Import a List into Bullhorn Automation

This article contains steps to import contacts into Bullhorn Automation with a .CSV file.

This feature isn't available to all clients and requires the ability to import lists into Bullhorn Automation based on your ATS. If you don't see an Import option on your menu, this isn't currently active for your company.

For Bullhorn ATS Clients, we recommend importing any new candidates or sales contacts into Bullhorn ATS using their Custom Import tool.

Doing this first will allow Bullhorn Automation to accurately update candidate or client records in the ATS with new Bullhorn Automation activity. By default, you won't have access to use the Bullhorn Automation Import tool.

Import Procedure

Download the Import Template

The first procedure in the process is to download the import template. Do the following:

In Bullhorn Automation, click on your name in the upper right corner to bring up your Settings menu, then select Import.
Follow the first three steps on the page as shown below:
When you click the link in the first step, the Bullhorn Automation Import Template will automatically download as a .CSV file with pre-existing headers. Don't change the column titles in this template.

Add Data to the Import Template

Now you can add data to the import template. Do the following:

Add the following columns of data to this template.

The headers of the columns must remain exactly as they are on the spreadsheet.

Column Title	Required?	Record Type	Notes
Email	Yes	Candidate or Sales Contact	Email address of the candidate or contact. This field is required.
First Name	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Last Name	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Name	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Source	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Status	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Type	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Position	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Company	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
City	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
State	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Zip Code	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Date Added	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Mass Mail Opt Out	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Is Deleted	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
ATS Candidate/Sales Contact ID	No	Candidate or Sales Contact	Provide the ATS ID in this column to merge Bullhorn Automation imported records to their ATS record.
Category	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Owner Email	No	ATS User
Owner First Name	No	ATS User
Owner Last Name	No	ATS User
ATS Owner ID	No	ATS User
Phone Number	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Date of Birth	No	Candidate or Sales Contact
Date Available	No	Candidate or Sales Contact

Add the candidate or contact's email address in the Email field (Column A). It's recommended to add in a First and Last Name.
- This method will create a Bullhorn Automation record that exists only in this Bullhorn Automation instance, so make sure to include any information that’s needed and applicable to the columns of the import template.
It's not possible to add custom fields or any additional columns to this template, as Bullhorn Automation wouldn't be able to read that data. Only the data in the pre-existing columns will be mapped into Bullhorn Automation.
Once you've added your data to the template, save the file in .CSV format.
- If the file is not in .CSV format, you won’t be able to import your file into Bullhorn Automation.

Create the Bullhorn Automation List

After you’ve added your data to the template and saved the file in a .CSV format, you'll need to add this file to a Bullhorn Automation list. Do the following:

Navigate to the Import page in Bullhorn Automation.
Select the type of contacts being imported.
- You can only import one type of record per template—either Candidates or Sales Contacts (not a mix of both).
If you're adding the contacts to an existing list, enter the name of the list. Otherwise, select Create New List.
- If you're creating a new list, you'll need to enter a name for the list in the New List Name field. This is the name that will appear on the Lists A collection of ATS records that meets specified criteria, such as a scheduled end date or a low NPS response. page.
Once you've named or selected your list, click Select File and Start Import.
A file window will appear for you to select your .CSV file. Select the file and click Open (or whichever value your system shows) to add the file to Bullhorn Automation.
After you've added the file, Bullhorn Automation will begin validating the contacts. If there are any rows of data in your file that failed validation, you'll be prompted to download a file containing this data. This file has a column labeled Validation Errors so you can see the reason for the failed result. There are two different possible validation errors:
- Invalid email: The email address isn't in a valid format.
- Email is not unique, a candidate with this email already exists in this file: There's a duplicate email address on a separate row in the same file.

Confirm the Imported List was Added

Once you’ve imported the .CSV file to your Bullhorn Automation list, if any contacts were successfully validated, Bullhorn Automation will send you an email confirming that the list has completed the import process.

Once you receive this confirmation email, you'll know your list has begun syncing successfully in Bullhorn Automation. You can view your Lists page to confirm that the number of contacts that were successfully validated are included on your newly added list.

After you’ve confirmed the list has been successfully synced into Bullhorn Automation, the final step is to add the list to an automation as normal and begin automating!

Additional Considerations

One Time Lists

Each custom imported list is created as a One Time list. This will also create a Bullhorn Automation record for each unique email that’s added to any imported lists. If you’d like to add additional records to an existing list, go to the Imports page, and instead of selecting Create New List, type a list name in the Select Existing List box and select it to upload the additional CSV file to that list.

Search with One Time Lists

You can search for additional criteria along with any manually imported list as long as there is data stored for that search field.

For example, if you only want to view candidates on an imported list that have a certain email address, you can create the list logic with the first condition being “In List > [List Name here]” and criteria for any additional information as needed.

Delete Contacts from a List

You can delete contacts from a manually imported list using the import template. To do this, list only the email address(es) of the contact(s) you’d like to remove from that list, and in Column N (labeled Is Deleted) type in "TRUE" for each corresponding candidate row. Save the file as a .CSV.

Then go to the Imports page and add the file to the list that you want to remove the contact(s) from. Upon successful validation and sync, the list count will decrease and match the number of records that were validated on this upload. If the list had ten contacts, and your import file deleted two contacts, the list count would now be at eight.

This will only remove the contact from the list. If the contact was added through the Automated Import, or if they exist on another Bullhorn Automation list, they’ll still have a record inside of your Bullhorn Automation Instance.