Everything you need to import like a pro

1. Getting started

From zero to your first import in about five minutes. You'll create an organization, connect your Bonzo account once, and move your first contacts on the free trial.

1. Create your account. Go to Start free, enter your email, and set a password. No credit card is required to sign up or to use the free trial.
2. Create your organization. Your organization is the shared workspace for your company — it holds the Bonzo connection, your team, your import history, and your passes. The person who creates it becomes the Owner. You only do this once; teammates join the same organization by invitation.
3. Connect Bonzo. Open Settings → Bonzo and paste your Bonzo API key. This connects PipeDrop to your Bonzo account for the whole organization, so your team doesn't each need their own key. (Full steps in section 2.)
4. Start your free trial. Every new organization gets one free trial — import up to 100 leads with 24 hours of access, once, no card needed. This is the perfect way to confirm a clean end-to-end import before buying a pass.
5. Run your first import. Go to Import, drop in a CSV or Excel file, confirm the auto-detected column mapping, pick a pipeline and stage, preview, and import. (Full steps in section 4.)
6. Check the results. PipeDrop tells you how many contacts were created, how many duplicates were skipped or moved, and whether any rows failed — and you can re-run just the failed rows.

2. Connecting Bonzo

PipeDrop works on top of your own Bonzo account. You connect it once with an API key, and that connection is shared by everyone in your organization.

Where to find your Bonzo API key

1. Log in to Bonzo in a separate tab.
2. Open your account Settings.
3. Find the API section (Settings → API).
4. Generate a new API key (or copy an existing one).
5. Copy the key to your clipboard.

Paste it into PipeDrop

1. In PipeDrop, open Settings → Bonzo (or paste it during onboarding when prompted).
2. Paste the key and save. PipeDrop immediately validates it by reading your pipelines, so you'll know right away if it worked.

Only Owners and Admins can connect or change the Bonzo key. If yours stops working, generate a fresh key in Bonzo and paste the new one in Settings → Bonzo. More on security in section 11.

3. Preparing your file

A little spreadsheet hygiene means a clean import. PipeDrop is forgiving and auto-detects most columns, but the tips below help every row land correctly.

Supported formats

CSV (.csv) and Excel (.xlsx, .xls). One file per import.

⬇ Download a sample CSV — a ready-made template with the right headers you can open, replace with your contacts, and import.

File structure

• One header row at the top. The first row should hold column names (e.g. First Name, Phone, Email). PipeDrop reads these names to auto-detect what each column is.
• One contact per row. Each row below the header becomes a single Bonzo contact.

Columns that auto-map

PipeDrop automatically recognizes these fields by their header names. You'll always get to confirm or correct the mapping before importing.

Tips for a clean import

• Clean your phone numbers. Any format is fine (PipeDrop matches on the last 10 digits), but consistent numbers make duplicate detection more reliable.
• Check your emails. Remove obvious typos and empty placeholder values. Email is a key field for matching duplicates.
• Split names into first and last where you can — PipeDrop maps them as separate fields.
• Map extras to custom fields. Anything beyond the standard fields (lead source, loan amount, agent, etc.) can go into one of up to 5 custom fields.
• Remove fully blank rows to keep your counts accurate.

How duplicates are detected

PipeDrop checks each uploaded contact against the contacts already in your Bonzo account. A row is considered a duplicate when its phone number matches on the last 10 digits, or its email matches, an existing Bonzo contact. You decide what happens to duplicates at import time — skip them, or move them to your chosen stage (see section 4).

4. Running an import

The core workflow. Once your file is ready and Bonzo is connected, an import takes under a minute.

1. Upload your file. On the Import screen, drag in (or browse to) your CSV / .xlsx / .xls file.
2. Confirm the column mapping. PipeDrop auto-detects your columns and shows you its best guess for each field. Review it, fix anything that's off, and assign any leftover columns to custom fields. Anything you leave unmapped is simply ignored.
3. Pick a pipeline and stage. Choose which Bonzo pipeline to import into, then the exact stage where every new contact should land.
4. Choose how duplicates are handled. For contacts already in your Bonzo account, pick one:
   • Skip — leave existing contacts untouched and only create the new ones.
   • Move — move the existing contacts to the stage you selected.
5. Preview. PipeDrop shows you a summary before anything is written: how many contacts will be created, how many are duplicates, and how they'll be handled.
6. Import. Confirm, and PipeDrop creates and places every contact in Bonzo.
7. Read the results. When it finishes you get a clear breakdown — created, duplicates skipped or moved, and any rows that failed.
8. Re-run failed rows. If a handful of rows fail (for example, a malformed value), you can re-run just those failed rows after fixing them, without re-importing the whole file.

5. The net-new finder

Before importing, find out exactly which contacts in your file are not already in Bonzo — so you can import (or download) just the genuinely new ones.

What it does

It scans your existing Bonzo contacts to build a phone-and-email index, then compares your uploaded CSV against that index. Anything that matches an existing contact is filtered out, leaving only the net-new rows.

How to use it

1. Choose what to scan. Build the index from:
   • Specific pipelines — only the pipelines you select
   • Everyone — all contacts in your Bonzo account
   • Specific assignees — only contacts owned by the people you pick
2. Upload your CSV to compare against the index.
3. Review the net-new results — the contacts that don't match anyone already in Bonzo.
4. Download or import. Either download the net-new contacts as a clean CSV, or import only those net-new rows directly into a pipeline stage.

Matching uses the same logic as imports: the last 10 digits of the phone, or the email. Narrowing the scan (by pipeline or assignee) makes it faster and more targeted than scanning everyone.

6. Templates

If you import the same kind of list over and over, save your column mapping once and reuse it.

• Save a mapping. After you've mapped the columns on an import, save it as a named template.
• Reuse it. Next time you upload a file with the same layout, apply the template and your columns map in one click instead of re-matching by hand.
• Great for recurring exports from the same source system that always come out in the same format.

7. Scheduled imports

Keep a pipeline stage continuously fed without lifting a finger. Point PipeDrop at a live spreadsheet and it imports new rows on a cadence.

Set it up

1. Publish a source. Use a Google Sheet published as CSV, or any public CSV URL. (In Google Sheets: File → Share → Publish to web, choose the tab, and select the CSV format — then copy that link.)
2. Add the schedule in PipeDrop and paste the CSV link.
3. Map columns and pick the target stage, just like a normal import — including how duplicates are handled.
4. Choose a cadence — hourly, daily, or weekly. PipeDrop checks the source on that schedule and imports anything new.

How dedup works

Each schedule keeps a ledger of rows it has already imported, so the same row is never imported twice — even if it stays in the sheet. New rows added to the source get picked up on the next run; existing rows are ignored. This is on top of the normal Bonzo duplicate handling.

8. Exporting

Need your contacts back out of Bonzo? Pull any pipeline stage to a clean CSV.

• Choose the pipeline and stage you want to export.
• PipeDrop pulls every contact in that stage and gives you a tidy CSV download.
• Use it for backups, reporting, handing a list to a teammate, or feeding another tool.

9. Team & roles

Invite your whole team into one organization. Everyone shares the same Bonzo connection, passes, and import history — with permissions that match each person's job.

Roles

Inviting people

• Invite by email from your team settings and pick the role.
• Invitees get a link/email to join your organization.
• Once they accept, they share your organization's Bonzo connection and passes — no separate key or billing per person.

10. Passes & billing

PipeDrop has no subscription. You buy a one-time 24-hour access pass when you need to import, and it's good up to its lead cap. See full pricing on the pricing page.

The free trial

Every organization gets one free trial: import up to 100 leads with 24 hours of access, once, with no card required. Perfect for a first end-to-end test.

The four passes

How it works

• A pass grants 24 hours of access, up to its lead cap.
• "Leads" = the contacts you import. That's how usage is counted against a pass.
• Passes stack. Buy more anytime — the remaining leads add up, and PipeDrop uses them oldest-first.
• It's a one-time charge every time, never a recurring subscription.
• Without an active pass, the import, dedupe, export, and scheduling tools are locked behind a buy-a-pass prompt. Viewing and configuring PipeDrop stays free.

11. Security & privacy

Your Bonzo key and your contacts are yours. Here's how we protect them.

• Your Bonzo key is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, and is never shared with anyone or any other organization.
• Everything is served over HTTPS.
• No card data is ever handled in-app — payments go through Stripe's hosted checkout.
• Your data is never sold, and the contacts you upload are never used for advertising.

For the full details, read our Privacy Policy and Terms.

12. More help

Didn't find your answer here?

• Browse the FAQ for quick answers to common questions.
• Check pricing for pass details and the free trial.
• Email us at info@ethanwood.org — tell us what you were trying to do and what happened, and we'll get you unstuck.