You may find yourself in a situation where you are required to update a large quantity of records extracted from a ServiceNow instance, outside of ServiceNow. An important step to completing bulk updates is ensuring you’re updating the correct records. Luckily, ServiceNow already has this problem partially solved for us by making the SysId unique identifier available. The question is: How do you get an export of data that includes the SysID column? You can’t normally add the column to a list view or a report and exporting the data as Excel from the list view does not include it.
The solution is ServiceNow’s Easy Import Process. This will allow you to generate a template that includes the columns you want Plus the SysID column.
Note: This functionality is limited to the Admin role.
- Visit the list you wish to generate a template for and personalize the list view column as desired, and filter the data down to what you need.
- Right-click a column header and select Import
- On the Easy Import screen
- Select Update.
- Ensure Do you want to create an Excel template to enter data? is checked.
- Uncheck Include all fields in the template? to ensure that only your desired columns are included.
- Then click Create Excel template.
It’s as easy as that!
Now you have a template you can share with the requestor. They can then update the fields accordingly, and you can craft a transform map to utilize it (or reimport the data with the import tool by attaching the file under “Step 2,” as pictured above).
