Common Errors When Importing Events

This topic describes typical problems you might experience when using the CSV Import Assistant to create or update event records.

Date Field Not in Preferred Format

Sometimes when you click Next on the field mapping page, the system stops you from progressing and displays a dialog stating “Date field not in your preferred date format for field ‘Date.'” This error indicates that at least one cell in the Start or End Date column of the CSV file is not formatted consistently with the NetSuite date format preference of the person doing the import. This preference is viewable at Home > Set Preferences, under the Formatting heading.

For additional guidance, see Avoiding Event Date/Time Formatting Errors.

Mandatory Field Missing for Field Date

Sometimes when you click Next on the field mapping page, the system displays a dialog stating “Mandatory Field Missing for field ‘Date'” or “Mandatory Field Missing for field ‘End Date.'”

Review the column in your CSV file for Date (or End Date), and make sure that all rows have values.

If all records in your CSV file do contain a value for the field, the problem may be that date formatting was inadvertently applied to an empty cell. If you are using Microsoft®Excel, the solution is to highlight the rows below your records, right-click and select Delete > Entire Row. Save your file, and then try the import again.

Parse of Date/Time Failed

Sometimes the Import Assistant lets you complete all the steps of the import process, but the import fails with a reason of “Parse of date/time date time failed with date format format.”

This error can be caused by different problems, including:

• At least one cell in your Date or End Date column is not formatted consistently with the NetSuite date/time format preference of the person doing the import. These preferences are viewable at Home > Set Preferences, under the Formatting heading. For further help, refer to Avoiding Event Date/Time Formatting Errors.

• For one of your records, your CSV file does not include a date in the End Date column, and the system automatically generated an invalid date. To resolve this problem, review your CSV file and make sure every value in the End Date column has a valid date.

Start Time Must Be Earlier Than the End Time

Sometimes the Import Assistant lets you complete all the steps of the import process, but the import fails with a reason of ”Start time must be earlier than the end time.” This error can indicate one of the following problems:

• You mistakenly included an End Date value that is earlier than the Date value.

• Your End Date value includes a date later than the one indicated by the Date value, but the End Date time is earlier in the day than the Date time. For example, you would see this error if your Date value was 11/13/13 5:00 PM and your End Date value was 11/14/13 12:00 PM. Note that an event cannot span two days, so the solution is change both the date and time of the End Date value.

General Notices