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You can import and export sizable volumes of your subscription billing data into Chargebee using the Bulk Operations feature. By uploading the required information in CSV format, you can import subscription information, customer information, and other billing information or update them. You can also export subscription and product catalog information in an import-friendly format suitable for bulk import operations.
You can also use the Bulk Operations feature to import this information into Chargebee from other applications. Further, you can check operations performed till the present date by you and other users, and their respective status.
Caution: Bulk operations are not available while Time Machine is in use.
Bulk operations can be performed for the following Chargebee components:
We recommend trying out major operations such as creating, importing or updating subscriptions in your TEST site before actually performing these operations in your LIVE site.
To perform a Bulk Operation, follow these steps in your Chargebee site:
Chargebee requires you to go through a set of steps to complete the selected operation:
A sample CSV file is available to download and use:
This file contains sample records that you can replace with your own records. Note that the data needs to be added to the sheet in the same format as the sample data. You can use an import-friendly file file with pre-filled information, making it easier to migrate existing subscriptions to Chargebee without format conversion.
Once you've added all the information and the data file is ready, upload it.
Drag and drop your data file into the web interface or upload it:
For Update Subscriptions bulk operation make sure to remove canceled subscriptions in CSV before uploading it. Not doing so will result in reactivating the canceled subscriptions.
Specify your preferences on how Chargebee will perform certain actions when the Bulk Operation is underway:
During a Bulk Operation, events will be generated and if you want to keep your system in sync with Chargebee, you shouldn't disable the webhooks. But if you do not want the corresponding webhooks to be sent to your system, turn them off.
We recommend that you check this option so your customers do not accidentally get an email.
Once you have configured your preferences, click Continue to validate the uploaded CSV file.
For operations such as creating new Subscriptions or Customers, if there are email addresses present, the addresses will be masked to avoid accidentally emailing customers. This is done only in your Test site. When the operation is performed in the live site, the correct email addresses will be used.
The validation time depends on the number of records that need to be processed. During validation, the most recently found errors will be listed as shown below:
You could go to a different tab and come back to this page later. Once the validation is complete, you will be notified via email. You can then come back and continue with the operation.
Review the results of the validation:
A. If Chargebee does not find any errors, proceed with the operation. When doing this in your test site, you will have the option to wipe out all the existing Subscription data before performing the operation.
Chargebee will carry out another check for errors in the file during the final step of the operation.
B. If there are errors in the data file, you could either choose to fix the errors and upload another data file or skip the rows with errors and continue with the operation.
Click How do I fix this? to view the last 10 errors.
This section will also provide you with the options to download the validated file and to upload a corrected file.
Validated File: The validated CSV file will have an additional column (cb_validation_errors) added at the end of the sheet. This will contain details of the errors for the rows with issues in them.
The error content will indicate the column name(s), value(s) present, and what the errors are.
Error Parameters
paramName - column header name
paramValue - value present in the cell
columnReferenceHeader - column label
errors - error message
[{"paramName":"subscription[plan_id]","paramValue":"gold_plan","columnReferenceHeader":"B","errors":["The gold_plan referenced in parameter subscription[plan_id] is not present "]}]
In this error, subscription[plan_id] is the column header name and the value in the cell is gold_plan and this is in column B. The second part of the error message says that the plan id specified is not present. To fix this, edit the cell and enter the correct plan id.
Similarly, check all the rows that have errors in them and correct them.
After you've corrected all the errors, save the file and upload it again. This will take you to Step 2 and you can resume the operation.
This is the final step where the data file is validated again to ensure a smooth import and the operation is performed. The completion time depends on the number of records that need to be processed. You could go to a different tab and come back to this page later.
If you're performing a Bulk Operation in your TEST site, all the successfully validated records will be processed. However, if you're doing it in your LIVE site, only the first three valid records will be processed. This is to ensure that you can review the data once before the remaining records are processed.
Click the records to view the imported data. For example, if you have imported subscriptions, clicking the records would display the Subscription details page for that record. Once you're ready, check the option 'YES, I confirm that the records have been processed correctly' and click on Process remaining records.
Once the operation is complete, a success message will be displayed as shown:
You will also be notified via email.
However, if there are errors during this operation, you will find the following screen where you can fix them one-by-one in the Chargebee app.
Click ‘Fix these errors' and the next screen is where you can make your corrections.
If there are too many errors during the operation, you can download the data file with the list of rows processed and the ones with errors.
To download the file, close the screen and hit Skip these records > Show errors > Download
When you download the file and open it, there will be 2 additional columns (cb_validation_errors and cb_operation_status) at the end of the sheet, containing details of the rows having errors and details of rows that were completed/skipped. You can correct the rows with the errors and repeat the operation from Step 1.
Navigate to Settings > Import & Export Data > Operations Log to view a log of all the operations performed along with the status.
Click a log entry to view more details. You will have the option to download the data file that was uploaded. If you have navigated to a different page in and the file has been validated, you will have an option here to resume the operation:
This feature allows you to export data in a user or import-friendly format.
The following are the export options:
To perform export operations,
For Subscriptions and Customers, download these CSV files from the Subscriptions and Customers Index pages.
For Product Catalog, download these CSV files from Settings > Import & Export Data > Export data > Product Catalog > Export File.
The export history table displays a list of all exports that have been initiated within the last 14 days. To use this feature, navigate to Settings > Import & Export Data > Export history.
It contains the following fields:
Please get in touch with support if you're unsure at any step of the operation.
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