Importing Data to Custom Fields

**Importing data to custom fields is not currently supported with company custom fields.

Lawmatics' importing function allows you to import data to any of your custom fields. This is very important to make sure you are able to transfer all pertinent data from your previous CRM or other data management tool into Lawmatics.

This article focuses on including custom fields in your import, but make sure you also check out our Importing Overview before attempting an import.

In order to import data to a custom field, you must already have the field created in Lawmatics, your matter or contact import will not create new fields.

To create new custom fields, you can either create them manually from the Custom Field Settings page or run a custom field import to create fields in bulk from a spreadsheet.

Once you have your fields created you can include those custom fields on a matter or contact import spreadsheet. In order to properly import your data, you will need to uphold the following naming convention for custom fields:  field name(field type)

Your field names are case sensitive, so you will need to match the field name on your spreadsheet exactly as it exists in Lawmatics.

The field type will be either matter, contact, or practice_area. This is also case sensitive and must remain entirely lower case.

Also notice how the field type is listed in parentheses immediately following the field name, there is no space in between the field name and the first parenthesis. 

For example, if you have the following custom matter fields in Lawmatics:

On your import spreadsheet, those field headers would look like this:

Since all three of these fields are Matter fields, they are labelled as such on the spreadsheet.

In addition to your field headings, you also need to format the data that is being imported properly, which is demonstrated above. So if you're importing to a date field, the data will need to be a date. If you're importing to a true/false field, the data will need to be either 'true' or 'false'. And so forth for each of the various field types.

You will find additional guidance on the different field types on the Import page found in settings, shown in the screenshot below:

It is also important to make sure you are using fields that match the type of record you are importing. For example, if you are performing a contact import, you can only use contact custom fields. On matter imports, you can import to contact, matter, or practice area custom fields.

You cannot include any matter fields on a contact or company type import.