The Universal Importer isn't just for migration day. It's a bulk-update tool you can use anytime.

Common Use Cases

  • Update 500 customer tags from a spreadsheet
  • Fix a batch of wrong ticket priorities
  • Add phone numbers exported from your CRM
  • Sync ticket data from an external system on a schedule
  • Bulk-update article categories

How Matching Works

Pick a match key so the importer can find existing records:

  • Email -- Best for customers
  • Short ID -- Match tickets by their visible number
  • External ID -- Match by an ID from another system
  • Slug -- Match articles by URL slug
  • Custom Field -- Match on any custom field value

Merge Strategies

For each mapped field, choose what happens when a record matches:

  • Always Update -- Import data overwrites existing values
  • Update if Empty -- Only fills in blanks
  • Never Update -- Skips that field on matched records
  • Append -- Adds to arrays (useful for tags)
  • Append with Newline -- Adds text with a line break separator

The Preview Step

Before anything changes, the preview shows:

  • New records (will be created)
  • Matched records (will be updated)
  • Exactly which fields will change
  • Skipped records

Nothing touches your data until you confirm.

The Export-Edit-Import Loop

Export from Settings > Team > Export, open the file in a spreadsheet, make your changes, then re-import with Always Update for changed fields and Never Update for everything else. Spreadsheet-level bulk editing with merge protection built in.