Perno Company lets you import multiple companies and contacts into your CRM using a CSV file. You can add new records, update existing contacts and link people to companies. The import runs in the background, so you can leave the page after uploading the file and starting the job. You will receive an email notification with the result.
How to import companies and people into Perno Company
1. Open the contact import page
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At the top of the dashboard, open the Context menu and select Perno Company.
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In the sidebar, expand CRM, then click Clients.
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On the Clients page, click Import contacts in the top-right corner, next to Add company.
The same import form is used to upload both companies and contacts.
2. Download and complete the CSV template
Click Download CSV template to download the template. Open it in a spreadsheet application and enter your data, keeping the column names unchanged.
Each row should describe one company or one person.
|
Column |
How to fill it in |
|
Record type |
Enter company for a company or person for a person. |
|
Company name(s) |
For a company, enter exactly one name. For a person, enter the names of related companies; separate multiple names with semicolons. |
|
Company type |
For a company, enter one of these values: customer, prospect, partner, supplier, media or other. |
|
Website |
Enter the company’s website address. |
|
First name |
Enter the contact’s first name. |
|
Last name |
Enter the contact’s last name. |
|
|
Enter the contact’s email address. |
|
Phone |
Enter the contact’s phone number. |
|
Job title |
Enter the contact’s job title. |
|
Owner email |
Optionally, enter the email address of the colleague responsible for the company or person. |
Important rules:
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For a company record, enter exactly one company name.
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For a person record, enter at least a first name or last name.
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We recommend providing an email address for every person to help identify existing contacts reliably.
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To link a person to multiple companies, enter them in one cell, for example Company A;Company B.
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Do not translate values such as company, person or prospect.
3. Assign record owners
The Owner email column lets you specify who is responsible for the company or contact in the CRM.
The address must belong to an active colleague in your organization. If you leave this field blank, new records will be assigned to the user who started the import.
4. Save and upload the file
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Save the completed file as a CSV file with UTF-8 encoding.
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Return to the Import contacts form.
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In the CSV file section, click Choose file and select your prepared file.
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Check that the correct file name appears next to the button.
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Click Queue import to add the import to the queue.
The maximum file size is 50 MB. Files with columns separated by commas, semicolons or tabs are supported. Column names are not case-sensitive.
5. Check the import status
After starting the import, you will see the job details page. The Queued status and the message Waiting for the background worker mean that the file is waiting to be processed.
The page refreshes automatically while the job is active. You do not need to keep it open — the import will continue in the background.
To check progress later, return to CRM → Clients → Import contacts and open the relevant job under Recent imports. You will find its status, summary or error details there.
6. How Perno handles existing data
Companies
Perno matches companies by name, regardless of capitalization. For example, Example Company and EXAMPLE COMPANY are treated as the same company.
If the company already exists:
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no duplicate is created;
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imported people are linked to the existing company;
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provided company details, such as type, website or owner, may be updated;
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the company is counted in the summary as an existing company reused in the import.
If a company referenced in a person’s row does not exist, Perno automatically creates it as a prospect.
People
People are matched primarily by email address. If a contact already exists, their details and company relationships are updated.
7. What to do if the import contains errors
The entire file is imported as a single operation. If even one row contains invalid data, the whole import is cancelled and no records from that file are saved.
If this happens:
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Open the import details.
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Check the row number and the reason for the error.
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Correct the data in the CSV file.
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Save the corrected file and upload it again via Import contacts → Queue import.
8. Check the result
Once the import finishes, the summary shows:
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the number of new companies added;
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the number of existing companies reused in the import;
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the number of people created;
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the number of people updated.
You will also receive the result by email. You can check the imported data in CRM → Clients, under the Companies and People tabs.
Successfully processed CSV files are removed from Perno after the import.
