Adding Contacts from the Dashboard
By selecting Alert Contacts, you are able to set up contacts to receive a variety of alerts to either their phone via SMS text or to their email or both. You can add alert contacts one at a time from the Dashboard.
To add contacts from the dashboard, please follow these instructions:
- In the Dashboard, click on Settings > Alert Contacts
- Click on Add contact
- Enter the name, phone, and email for the contact you want to add
Please note that for the SMS alerts to properly send, please use your international dialing code followed by your phone number.
Example for UK: 440000000000, Example for US: 10000000000

You can enter in as much or as little information as you would like here, but name is required. These contacts will also show up as options to be able to receive the Scheduled Reports if you would like.
- Learn how to set those up here.
- You can learn how to create different Alerts here.
Adding New Contacts via CSV Upload
You might prefer to add multiple contacts at once using our Bulk Contact Upload feature in the dashboard. When adding new contacts, you can start by downloading a Sample Template CSV file that contains each of the columns you will need to fill in. Once you fill in the required information, you can upload the file back to the Samsara Dashboard.
To use the sample template, please follow these instructions:
- In the Dashboard, click on Settings > Alert Contacts
- Click on More Actions > Upload CSV
- Click on Sample Template to download the template

- Open the template in a spreadsheet application, such as Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets
- Fill in the contact data, leaving the ID column blank (see the section below titled Preparing Data for via CSV Upload for more formatting reference)
- Save the file as a .CSV file
- Upload the file back to the Samsara Dashboard (see the section below titled Uploading to the Samsara Dashboard)
Editing Existing Contacts via CSV Upload
You can use the bulk uploader to edit the name, phone, and email of existing contacts. When doing so, you might find it useful to start by downloading your existing Contact List.
To download existing contact data from the Samsara Dashboard, please follow these instructions:
- In the Dashboard, click on Settings > Alert Contacts
- Click on More Actions > Upload CSV
- Click on Contact List to download your existing contact data
- Update the information in the CSV file (see the section below titled Preparing Data for Import via CSV Upload for more formatting reference)
- Upload the file back to the Samsara Dashboard (see the section below titled Uploading to the Samsara Dashboard)
Uploading to the Samsara Dashboard
To upload the file to the Samsara Dashboard, please follow these instructions:
- Back in the Samsara Dashboard, click Upload a file
- Choose the CSV file from your computer, or drag and drop the CSV file into the window
- Click Preview to review the contacts that will be added and/or edited
- Click Confirm to confirm the changes

Preparing Data for CSV Upload
Here are some important things to keep in mind when creating your file:
- The file must be properly formatted CSV file
- The first row of the CSV file is the header row, and you must include it in the file
- The first column of the CSV file is the unique identifier for each alert contact and can be left blank when adding new contacts
- The header row must contain all fields in the table below
- The CSV file must contain no more than 500 rows of data (including one row for the header)
You can use the table below to understand what type of data can be edited with the bulk uploader.
Field
|
Description
|
Example
|
ID (Not Editable)
|
The unique identifier for a contact, can be left blank when adding new contacts
|
C52594
|
First Name
|
The first name of the contact
|
Jane
|
Last Name
|
The last name of the contact
|
Doe
|
Phone
|
The phone number of the contact
|
3605550110
|
Email
|
The email address of the contact
|
email@example.com
|
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