Import Customers

Use the Import Customers page to import a list of Customers in .csv or .txt file formats.

1 Most Common Issues | 2 Tips | 3 How to Use This Page | 4 Detailed Help

If you are not already signed up for this feature, please get in touch with your Merchant Service Provider or PayTrace Support at Support@PayTrace.com.

Most Common Issues

Microsoft Excel is not designed to handle numbers greater than 15 digits in length. Credit card numbers are 16 digits (AmEx not included), so this will result in one or two things:
1. Excel formats the number as Scientific Notation
2. Excel drops the last digit and changes the second to last digit to 0.
  Example: '5454545454545454' becomes '545454545454540'
3. Microsoft Excel removes leading zeros on any numeric input.
  Example: ZIP codes like 01339 will save as 1339, resulting in an Invalid ZIP error.
Commas in ANY input will offset the .csv layout, shifting data to neighboring columns.
Example: If a customer's name is "Michael James, Jr", the comma between "James" and "Jr" will be treated as a delimiter, as .csv is a comma-separated-values format.
Example: If using the default template, this will shift "Jr" from “Billing Name” into the next column, "Billing Address", and shift everything else over one column as well.

Tips

Use the template file available on the Help documentation for Import Customers.
Set the entire document to TEXT formatting for every cell.
Remove any commas from any cell. Use a space instead:
Example: “Michael James, Jr” would become “Michael James Jr”
Save - do not close the Excel file.
- Closing and reopening the file can cause Excel to interpret those credit card numbers, ZIP codes, and other number columns as NUMBER and revert to the problematic formatting the user would like to avoid.
Start small, ten customer records in a single file until the user is comfortable with how Excel handles the data.
It is much easier to see what inputs are causing errors in a file of 10 records than in a file of 3,000. After successfully uploading a small file, the user can start importing larger files.
We do not recommend exceeding 2,000 customers in one file as it could take long enough to process the import on the back end that the user will be signed out for inactivity.
After running the import, even if errors are encountered, check “Delete Customers” in the Customers menu to see if any records were imported in the last attempt.

How to Use This Page

Select either Comma-delimited or Tab delimited for Data Delimiter.
The file that is being uploaded must be in one of these formats.
If the column positions in your file match the order of the Data Values listed, leave the Data Values in the order listed.
If the column positions in your file are in a different order, change the Data Values to match the order in your file.
Select Choose File.
Navigate to and select your file.
Select Open.
Select Upload.

Detailed Help

Links

Download the default customer import template

To download a customer template in .csv format to upload customers, use the file below.

View the customer import data definitions

To View a .pdf file that lists the data definitions for each field, click here.

Data Definitions

Name	Description	Format	Length	Required
Customer_ID	Unique identifier for this customer. Each customer must have their own unique ID.	Alpha-numeric	1-25	YES
Customer_Password	Password that customer uses to log in to customer profile in shopping cart. Only required if you are using the PayTrace shopping cart.	Alpha-numeric ¹	6-25	YES ²
Billing_Name	Name that appears on the credit card.	Alphabetic	1-50	YES
Billing_Address	Address that the credit card statement is delivered to.	Alpha-Numeric	1-50	NO
Billing_Address_2	Second line of the address the credit card statement is delivered to.	Alpha-Numeric	1-50	NO
Billing_City	City to which the credit card statement is delivered.	Alphabetic	1-50	NO
Billing_State	The state to which the credit card statement is delivered.	Alphabetic	2	NO
Billing_Zip	The ZIP Code to which the credit card statement is delivered.	Numeric	5, 9	NO
Shipping_Name	Name of the person to which the product will be delivered.	Alphabetic	1-50	NO
Shipping_Address	The Address to which the product will be delivered.	Alpha-numeric	1-50	NO
Shipping_Address_2	Second line of the Address to which the product will be delivered.	Alpha-numeric	1-50	NO
Shipping_City	City to which the product will be delivered.	Alphabetic	1-50	NO
Shipping_County	County to which the product will be delivered.	Alphabetic	1-50	NO
Shipping_State	The state to which the product will be delivered.	Alphabetic	2	NO
Shipping_ZIP	ZIP Code to which the product will be delivered.	Numeric	5, 9	NO
Phone	Customer's phone number (i.e., (555)555-5555, 555-555-5555, or 5555555555).	Alpha-numeric	10, 12, 13	NO
Fax	Customer's fax number (i.e., (555)555-5555, 555-555-5555, or 5555555555).	Alpha-numeric	10, 12, 13	NO
Email	Customer's email address to where the sales receipt may be sent.	Alpha-numeric	7-50	YES
Credit_Card_Number	Customer's credit card number must be a valid credit card number that your PayTrace account is set up to accept.	Numeric	15, 16	YES
Expiration_Month	Expiration month must be the two-digit month of the credit card's expiration date.	Numeric	2	YES
Expiration_Year	Expiration year must be the two-digit year of the credit card's expiration date.	Numeric	2	YES
Customer_Field1	Value of the first customer discretionary data type.
Customer_Field2	Value of the second customer discretionary data type.
Customer_Field3	Value of the third customer discretionary data type.
Customer_Field4	Value of the fourth customer discretionary data type.

¹ Passwords must contain a mix of letters and numbers
² At least one uppercase and one lowercase letter is required
³ Passwords must be at least eight characters.