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Preparing a file of transactional data for import (front-end)

You can import payment transactional data into your Engaging Networks account, helping you to get a complete picture of your supporters’ activity. For example, you may want to import offline direct mail transactions so that email marketing segmentation in Engaging Networks reflects a donor’s complete giving history.

Here are some pointers:

  • You need to have an CSV file ready and make sure the file has a ‘header row’ (for example, title, first name, last name etc.)
  • You can only import a single transaction type per file. What this means is that you will need to import all single credit card transactions as one file and then all recurring credit card transactions. In the example file below we are importing single credit card transactions.
  • Check the file for the following characters that can cause the upload to fail: pipe (|), double quotes (“), backslash (\), exclamation mark (!) .

Here’s an example file that is ready for upload:


You should also follow the default format of your payment gateway when entering currency and payment type. Information on payment gateways can be found here.

Required Fields

Single donation imports:

Column Required? Format Notes
Donation Amount Yes Numeric  
Payment Currency Yes 3-letter ISO  
Payment Type Yes    
Supporter Email Yes    
Appeal Code Optional    
Comments Optional    
Credit Card Expiration Optional    
Direct Gift Optional    
Gateway Transaction ID Optional    
Other Amount 1 Optional    
Other Amount 2 Optional    
Other Amount 3 Optional    
Other Amount 4 Optional    
Pledge Id Optional    
Supporter Id Optional    
Tax Deductible Optional    
Tracking ID Optional    
Transaction Date Optional yyyy-mm-dd  

Recurring donation imports (Initial Gift):

The gateway will show as “import” in the Transaction history gadget and also under Campaign Data 12 in an export.

Column Required? Format Notes
Donation Amount Yes Numeric  
Gateway Transaction Id Yes Must be unique This is used as the Parent Transaction ID for subsequent donations (see below). Exported as Campaign Data 2 in the initial gift, and Campaign Data 11 for subsequent gifts
Payment Currency Yes Three-letter code For example, GBP, USD
Payment Type Yes    
Recurring Day Yes Numeric The day that the recurring transaction will recur on
Recurring Frequency Yes    
Recurring Status Yes success This can only that one value, “success”
Supporter Email Yes    
Appeal Code Optional    
Comments Optional    
Credit Card Expiration Optional    
Direct Gift Optional    
Other Amount 1 Optional    
Other Amount 2 Optional    
Other Amount 3 Optional    
Other Amount 4 Optional    
Pledge ID Optional    
Recurring Day Optional    
Recurring Frequency Optional    
Supporter Id Optional    
Tax Deductible Optional    
Tracking ID Optional    
Transaction Date Optional yyyy-mm-dd  

Recurring donation imports (Subsequent Gifts)

Column Required? Format Notes
Donation Amount Yes Numeric  
Parent Transaction Id Yes See note To link the subsequent gifts to their parent, use the Gateway Transaction ID set for the Initial Gift (see above). Exported as Campaign Data 2 in the initial gift, and Campaign Data 11 for subsequent gifts
Payment Currency Yes    
Payment Type Yes    
Recurring Day Yes    
Recurring Frequency Yes    
Recurring Status Yes    
Supporter Email Yes    
Appeal Code Optional    
Comments Optional    
Credit Card Expiration Optional    
Direct Gift Optional    
Other Amount 1 Optional    
Other Amount 2 Optional    
Other Amount 3 Optional    
Other Amount 4 Optional    
Pledge ID Optional    
Recurring Day Optional    
Recurring Frequency Optional    
Supporter Id Optional    
Tax Deductible Optional    
Tracking ID Optional    
Transaction Date Optional yyyy-mm-dd  

Please ensure that the data in the file is as clean as possible and everything is in the right place. Remember, this data is going to end up in your account!

Importing transactional data

Please see the Importing Transactional Data help page on how to use the transactional data import tool once you have created your file.

Updated on February 15, 2021

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