We suggest starting with "How to Import Contacts into Tern" if you haven't already read it.
The following table includes the fields that are supported by the core import. Only a few of these fields are required. Note that in future updates additional imports will be possible to add additional phone numbers, emails, relationships, and loyalty programs.
Field Name | Required | Can map multiple columns into this field? | Description |
Import ID | Yes | No | The unique identifier to use to look up the contact. This can be used to override the email lookup. Useful when multiple contacts might share an email or when multiple contacts without an email share a name. |
Prefix | No | No | (Mr/Mrs/etc) |
Legal First Name | Yes | No | Required unless you provide a Preferred First Name. You must supply at least one of Legal First Name or Preferred First Name; you don't need both. |
Middle Name | No | No | The middle name of the contact |
Last Name | Yes | No | Required whenever you include a name for the contact. It can only be left blank if you're matching an existing contact by Import ID or Tern ID and you provide no first/preferred name. |
Suffix | No | No | (e.g. Jr. Esq, etc). |
Preferred First Name | No | No | The name the contact goes by (e.g. Jim for James). |
Birthday | No | No | The birthday of the contact. |
Wedding Anniversary | No | No | The anniversary of the contact. |
Job Title | No | No | The job title of the contact. |
Gender | No | No | The gender of the contact. |
Contact Type | No | No | Supplier, traveler, etc. |
Primary Email Address | No | No | Required unless you're matching an existing contact by Import ID or Tern ID. Email is also used to match a row to an existing contact when no ID is supplied, so contacts imported without an email cannot be matched by name and may create duplicates on re-import. |
Primary Email Address Description | No | No | A note about the primary email. |
Secondary Email Address | No | No | The secondary email of the contact. |
Secondary Email Address Description | No | No | A tag associated with the secondary email. |
Primary Phone | No | No | The primary phone of the contact. Note that Tern only supports one phone number in the core import at this time. |
Address Line 1 | No | No | First line of the primary address. |
Address Line 2 | No | No | Second line of the primary address. |
Address Country | No | No | Primary address country |
Address City | No | No | Primary address city |
Address State | No | No | Primary address state |
Address Zip Code | No | No | Primary address zipcode |
Known Traveler Number / PASS ID | No | No | Global Entry / TSA Precheck known traveler number. |
Known Traveler Number / PASS ID Expiration Date | No | No | Expiration date of the known traveler number (e.g. when their global entry expires). |
Redress Number | No | No | The redress number of the contact. |
Redress Number Expiration Date | No | No |
|
Passport Number | No | No | Passport number of the client. |
Passport Country of Issue | No | No | Country of issue |
Passport Date of Issue | No | No | Date of issue of the passport |
Passport Date of Expiration | No | No | When the passport will expire |
Passport Given Names | No | No | The first name of the contact as it appears on the passport. |
Passport Surname | No | No | The last name of the contact as it appears on the passport |
Passport Gender | No | No | The gender of the contact as it shows up on the passport. |
Passport Place of Birth | No | No | The location the contact was born per their passport. |
Passport Nationality | No | No |
|
Food, Drink & Allergy Preferences | No | Yes | A semi-colon seperated list of food and drink preferences. Use with caution as this data can be messy when imported. |
Activities & Interests Preferences | No | Yes | A semi-colon seperated list of activity preferences. Use with caution as this data can be messy when imported. |
Tag List | No | Yes | A list of tags separated by semicolons that will appear on the contact profile. |
Minimum required fields:
To import a new contact, each row needs a name and an email:
- At least one of Legal First Name or Preferred First Name
- Last Name
- Primary Email Address
The name and email fields become optional only when a row includes an Import ID or Tern ID that matches an existing contact — in that case the row updates the existing record instead of creating a new one.
A note on preferences vs. tags
Tags and preferences behave differently on import, and this catches a lot of people out.
Tags are created automatically. If a tag in your file doesn't exist yet, the import adds it.
Activities & Interests and Food, Drink & Allergy preferences are not. A preference only attaches to a contact if that exact option already exists in Tern. Any value that doesn't already exist is skipped, so you'll see the matching preferences come through and the rest quietly left off.
Adding preference options before you import
Open any contact and go to the About tab.
On the Preferences card, click Edit next to Activities & Interests or Food, Drink & Allergy Preferences.
Type the value you want and select it to add it as an option.
Repeat for each value in your file that doesn't exist yet.
Once all your options are set up, re-run the same import and the matching preferences will attach.
Already imported without the options?
No need to start over. Set up the missing options using the steps above, then import the same file again. Contacts are matched by their Import ID, so you won't create duplicates, and preferences that already came through won't be doubled up. If only a few contacts are affected, you can also add the preferences right on each contact from that same Edit screen and skip the re-import.