Preparing a Contact List
How to format, validate, and upload contact lists for Fonify call campaigns.
Preparing a Contact List
Your contact list is the foundation of any outbound campaign. This guide covers how to format your data, handle phone numbers correctly, and upload it to Fonify.
Supported Formats
Fonify accepts contact lists in the following formats:
| Format | Extension | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CSV | .csv | Comma-separated, UTF-8 encoded |
| Excel | .xlsx | First sheet is used; headers must be in row 1 |
Tip
CSV is the recommended format. It avoids encoding issues and is easier to validate before upload.
Required and Optional Fields
Your file must contain at least a phone number column. All other fields are optional but improve personalization and analytics.
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
phone | Yes | Contact phone number in E.164 or local format |
name | No | Full name of the contact |
email | No | Email address for follow-up actions |
company | No | Company or organization name |
custom_1 through custom_5 | No | Custom fields for variable mapping |
Column headers are matched by name, not position. You can use phone, phone_number, or telefon and Fonify will detect the phone column automatically.
Phone Number Formatting
Fonify normalizes phone numbers during import, but providing clean data reduces errors.
- E.164 format (recommended):
+905551234567,+14155551234 - Local format:
05551234567(Fonify applies the workspace default country code) - With separators:
+90 555 123 45 67(spaces, dashes, and parentheses are stripped)
Numbers missing a country code are assigned the workspace default. If your list contains numbers from multiple countries, always include the country code prefix.
Preparing Your CSV
Open your preferred spreadsheet application. Add column headers in the first row: phone, name, company, and any custom fields you need.
Enter one contact per row. Ensure every row has a valid phone number. Remove any duplicate entries.
phone,name,company,custom_1
+905551234567,Ayse Yilmaz,Acme Corp,Premium
+905559876543,Mehmet Kaya,Beta Ltd,Standard
+14155551234,John Smith,Gamma Inc,EnterpriseCheck for empty phone cells, invalid characters, and duplicates. Save as CSV with UTF-8 encoding to preserve special characters.
Uploading to Fonify
You can upload a list during campaign creation (step 5) or from Contacts > Import.
Click Upload File and select your CSV or Excel file. Fonify previews the first 5 rows so you can verify the data looks correct.
Fonify auto-detects common column names. If a column is not recognized, manually map it using the dropdown selectors. Unmapped columns are ignored.
Fonify validates every row and shows valid, invalid, and duplicate counts. Click Import to add the valid contacts to your campaign or contact group.
Tip
Download the error report to fix invalid entries and re-upload them separately.