Bulk Upload of Software Entitlements with Multiple Contracts - Supported Format

Shiv Choudhary
Tera Contributor

2 hours ago

Hi Experts,

 

We are implementing Software Asset Management and are currently uploading Software Entitlements through bulk import.

Our requirement is to associate multiple contracts with a single software entitlement.

During our analysis, we found that:

  • Contract records must already exist in the ast_contract table.
  • While performing bulk upload, the upload succeeds when a single contract is provided.
  • However, when multiple contract numbers are entered for the same entitlement (for example, comma-separated values), the import fails with an error.

We would like to understand the following:

  1. Is bulk association of multiple contracts to a single software entitlement supported OOB?
  2. If yes, what is the recommended import file format?
  3. Should contract relationships be loaded through a separate M2M table import instead of the Software Entitlement import template?
  4. Are there any best practices or examples for importing entitlement-to-contract relationships in SAM Pro?

Additional Context:

  • We are working with a large volume of entitlement data and manual contract tagging is not feasible.
  • Our objective is to load entitlement records together with their associated contracts through a scalable bulk-upload approach.

Any guidance, documentation, sample import templates, or implementation recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

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BharatC
Mega Guru

an hour ago

Hello @Shiv Choudhary 

 

Please check followings:

 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/sam-forum/how-the-contract-data-syncs-up-with-the-entitlements/...

 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/sam-forum/how-to-manually-tie-entitlements-to-contract/m-p/3071...

 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/sam-forum/how-to-bulk-import-assets-into-an-existing-maintenanc...

 

To answer your questions directly:
1. Comma-separated contracts in a single entitlement import field is not supported out of the box. The relationship between software entitlements and contracts is stored in a many-to-many table, not as a direct field on the entitlement record. That is why the import fails when multiple values are provided.
2. The recommended approach is a two-stage import:
Stage 1 - Import your software entitlement records as normal using the standard Software Entitlement import template, either with no contract or a single primary contract if needed.
Stage 2 - Import the entitlement-to-contract relationships separately by targeting the many-to-many relationship table directly. In most SAM Pro implementations this is the samp_sw_entitlement_contract table. Confirm the exact table name in your instance by opening a Software Entitlement record and checking the Contracts related list, then right-clicking the list header and selecting Configure to see the underlying table.
3. Your import file for Stage 2 should have one row per relationship, for example:
entitlement_number, contract_number
ENT0001, CON0010
ENT0001, CON0011
ENT0001, CON0012
ENT0002, CON0010
Use a Transform Map on this import set to resolve entitlement and contract values to their sys_ids and create the relationship records.
4. Best practices for this approach:

Always import entitlement records first and confirm they exist before running the relationship import
Use display values such as entitlement number and contract number in your import file and let the Transform Map coerce them to sys_ids using reference field mapping
Run a small test batch of 5 to 10 rows before loading the full volume
Validate results by spot-checking a few entitlement records and confirming the Contracts related list is populated correctly

This pattern scales well for large volumes and is the standard ServiceNow approach for any many-to-many relationship import.

 

 

If this helps, pls click on helpful and accept solution.

Best Regards,

Bharat Chavan

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