How do State or Local LIHEAP Administrating Agencies upload households to the Connector?
Both the State LIHEAP administrating agency and Local LIHEAP administrators have the ability to upload household information to the Connector. The state may decide to consolidate household information and perform the upload on behalf of the local agencies. The state alternatively may request that the local agencies directly upload interested household to the Connector. Only households who have given consent to being included on the Connector and contacted by a verified subscription management organization should be uploaded to the Connector.
The upload process is the same for both user types. There are three ways that households can be uploaded:
1. Manual Entry: Manual entry is a simple way to enter a household’s data into the Connector and is a convenient option if you do not have a large quantity of households to upload.
Click "Create a New Household"
Fill in the household’s information for the required and optional fields provided, then click save. Required fields include name, phone number, address, preferred contact method, utility service provider, and utility service account identifier. Here, you'll also have the option to add household priority characteristics. Clicking on “Prioritization Factors” will prompt a drop- down menu, where you can check the applicable fields.
2. CSV File Upload: The Connector provides a CSV file template to allow for the bulk upload of household information. This file can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or similar programs. This option allows for multiple interested households to be uploaded to the Connector at one time.
Click "Batch Household Administration" at the top of the dashboard.
Download the template. The template contains all required and optional household data fields that can be input for upload in the Connector. Optional fields do not need to be filled in for the file to successfully upload household data. Note that the template comes pre-filled with helpful notes and information that the user needs to delete before entering your data, or they will receive an error when uploading the file.
The template looks like the document below. It comes pre-filled with helpful notes for each data field explaining what the expected values are and whether the field is optional or not. Delete the notes before entering new household information. When deleting the notes, be sure to leave the first row, as these are the column headers.
Depending on your state, the number of columns that appear on your template may look different than this example. Columns M-T are used to indicate the presence of a household prioritization characteristic. Your state may choose not to track one or more of these factors. Prioritization characteristics that your state chooses not to track will not appear on your CSV template.
After entering new household data, save the file, then you can either drag and drop the file into the Connector, or you can click “Process CSV File” and select the spreadsheet containing your household data from your local files.
The Connector will analyze the data and add the households to your list. All the data must match the expected values provided in the template.
CSV Helpful Information
To aid you in formatting and uploading your CSV file, there is a drop-down tab on the Batch Administration page that contains commonly asked questions related to CSV files.
To view this tab, click the arrow on the right side of the screen.
Troubleshooting CSV Upload Errors
If the Connector identifies an error in your file, you must input the correct value before completing the upload. If you receive an error and need support solving it, please contact us for support.
In the example with an error below, the name of the LIHEAP agency in the CSV file does not match the name of the LIHEAP agency performing the upload. This data needs to match for verification purposes, and if it does not, the file will be rejected. To fix this, the organization name needs to match how it is listed on the Connector for the organization’s account and in the CSV file.
In the image below, you can see the file that was uploaded includes an error in row 2 column N. The name of the LIHEAP agency adding this household is written as “"Connector Tutorial”. This caused the file to be rejected because the name “Connector Tutorial” does not match the name of the LIHEAP Agency performing the upload, which in this case is “Example LIHEAP Agency".
After correcting your error, save the file to your device again, then re-upload the data. Click “Submit” to add the household(s) to your list.
3. Application Programming Interface (API)
An API allows two different software platforms to communicate with one another. So, if you have technical resources on your team (specifically a software developer), and you are already using a system to track households enrolling in LIHEAP, you can use the API to link the two systems and enable automatic household uploads.