Event Date and Time Fields
Before using the CSV Import Assistant to work with event records, you need to understand the Reserve Time, Date, and End Date fields. These fields are closely related to one another.
Reserve Time
The Reserve Time field indicates whether the system blocks off time on attendees’ calendars for the event.
Possible values are:
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Yes — Indicates that the event shows up on attendees’ calendars. A value of Yes also means that the event must have a start time and an end time. You set the start time using the Date field. You set the end time using the End Date field.
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No — Indicates that the event does not show up on attendees’ calendars, and that it does not have start and end times. In this case, the event has only a date, which you set using the Date field.
The Reserve Time field is required, but if you do not include a mapping for this value, the system uses the default, which is Yes. This default does not show up on the Import Assistant mapping page.
Date
The Date field indicates the day an event takes place and, in some cases, the exact time it begins. The behavior of this field varies depending on the value of the Reserve Time field, as follows:
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When Reserve Time is set to Yes, the Date field must include a date with a time. For example: 08/12/2013 09:00 AM. Together these values indicate when the event begins. This value also determines the start of the time reserved on attendees’ calendars.
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When Reserve Time is No, the Date field includes only a date. For example: 08/12/2013. In these cases, if a time is included, it is ignored.
End Date
The End Date field is used to indicate the date and time that the event ends. It also marks the end of the time that is reserved on attendees’ calendars for the event.
The End Date field is used only if Reserve Time is set to Yes, and in these cases the field is required. However, you can omit an End Date column from your CSV file and the system will automatically create end dates and times.
If you do map values for End Date, the date you choose for any event must be the same as the date used in the Date field. The reason is that an event cannot span two days. Further, the End Date column must include both a date and a time. For example: 08/12/2013 10:00 AM.
The values in both the Date and End Date fields must match the NetSuite formatting preference for the person doing the import. For additional tips, see Avoiding Event Date/Time Formatting Errors.
The values for dates and times are not labeled the same way in the Import Assistant as they are in the standard event form in the UI. For a comparison, see How Mapped Event Date Values Display in the UI.
The Import Assistant is available at Setup > Import/Export > Import Tasks > Import CSV Records. After you select the record type for import, you choose the import character encoding. For more information, see Select a Record Type for Import and Choose Import Character Encoding.