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Salesforce‘s Data Import Wizard is extremely picky about date formats, often requiring specific MM/DD/YYYY format and failing with cryptic error messages when Excel dates don’t match exactly. Regional date format differences make this even more problematic.
Here’s how to standardize date formats and avoid date-related import failures.
Standardize and validate date formats using Coefficient
Coefficientprovides more flexible date format recognition and preview validation that shows exactly how dates will be interpreted before import. This prevents format errors and eliminates the guesswork around date formatting requirements.
How to make it work
Step 1. Import Excel data into Google Sheets for date standardization.
Upload your Excel file to Google Sheets where dates may display in various formats. Google Sheets provides better date manipulation functions than working directly with Excel files in the import wizard.
Step 2. Use Google Sheets functions to standardize date formats.
Apply the TEXT function to standardize formats: TEXT(date_cell, “MM/DD/YYYY”) for US format or TEXT(date_cell, “YYYY-MM-DD”) for ISO format. This ensures consistent formatting across all date fields.
Step 3. Validate all date cells contain actual date values.
Use Google Sheets functions like ISDATE() to identify cells that contain text strings that look like dates but aren’t recognized as actual date values. Convert these to proper date formats before import.
Step 4. Configure Coefficient field mapping for date fields.
SalesforceConnect Coefficient toand map your standardized date columns to the appropriate Salesforce date fields. Coefficient recognizes date field types and handles formatting more gracefully than the Data Import Wizard.
Step 5. Preview to confirm date interpretation is correct.
Run Coefficient’s preview function to see exactly how your dates will be interpreted in Salesforce. This shows you any remaining date format issues and confirms that all dates will import correctly.
Import dates without format failures
Use CoefficientDate standardization with preview validation eliminates the repeated failures common with Data Import Wizard date formatting issues. You’ll know your dates are formatted correctly before you import.to handle Excel date formatting reliably.
