Understanding Import Sets in ServiceNow — Step-by-Step Guide

Abhishek_Thakur — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 19:49:22 GMT

When working with data in ServiceNow, there are often situations where we need to import external data—such as user details, assets, or configuration items—into the platform.
This is where Import Sets come into play. Import Sets provide a powerful mechanism to bring external data into ServiceNow.

What are Import Sets?

An Import Set in ServiceNow provide a powerful mechanism to bring external data into ServiceNow.

⚙️ Steps to Work with Import Sets

1️⃣ Data Load

You can import data into ServiceNow from external sources such as Excel, CSV, XML, or via a direct integration.

Navigate to System Import Sets → Load Data.
Choose your data source (e.g., Excel file).
Upload the file and define a staging table where the data will be temporarily stored.

👉 After loading, ServiceNow automatically creates a staging table with the prefix u_ that contains all the imported records.

2️⃣ Create a Transform Map

A Transform Map defines how data moves from the staging table (source) to the target table (destination).
To create a Transform Map:

Navigate to System Import Sets → Create Transform Map.
Select your source table (staging table) and target table (e.g., incident, cmdb_ci_computer, u_employee_details, etc.).

Now, map the fields between the two tables.
You can use either:

Auto Mapping Assist — Automatically maps fields with matching names.
Mapping Assist — Allows you to manually define the mapping for each field.

You can also include Transform Scripts for additional data manipulation during the transformation process.

Note: - Once, field is mapped either via mapping assist or Auto Map Matching Fields at right you observe a "Coalesce" by default the value is false. You can make it to true for any field it defines the uniqueness of the records to prevent from duplicity. In case, for instance, if you need to update some existing data in system, then you can make "Coalesce" for any field and based on that it will serach for the records, if with that uniqueness record found, that it will update the existing record else it will create new record.

3️⃣ Run the Transform

Once the mapping is ready, you can execute the transform to move data from the staging table to the target table.

Click Run Transform.
Review the Transform History to verify if all records were successfully inserted, updated, or ignored.

🧠 Key Concepts

Concept	Description
Staging Table	Temporary table created to hold imported data before transformation.
Target Table	The destination table where the final data is stored.
Transform Map	Defines how fields from the staging table map to the target table.
Coalesce	A feature that ensures no duplicate records are created during transformation.

🪄 Example Scenario

In this demonstration, I imported user data through an Excel sheet into a staging table.
Then, I created a transform map to move the records into a custom target table. Using Auto Mapping Assist and Mapping Assist, I mapped the respective fields and ran the transform successfully to populate my target table with clean data.

💡 Best Practices

Always review imported data in the staging table before transforming.
Use Coalesce on unique fields like "email" or "username" to prevent duplicates.
Test mappings in a development or test environment first.
Regularly clean up old staging tables to maintain system performance.

🎯 Conclusion

Import Sets are an essential feature in ServiceNow for bringing external data into the platform efficiently and securely.
By mastering data loads, transform maps, and field mappings, you can streamline your data migration and integration processes effectively.

📺 Watch the complete video tuttorial: https://youtu.be/seQQhti93WY?si=yIjRol-1bUTgpnsP
Learn visually how to import data from Excel, create transform maps, and perform transformations with mapping assists.

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