Click to view related learning resources:
- Introduction to Ironclad Data: Key Concepts and Terms: This article will provide you with definitions of some key Ironclad data concepts and terms related to Data Manager.
- Plan Your Data in Ironclad: This article will walk you through how to create a data schema plan before you begin using Data Manager. This will help you create a solid foundation for you to build your future workflow configurations around.
- Clean Up Data Schema Models in Ironclad: This article will walk you through how to clean up your data schema models in Ironclad. This includes how to merge new and existing data, remove invalid data, and manage default data.
- Improve Data Discoverability: This article will walk you through how to improve your data’s discoverability.
- Manage and Optimize Data Schemas: This article will provide an overview of data schema management and provide a list of relevant resources for further data management.
- Use Metadata Import to Clean Up Stored Contract Data in the Repository: This article will provide you with best practices on how to use metadata import to clean up your stored contract data in the Repository.
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This article will walk you through how to update the metadata of records in the Repository by editing the values in an exported spreadsheet outside of Ironclad and importing the updates back into Ironclad. This includes best practices to clean up your data.
Export Metadata
In the Repository, perform a search, apply Filters, and/or load an existing Saved View to collect all of the Records you’d like to modify. Select the More menu loacted on the right side to use the Export metadata option to download an export of the associated metadata.
Update the Spreadsheet with New/Additional Data
Open the downloaded file with your preferred spreadsheet editor (e.g., Excel) and make any modifications to the metadata.
Rename a Record Property Name
As an example, suppose you’d like to update all of your Counterparty Legal Name properties to title case. You’d simply create a new column, apply the formula, confirm its correctness, and delete the former column. Be sure to re-add the related column name if you add any columns for editing purposes.
Other examples include of updates to make in a spreadsheet include performing calculations (e.g., adding two property values together) or converting between data types (e.g., from Yes/No to Text). In these cases, you’ll need to ensure that the sum property or converted data type property exists in the Repository. If not, consult the Update Workflows step.
In addition, please ensure that the sheet you are modifying is the first (and preferably only) sheet. The metadata import tool will only identify the first sheet in the spreadsheet.
Use Metadata Import to Clean Up Stored Contract Data in the Repository
The quality of Ironclad insights and reports is dependent on the underlying data stored within Ironclad. It's essential to clean and audit the data prior to using metadata import. This will help minimize errors, duplicates, and data integrity issues.
Following our data audit and cleanup best practices can significantly improve the quality and consistency of contract data stored in Ironclad, reducing the time needed for post-import cleanup:
Data Formatting and Standardization
- Ensure consistent formatting for dates, numbers, and text properties. For example, use the same date format (MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY) throughout the file.
- Remove leading/trailing spaces, special characters, and unnecessary formatting. Use tools like Excel's TRIM function or find/replace to clean up text properties.
- Apply consistent capitalization rules. Decide whether to use all uppercase, all lowercase, or proper case for text properties like names and addresses.
Data Validation and Deduplication
- Check for invalid or missing data. Use conditional formatting or filters to identify blank cells, invalid values (e.g., non-numeric characters in number questions), or data that doesn't match expected patterns.
- Remove duplicate records. Use Excel's Remove Duplicates feature or write a formula to identify and remove exact duplicate rows based on a combination of key properties. Duplicate records can create confusion for users or create inaccurate analytics & insights.
- Validate data against external sources. Cross-check critical information like email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses against authoritative sources or existing databases to ensure accuracy. Reviewing the overall data structure with external data sources, can assist with making informed decisions about what to keep, what to clean, and what to delete.
Data Mapping and Transformation
- Map CSV columns to the target Ironclad properties. Ensure column names and data types match the Ironclad destination properties.
- Apply data transformations as needed. Use Excel formulas or scripts to transform data into the required format, such as concatenating properties, splitting values, or performing calculations. This is also critical if you want to consolidate two different data types together in a single property.
- Create new records using metadata import. Ensure new Record Names are unique and do not exist in the repository. If the name exists, you can configure the advanced import settings to ignore or skip, merge or update the existing record with the new data values.
Data File Considerations
- Data files import a single tab. If you have a data file with multiple tabs, Ironclad will only process the first tab. Combine data across tabs or create different data files.
- Optimize data file for performance. Import data file sizes are recommended to be ~100k records or 15MB file size each. (Recommended)
- Processing time can vary. Large files, update actions required and the total number of record updates can significantly impact the import performance and time to process the imported file. Max import limit is 500k records and up to 25MB file size.
Auditing and Documentation
- Perform sample checks. Manually review a random sample of records to identify any remaining issues or inconsistencies.
- Document data cleaning steps. Maintain a log of all cleaning and transformation steps applied to the CSV file for future reference and reproducibility. This can help standardize training other team members on how to clean the data consistently & accurately in the future.
- Backup the original data. Keep a backup of the original, unmodified CSV file in case you need to revert or troubleshoot issues after importing.
Import Modifications
Save the modified spreadsheet and upload it into Ironclad using the Metadata Imports tool to apply the changes to your existing records.
It is helpful to include a brief description of your changes in the filename for future reference.
Bulk Update with Metadata
Map Headers to Properties
To apply the data to the appropriate columns, be sure to map the properties in Ironclad to the headers in the spreadsheet.
Update Workflows
You’ve now successfully updated your existing records to include the desired metadata in the most useful format. To ensure that records created from future workflows automatically store the data in this fashion, it is important to update your workflow configurations as well.
Helpful updates to your workflows include:
Launch Form Help Text/Autocomplete
Formulas