2074122 - Data Import & Export: How do I open my User Directory in Excel without losing leading zero's in user IDs, assignment IDs or user names?

• Using Excel to preserve leading zero's in user IDs or user names.
• How do I open my User Directory in Excel without losing leading zero's in user IDs or user names?
• Receive an error: "User does not exist in the database" when updating while using Import Data tool.
• Receive an error in import: "The assignment ID in your import file is not consistent with the existing assignment ID in the system."

• SAP SuccessFactors Learning
• SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite

Many companies use an HRIS system to generate data files for import into SuccessFactors. These files often contain leading zeros, maybe in user names, user IDs, assignment IDs or employee ID's. Opening a .csv data file that contains leading zeros with Excel will strip the zeros by default.

IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED OPENING ANY USER DATA FILE CONTAINING LEADING ZEROS!
This should be an automated process between your HRIS system and SuccessFactors. Normally, opening these files in Excel will wipe out the zeros.

Warning! Reimporting this data will cause duplicate users to be created in the SuccessFactors Application. For instance, if the user ID for an employee is 000123, and you open your file in excel without maintaining leading zeros, the user ID becomes 123. This is an entirely new user account, user ID 123 is NOT the same as 000123, so if you were to reimport this file you may end up with 2 users 123 AND 000123. Moreover, if there is already a valid active user 123 in your system, this import would likely overwrite the existing user information with the data from user 000123.

Note: Once a user record is created in the system, it CANNOT be deleted. There are NO exceptions for this. SuccessFactors does not offer the ability to delete user records once created. You should simply set the status of the incorrect user to INACTIVE.

In case you do have to make changes manually before importing the data into SuccessFactors, please follow this procedure:

If the original file is CSV:

1. Open the *.csv file in Notepad and save the file in a format that isn't recognized by Excel (such as a *.txt file). (You may need to right click on the file and choose Open With > Notepad). If desired, it may also be beneficial to associate *.csv files with Notepad instead of Excel.
2. Open Excel, select the text file, then click Open
3. The Excel text import wizard will appear
4. Select Delimited, then click Next
5. Select the check box for Comma, then click Next
6. The following screen allows you to select the formatting you would like to apply to the columns of the document. In the document preview window, select the first column then scroll all the way to the right, hold down Shift and click on the last column header (all the columns will turn black). Then from the upper right, choose the text radio button. Click Finish.
7. Once you have finalized your edits in the user directory in Excel, save the file as a CSV (comma delimited) for a later reference, as this will preserve your leading zeros.
8. Save and Import the excel file.

 If the original file is an Excel file:

1. Save the file to your desktop
2. Open a new blank workbook in Excel, but do not open the user data file at first!
3. Click ‘Data’
4. Hover over ‘Import External Data’
5. Click ‘Import Data’. You want to import from a text file. Your ‘Text Import Wizard’ may appear in some versions of excel.
6. Verify that the ‘Delimited’ radio button is selected then click ‘Next’
7. Put a check mark in the box to the left of  ‘Comma’, since the delimiter in your file are commas.
8. Click ‘Next’
9. The first column should already be highlighted (If it is not highlighted, then click once on the column header labeled ‘General’ over the first column.).
10. Using the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom, scroll all the way to the right.
11. Hold down the ‘Shift’ key and click the last column header. This should highlight all columns.
12. Click the ‘Text’ radio button. You will immediately see all column headers change to ‘Text’.
13. Click ‘Finish’ & ‘OK’
14. Now you are able to make edits to the file. When you have completed all updates, you should save the file as a .CSV (Comma Separated Value) for later reference, as this will preserve your leading zeros.

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