Data Import: Paste Spreadsheet Data Straight into Salesforce Grids

Summary

Grids by RavenApps now imports data into Salesforce straight from a spreadsheet. Copy your rows, paste them into the grid, and Grids matches the columns to your fields, resolves contacts and accounts by name or email, and shows you exactly what will happen before anything is saved. New rows, updates, and anything that needs fixing, all flagged up front.

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No Data Loader. No CSV mapping. No export, edit, reimport loop. Available today in Grids 6.76.

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Why did we build this?

We kept watching the same thing happen. Data arrives in a spreadsheet, and getting it into Salesforce means leaving Salesforce.

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Data Loader is powerful, but it runs outside the org as a separate application, and it is not for most people. The Import Wizard runs in Setup and is limited to a handful of objects. Neither shows you anything useful before it acts.

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So what actually happens is one of two things. The spreadsheet gets emailed to an admin, who becomes a queue. Or somebody types it in by hand, which is slower and worse.

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We wanted it to work the way people already work: copy the cells, paste them in, see what is about to happen, save. Native, no separate tool, no record Ids.

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What is Data Import in Grids?

Data Import is a new action on the grid that takes spreadsheet data and turns it into Salesforce records, without leaving the grid. Where the existing download action sends a grid out to a spreadsheet, Import brings a spreadsheet back in, so the round trip now happens entirely inside Salesforce.

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The design goal was narrow and specific: make the everyday case fast. Not a migration, not a scheduled integration, but the few dozen to few hundred rows somebody needs in Salesforce this morning, usually from a spreadsheet that arrived by email.

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Paste or upload

Click Import, then paste cells copied from Excel, Google Sheets or any table, or upload a CSV or tab-separated file. Up to 500 rows at a time.

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Automatic column matching

The header row is detected and matched to the grid's columns by label or API name. Any mapping can be changed, or a column left out entirely. There is no mapping file to build and nothing to save for next time, because the match is made against the grid you are already looking at.

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Values checked before saving

Numbers, currency, dates in the user's locale, checkboxes and emails are converted and validated on the way in. Rows with problems are flagged with the reason and skipped, so a single bad date does not take down the rest of the paste.

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Lookups by name or email

Type an account name or a contact's email address instead of a record Id. Matching uses the email first, then the name, with the row's account used to tell same-named people apart.

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Anything matching more than one record is flagged rather than guessed at. That distinction matters: a tool that silently picks one of three Jane Smiths is worse than one that stops and asks.

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New rows and updates

Choose the fields that identify a row, and matching rows already in the grid are updated instead of duplicated. Update only and add only are both available, and empty cells leave existing values untouched rather than blanking them.

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Preview before anything changes

Each row is tagged New, Update or Error, and each column Import or Match only. The data lands as draft rows for you to review, edit or cancel, then save as usual.

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Nothing is written to Salesforce until you save, so the risky part of any import, finding out what it did after it did it, is removed.

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Works with your existing columns

Import uses the grid's column definitions exactly as they are, including lookup columns and the related fields they display. If your grid is already set up the way your team works, no column configuration is needed.

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Where it is already earning its keep

• Campaign members: paste an event attendee list and everyone is matched on their email address, with anyone not yet in Salesforce flagged rather than guessed at.
• Test data: ask your AI chat for sample related Salesforce data and paste it straight into a sandbox, no Ids needed.
• Enrichment: paste updated values against records already in the grid, and only those fields change.

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How is this different from Data Loader?

Data Loader remains the right tool for a migration or a load running into the hundreds of thousands of records, and nothing here replaces it. The differences that matter day to day are these:

• Who can run it: Data Loader is an admin tool, so every bulk change queues behind whoever has access to it. Import runs in the grid the user already works in.
• Where it runs: Data Loader is a separate application outside the org. Import is native, inside Salesforce, in the grid you already had open.
• Record Ids: Data Loader generally needs them for lookups, which means a spreadsheet exercise before you start. Import resolves accounts and contacts by name or email.
• Where the editing happens: the Data Loader pattern is export, edit offline, reimport. Import keeps the data in Salesforce, where your sharing rules and field-level security apply throughout.
• Finding mistakes: Data Loader reports errors after the run. Import flags them before the save.

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Users only see and change the records they already have access to, because the grid's permissions model is the platform's own, unchanged. It is not admin-only.

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What it is not for

Worth being clear about the edges. Import handles up to 500 rows at a time, so a fifty thousand row migration is still a Data Loader job. It is not a scheduled integration either: if the same spreadsheet arrives from the same system every week, that belongs in a Flow or middleware rather than in someone's paste buffer.

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What it does cover is the gap those two leave, which turns out to be most of what people actually do with spreadsheets.

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How to get started

1. Install or upgrade via the AgentExchange listing or the Package Version page.
2. Add Import to the Action picklist on the Grid object, then to the Action field on each grid that should offer it.
3. Open a grid, hit Import, and paste.

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Existing grids are unaffected until you add the action. Grids is free in sandboxes, with full features and no time limit, so it costs nothing to try this against your own data first.

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Useful Links

• Release Notes and Install Links (6.76)
• How to Import Data into Salesforce from Excel
• Stop Exporting Salesforce to Excel
• AppExchange Listing & Reviews
• Book a Call
• Watch: Data Import in 90 seconds

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Thank You

Thanks to everyone who asked for this one. If there is a feature you need, tell us, because the roadmap is shaped by customers. Book a Call or Contact Us.