You can keep location and user information updated in FranchiseBlast by using a specially formatted spreadsheet file. This process will allow you to easily update the configuration of your organization at anytime. These configurations include:

  • Adding new locations to FranchiseBlast and deactivating existing ones
  • Adding new people to FranchiseBlast and deactivating existing people
  • Adding new staff members in locations as well as removing them when they no longer work there
  • Granting new store functions to staff members working in locations as well as revoking them when they are no longer related to the location
  • Updating access to locations for people


How to Proceed


There are two options for importing your organization's configuration - you can upload a file as a one-time import (like when you onboarding with FranchiseBlast), or we can connect the spreadsheet to an FTP server so that changes you make to the file are automatically imported into FranchiseBlast. Here is some more information on both options:


FTP Server:

This allows the file containing your organization configuration to be uploaded on a recurring basis to an FTP server. Once the FTP server is setup, FranchiseBlast can automatically re-import your organization configuration file on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. This is ideal for organizations that open 30+ locations a year, or have territory assignments that constantly change. Contact our support team to learn more about getting this process started.


Manual File Import
This process is best for making significant changes to your store configuration on a quarterly or annual basis. For this process, you would manually send FranchiseBlast a file containing your store configuration and our support team will import into the system for you. Minor organization configurations, like deactivating a user account and adding a new location, can still be managed manually through FranchiseBlast through your account or by emailing our support team.


Regardless of the option you choose, the spreadsheet you use needs to have a specific file type and format. This article will provide an overview of the types of information that you can update using this method and how to format the file. Currently the file is able to create new stores and update an existing stores address fields, the opened/closed state of the location and the legacy id field in the store. 


This file extension must also be in the .csv to be imported into our system, not .xlsx or .xls. During the process of importing this file it will first look for StoreIDs that it has not seen before, it will take those and the data along with it in the table and create new stores with that information. Then it will update all the StoreIDs that it can find stores for and update the information about them.


Requirements for Data to be Imported


Example of what the file to be imported should look like (also see attachment on this article)


Make sure that the column headers are exactly as they appear. They are case sensitive so if it's called "storeid" instead of "StoreID" the import will not succeed.


Required Columns

The order of the columns in the file from left to right does not matter. However some of the columns are required to appear in the file. These columns are as follows:


StoreID
This is the store id of the store as it appears in Franchise Blast. Keep in mind that this field needs to be unique meaning that each id should only appear once in all the rows. Also this value cannot be updating using the file. If this value is changed it will create a new store instead of updating the StoreID.

AddressLine1
This is the first line of the stores address

AddressLine2
The is the second line of the stores address

City
The city that the store is located

ProvinceState
The state/province that the store is located

PostalZipCode
The zip code/postal code that belongs to the store

CountryCode
This column is very strongly recommended to have. It is the two letter country code that corresponds to the country that the store is in. If this field is not provided it will default to US. 
  • WARNING: If not included it will change assume all of the stores are in the US and update it to be so. If you have any stores that are not in the US you must include this column.

These columns are required in the file, if it does not have all of them the updates will not work.


Optional Columns

There are a few more columns that your file can have but none of them are required in the file but will be used to update the store if they are present. These columns are as follows:


Telephone

This is the telephone number for the given store. If not provided it will not update the field in the software.


Fax

This is the fax number for the store. The same rule applies to this one as did with the telephone number.


IsHidden
This updates the open/closed state of the store.  If this field has the value "True" it will cause the store to be closed, if the value is "False" it will cause the store to be open. If the field is not provided it will not update the field.

LegacyStoreID

This represents alternative store identifier for the store.  It might represent store identifier in other third party integrations for instance.  
  • If not provided it will not update the field in the software. 
  • For this field if you want to have multiple legacy ids in our system make sure to have the different legacy ids separated by semicolons. E.g. "legacyid1;legacyid2;legacyid3"


Store Functions

Store functions are used to identify the role of a person in a specific store.  The header of a store role column contains the email an contains either the email (mandatory) or the name (optional) of the person.  For example in Franchisee1Email, "Franchisee" is the store role, "1" is used to match the email and the name for that person in that location and "Email" or "Name" are to specify those fields respectively for that person working in the location. 



Important Details

  • If an email for a person that isn't in the system yet, the import will create a new user for that role.  You have the option to automatically activate these users on import or not, just let us know when sending us the file by using the toggle shown above.
  • Keep in mind that if you remove a person from a store role in a location of the list being imported, that person will also be removed from the store's staff list.
  • When people are automatically being added to the system, they will be given a default set of permissions.
  • If a person is given the store role franchisee, franchise business consultant or area manager they will be given access of the given store through an automatically created store group with the name Franchise - Role Name - User Name. This store group will have a list of stores that the user has access to with the specific role. For example, if a user has area manager role to store1, store2, and store3, a store group Franchise - Area Manager - User will be created and this store group will include store1, store2 and store3.
  • Any empty user role store group will be removed along if the user no longer has access to any store with this role.


Example #1 - Adding a Franchisee

If you want to give a person a franchisee store role in a location, put his email e.g. "newFranchisee@gmail.com" under Franchisee1Email and his name e.g. "John Doe" under Franchisee1Name.  For more information about roles check out this article.  Basically make sure that the number, e.g. "1" here, of the email and the name for a person match e.g. Franchisee1Email and Franchisee1Name, not Franchisee1Email and Franchisee2Name.


Example #2 - Adding a Second Franchisee

If you want to give a person a franchisee store role in a location but there is already a franchisee for that location, put his email e.g. "secondFranchisee@gmail.com" under Franchisee2Email and his name e.g. "John Doe" under Franchisee2Name in the row of that location.


Example #3 - Adding a Store Manager

If you want to add a store manager to a location, put his email e.g. "storemanager@gmail.com" under Store Manager1Email and his name (optionally) under Store Manager1Name in the row of the location.


Example #4 - Adding a Franchise Business Consultant

If you want to add a franchise business consultant to a location, put his email e.g. "franchisebusinessconsultant@gmail.com" under Franchise Business Consultant1Email and his name (optionally) under Franchise Business Consultant1Name in the row of the location.



These are the different columns that are available to be updated by FranchiseBlast using this automatic update method at the moment. An example file has been attached to this article to give an example of what this could look like.



Need more help?

Feel free to contact us at support@franchiseblast.com with any questions.