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What are imports?

In FirstQuadrant, imports are the primary way to add contacts in bulk to your workspace. While individual contacts can be added manually, imports allow for automated and large-scale contact ingestion—critical for enabling FirstQuadrant’s AI to process and engage with the right leads.

FirstQuadrant only processes and syncs emails for contacts that have been explicitly added to your workspace. Without importing contacts, the platform cannot run enrichment, AI task generation, email syncing, or any other automations tied to contact data.

To access your import overview:

  1. Click Imports from the sidebar on the lower left, right above Settings.
  2. This brings you to the Import Overview page, where all active, completed, and draft imports are listed.

Each row in the list shows:

  • Name of the import
  • Status: Draft, Running, or Completed

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Import statuses explained

An import can be in one of three states:

  • Draft: The import setup has started but has not yet been run. No contacts have been imported.
  • Running: The import is in progress. This status appears in two scenarios:
    • The import is set up as recurring (e.g. CSV uploads or prospecting set to run periodically).
    • The import source is continuous (e.g. Webhooks, API, or connected third-party apps continuously feeding new data).
  • Completed: The import has fully run and all intended contacts were successfully added.

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Import methods

When creating a new import (via the New import button on the top right), you can choose from four options:

  1. Prospect – Source new contacts directly from FirstQuadrant’s prospecting database (95M+ profiles).
  2. Upload – Upload a CSV file with your contact list.
  3. Webhooks – Import contacts programmatically using the FirstQuadrant API.
  4. Apps – Use integrations (e.g. Zapier) to import contacts from 7000+ third-party apps.

Each method serves different workflows and levels of automation. Individual guides for each are provided in separate helpdesk articles.

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Why imports matter

Info: FirstQuadrant’s AI processing, email syncing, enrichment, and task generation only apply to contacts that have been explicitly imported into your workspace. Simply viewing or mentioning a contact elsewhere won’t activate these features.

By properly setting up imports, you ensure that:

  • Your AI workflows have high-quality data to act on.
  • Your outreach, nurturing, and fine-tuning campaigns target the right audiences.
  • You don’t waste AI credits or attention on irrelevant contacts.