Bulk Updating Third Parties

You can bulk update details for multiple third parties, using an Excel template. You can also use bulk update to archive third parties.

Third party names cannot be edited using Bulk update - If you need to do this, you must use the manual edit process.

Overview of bulk update

Bulk update is a 3-part process:

• Part 1 - get the bulk update template
• Part 2 - edit third party details
• Part 3 - upload your edits to EB360

It is essential that you get the latest template EACH TIME you need to make updates. If you have old templates saved locally, do not be tempted to use them - this would risk overwriting newer data that has been added to the platform since the old template was downloaded.

Part 1 - Get the bulk update template

1. In the header bar of your EB360 platform, click Bulk update:
   
2. The 'Drag and drop' page is displayed. Click List of available Sample Excel Files:
   
3. Select the Excel file called Sample Excel File For Third Party Update.
4. One or more Excel files will now be sent to the email address that you used to log in to EB360. These Excel files can contain a maximum of 3,000 third parties, so if there are more than 3,000 third parties on your platform then you will receive multiple Excel files.

Part 2 - Edit third party details

1. Go to your email inbox and locate the emails that were sent to you in Part 1. You are looking for emails that have a subject line beginning with: 'Template for bulk update'. If you do not see anything, check your junk mail.
2. From the emails, open the attached Excel template files. In the Excel files, you will see:
   • 1 row per third party.
   • Green cells displaying the current values of third party properties.
   • White cells that you can use to add/edit/delete values for editable third party properties.

3. An example is shown below:
    

4. Use the white cells to make any required changes. You can:

   • Add / edit values. Enter a value into a white cell, to replace the value in the green cell to its left. This will then become the new value for the property when the spreadsheet is re-uploaded to EB360. 

   • Delete values. Enter the text NO_VALUE into a white cell to remove the property value from the green cell to its left.

   • Keep existing values. If you leave a white cell blank, then no update will occur. The existing value will be retained.

   • Archive third parties. Enter the text 'Archive this Entity' into the Updated Archive Status field. To learn more about archiving, please see Archiving Third Parties.

5. Examples of editing third party details:
   
6. Example of archiving third parties:
   

Part 3 - Upload edited details to EB360

1. When you have finished editing your Excel files, save the files and return to your EB360 platform.
2. Click Bulk update again (as in Part 1).
3. Drag and drop your template file(s) into the upload box on the 'Drag and drop' page.
4. Click Upload to start the bulk update process. 
5. The integrity of your data is important, so the platform will perform validation checks as part of the update process. These checks include:
   • Ensuring that the new values are the correct data type. E.g. a number must be a numeric entry, a value for a list of strings must be one of that list's allowable values, etc.
   • Checking for required values. If a value is required, then it cannot be set to NO_VALUE.
6. It may take some time for the update to complete (see below). You can use the Event Log to confirm when the update has completed - look for the event type 'Bulk Update' with the tags 'BULK, SUCCESS'. 

If there are any validation errors then the bulk update will not happen, and a list of the detected issues will be displayed on the update screen. You will need to fix the reported issues in the spreadsheet and retry the bulk update.

How long does the update take?

This depends partly on the scale of the updates you are making, and partly on how your platform is configured. Depending on your platform's configuration, certain updates may trigger other changes or workflows. If you are updating large volumes of data, or if numerous workflows are triggered by your updates, then the bulk update process may take a few hours to complete.

If you are only making small-scale changes, and no downstream workflows are triggered, then the update process may complete in seconds or minutes.

What permissions do I need to use bulk update?

To use bulk update, you must be assigned a user role which has the 'Bulk Update Third Parties' permission. Administrators can control which roles have this permission - for more information about permissions, see Permissions in EB360.