PrevailHQ Knowledge Base

Bulk Update of a Unique Identifier and Best Practices

Updated March 6, 2024

Bulk Update of a Unique Identifier and Best Practices

| | | --- | | Unique Identifiers | | Email address | | Cell phone number | | Employee/Student/Contractor ID |

Our system uses any one of these Unique Identifiers to find any student/employee/contractor record at a given time. 

If the Student/Employee/Contractor records are using more than one unique identifier, you can only bulk update one unique identifier at a time using the import function. 

Multiple unique identifiers can be updated when manually updating each Student/Employee record (e.g. not using import).

But what if the students/employees are only using one unique identifier and I need to perform a bulk update of that? Read below:

Bulk Update of One Unique Identifier Using Import

  1. Export your users into a CSV file.
  2. Create a new CSV file using the appropriate template, and copy the users that need to be updated into the new CSV file.
  3. Save the new file somewhere you can find it again. We will only be using this file to update the users.
  4. Discard the exported file with all of the users; we won't need it.
  5. Add a 2nd unique identifier; even if it's fake. This will only be temporary.
  6. Import this file. This will simply add a second unique identifier to each user record.
  7. Open the file again and adjust the real unique identifier that needed to be updated in the first place. Save the file.
  8. Import this file. We have now updated the original unique identifier.
  9. Open the file again and remove the fake unique identifier we added in step 5. Save the file.
  10. Import this file.

Read before performing a bulk update:

A bulk update is when multiple student/employee/contractor records are updated using a CSV file. Such as updating the Location or Group. The below procedure allows these bulk changes to be made as expected.

General FieldsUnique Identifiers
Location(s)Email address
Group(s)Cell phone
TitleStudent/Employee/Contractor ID
Shift

Bulk Update of General Fields

  1. Navigate to Students/Contractors/Employees
  2. At the lower right of the screen, select CSV.
  3. Save that file in a location you can find again.
  4. Open that file in Excel or Numbers and make appropriate changes to the general fields you wish to update.

Please Note:The minimum required fields that must be populated are First Name, Last Name, Role, Location, and a unique identifier: one of ID#s, Cell Phone, or Email. Note that if neither Cell Phone or Email is provided, there is no way for a user to receive daily notifications. This user will also only be able to submit documents using the web-submission URLs.

  1. Save the file.
  2. At the upper right of the Students/Employees screen, select Import.
  3. Select Choose File, browse to where the file is located, and select Open.
  4. Select Import CSV.

| | | --- | | Please Note: The file may be kept at your leisure, but should not be relied upon to make future changes to your records accurately; assuming any change has been made to any record manually without the use of that . CSV file.  It is highly recommended to export your data every time, edit it, then import it. |

Also, please keep in mind that importing over an existing import may result in users reverting to basic users. To combat this, please see this chart to see where your non-basic users may become basic upon import:

Role to be ChangedCSV/SFTP ImportManually Adding Employees
BasicCan be left blank to assign this role by default, or "Basic" can be entered"Basic" is selected by default, or can be manually selected
Non-BasicNeeds to be filled in the corresponding areas, or else these users will be reverted to Basic.Can be changed at any time, will not default back to Basic after editing at any time; can only be changed manually

Bulk Update of Unique Identifiers

When an administrator wants to do a bulk update of specifically a unique identifier (Email address, Phone Number, or Student/Employee/Contractor ID) we have to take a different route.

  1. Export your Students/Employees into a CSV file.
  2. Create a new CSV file using the appropriate template, and copy the Students/Employees that need to be updated into the new CSV file.
  3. Save the new file somewhere you can find it again. We will only be using this file to update the Students/Employees.
  4. Discard the exported file with all of the Students/Employees; we won't need it.
  5. Add a 2nd unique identifier; even if it's fake. This will only be temporary.
  6. Import this file. This will simply add a second unique identifier to each student/employee record.
  7. Open the file again and adjust the real unique identifier that needed to be updated in the first place. Save the file.
  8. Import this file. We have now updated the original unique identifier.
  9. Open the file again and remove the fake unique identifier we added in step 5. Save the file.
  10. Import this file.