shelley | Shelley |
Middle Name | Anne | Anne |
Last Name | Pierce | Pierce |
SSN | 000-00-0000 | 000-00-0000 |
DOB | 01/01/1990 | 01/01/1990 |
Address | 123 Main Street, Springfield | Blank |
Phone | (123) 456-7890 | Blank |
Outcome: Shelley is recognized as the same contact because all five key fields (First, Middle, Last, SSN, DOB) are exact matches. Additional fields (address, phone) don’t affect the match if missing in one entry.
Example 2: Mis-Matching Due to Inconsistency
Scenario: Shelley is listed as an individual client and business contact, but the DOB is missing in one entry.
Incorrect Matching:
Field | Individual Client Entry | Business Client Entry |
First Name | Shelley | Shelley |
Middle Name | Anne | Anne |
Last Name | Pierce | Pierce |
SSN | 000-00-0000 | 000-00-0000 |
DOB | 01/01/1990 | Blank |
Address | 123 Main Street, Springfield | Blank |
Phone | (123) 456-7890 | Blank |
Outcome: Shelley is treated as two different contacts because the DOB is missing in the business contact entry. Both entries must have consistent information in all five key fields.
Example 3: Missing SSN
Scenario: Shelley does not have an SSN, but her first name, middle name, last name, and DOB are filled out consistently.
Correct Matching:
Field | Individual Client Entry | Business Client Entry |
First Name | Shelley | Shelley |
Middle Name | Anne | Anne |
Last Name | Pierce | Pierce |
SSN | Blank | Blank |
DOB | 01/01/1990 | 01/01/1990 |
Address | 123 Main Street, Springfield | Blank |
Phone | (123) 456-7890 | Blank |
Outcome: Shelley is recognized as the same contact because the key fields match, even without an SSN.
Example 4: Conflict in Additional Information
Scenario: Shelley’s business entry has a different address than her individual entry.
Incorrect Handling:
Field | Individual Client Entry | Business Client Entry |
First Name | Shelley | Shelley |
Middle Name | Anne | Anne |
Last Name | Pierce | Pierce |
SSN | 000-00-0000 | 000-00-0000 |
DOB | 01/01/1990 | 01/01/1990 |
Address | 123 Main Street, Springfield | 456 Elm Street, Shelbyville |
Phone | (123) 456-7890 | Blank |
Outcome: Shelley is recognized as the same contact, but only the address from the first entry (Individual Client) will be imported. Conflicting address information from subsequent entries will be ignored.
Best Practice Tip:
To ensure accurate matching:
Always fill out First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, SSN, and DOB consistently across all rows where the contact appears.
Avoid adding inconsistent or conflicting information (like different addresses) in different entries.
For Business Clients, the required fields are:
Client Name
Business Name
Client Name and Business Name can be the same but practitioners often enter the business' legal name in the Business Name field.
Contacts for Business Clients: While contacts are optional for business clients, tracking them can be beneficial, especially when a contact is associated with multiple clients. A single contact can be linked to several clients, and the contact information remains consistent for both individual and business clients.
Please note that a contact must be added to a client to invite someone to the client portal.
A few things to note when filling out the worksheets
Each row represents a single client. You can scroll from left to right to add more client information.
Not all information is required. Information required for import will have an asterisk* next to it.
When using a field with specific entries like Client Type, Status, or Contact type, make sure the spelling and capitalization match the options listed in the guide.
You can only have one primary contact for each client. You should only have one spouse per client. If you don't select a contact type for your additional contacts, it will default to 'Other'.
Primary Contacts: We highly suggest you use the primary contact as the taxpayer on the account. Read the bullet points below for more info on primary contacts.
The primary contact's information will be used as the taxpayer in other areas of the app.
The email on the primary contact will be used in bulk email actions.
Only one primary contact and one spouse are allowed.
Helpful Worksheet Information
Now, let's look at a few helpful tips to reference as you fill out the import template.
Individual Import Worksheet
Client Type | Automatically set to Individual for clients added to the Individual Clients worksheet. Because of this, that field/column is not viewable. |
Client Name* | Required field; case sensitive |
Client-facing Name | Optional field. If blank, the client name is used as the client-facing name |
Client Owner | Type the email (used to login to Canopy) of the team member who will be the primary owner of this record. For this field, team members must be added to Canopy before importing. |
Source | Can be any existing sources in Canopy or new sources used in the import, with a 45-character limit. If you select referral, you can add who referred them after import. 'Referred from' field is not available in the import. |
Client Since | Dates should be formatted as one of the following:
|
Active |
|
Client Group |
|
Custom Fields | These are enabled with Macros in Excel. Custom fields are automatically added to the individual and business worksheets. |
Business Import Worksheet
Business Name* | Required field; case sensitive |
Date Est./Inc. | Dates should be formatted as one of the following:
|
Business Type |
|
Industry | Canopy only accepts the following Industry types for this field:
|
Emails | The first email entered will be the primary for the record. You can always change this in the Client Record after the import. |
Phones | The first phone entered will be the primary for the record. You can always change this in the Client Record after the import. Phone numbers should be entered in this format:
|
Individual Worksheet Contact Information Tips
For Primary and Spouse Contacts, there is no need to fill out a column to say a contact is the primary contact, the worksheet does that for you!
Primary Contact |
|
Spouse Contact | Add a description if needed. |
Additional Contact |
|
Business Worksheet Contact Information Tips
Primary Contact |
|
Additional Contact |
|
When you are done, do a quick review of your spreadsheet. Make sure everything has been entered correctly and all contact information lines up with the associated clients!
Once you have entered all client information, save the workbook and move on to the next stage: upload the template and import clients & contacts!
Upload the Template and Import Clients & Contacts
Now that you've got your template saved, navigate back to the Import page in Canopy.
1. Choose to drag and drop your updated template file or upload it from your computer.
2. Enter a name for your import.
3. Click Start import.
You'll see a Processing status listed for your import.
The software will first check your file for custom fields, then errors. After taking care of any custom fields and errors, you'll be able to access the import preview.
4. Under the Status column, select the hyperlink to preview the import.
Custom Fields: If an import has custom fields, you'll be prompted to Review custom fields and then map the fields to mitigate any data errors.
The system will try to match existing custom fields to the ones you entered in the template. If there are no existing custom fields in Canopy, create them and then start mapping the custom fields.
You can choose to not import custom fields at this point too.
After mapping the custom fields, select the Confirm custom fields button and the import will go back to a processing status to check for any errors in the template.
If an import has errors, you'll see the option to review the errors.
Best Practices for Errors: When you have errors on an import, all you need to do is pull up a side-by-side comparison, one page up of the error review, and another page up of your Excel template.
Using the row column of the error preview as a reference, find and fix the errors in the Excel spreadsheet.
Once the errors are corrected, simply resave the template. In Canopy, choose to Cancel the import on the top right.
Then you'll go back and upload the newly-saved Excel spreadsheet.
5. On the Preview page, review the data under both the Clients and Contacts tabs.
6. Once you confirm all information is correct, select the Complete import button.
The Import page then shows a 'Complete' status for your import!
Be mindful that notifications are sent to you when an import is successful, has errors, or needs review and mapping of custom fields.
Congratulations on your successful Client & Contact Import! 💪🏽 💥