CSV File Formats for Importing Contacts

In certain circumstances you may wish to manually generate a CSV file of contacts to import to your FreeAgent account. Here's how to do that.

How to format your CSV file

To create a basic CSV to import to FreeAgent you need to include headings for 14 fields: First Name, Last Name, Company, E-mail Address, E-mail 2 Address, Business Street, Business Street 2, Business Street 3, Business City, Business State, Business Postal Code, Business Phone and Mobile Phone. You don't need to include content for each of these fields, though. The only compulsory fields are either First Name and Last Name, or Company. All fields should be formatted as General.

Your file will look something like this.

Regional settings

FreeAgent only supports CSV files with a character delimiter of comma ','. If you're outside the UK, you may find that your computer uses a semi-colon ';' as opposed to a comma ',' to separate values. Don't worry though; this can be altered with a small tweak to your device's regional settings.

Windows users

To change your system settings in Windows, go to your Control Panel and select 'Regional and Language Options' (or 'Date, Time and Regional Options' then 'Regional and Language Option'). Select the 'Customise' button to see an option for 'List separator' where you can change the semi-colon to a comma.

Mac users

Go to System Preferences -> Language & Text -> Click the 'Formats' Tab and then click the 'Customize' button in the 'Numbers' section of the page. You'll need to change 'Number Separator' for 'Decimal' to a comma and to a 'Space' for 'Thousands'. Click OK to save your changes and restart your Mac for the changes to take effect.