When importing membership data into ACME from your CRM, certain memberships may trigger the error message: "This membership number already exists in ACME with a different Import ID so the membership number update was blocked." This indicates that the import was unsuccessful due to IDs in the import file not aligning with the IDs currently associated to the membership in ACME. In particular, ACME is validating the following IDs:

  • Membership ID
  • Membership Import ID
  • Customer ID
  • Customer Import ID

Most commonly, this issue occurs when a membership has been merged in your CRM and has adopted new import IDs, causing ACME and the CRM's data to be misaligned. 

When this occurs, there are two approaches to resolving this issue. One is a temporary workaround involving a manual edit to get the data in, whereas the second is a more holistic fix that will prevent the need for any manual adjustments moving forward. Depending on the timeline to implement a mapping update, you may choose to employ the temporary method on a short-term basis until the new updates can be completed.


Temporary Workaround: Manually update the IDs in your import files 

Manually replacing the IDs pulled from your CRM with the values is ACME is expecting will allow you to successfully import the membership into ACME. That said, any subsequent imports from your CRM would also then require this manual process to successfully make it into ACME.


Long-term Solution: Adding Alias and Attribute fields to your Import Mapping

Add Alias and Attribute fields to your Import Mapping will allow ACME to accept the provided IDs from your CRM, even if they differ from what is currently in ACME. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Create two membership attribute fields in Raiser's Edge for your Membership ID and Membership Import ID.
    • For example, "ME_AttDesc_1" and "ME_AttDesc_2"
  2. Create two customer alias fields in Raiser's Edge for your Customer ID and Customer Import ID.
    • For example, "CnAls_1_01_Alias" and "CnAls_1_02_Alias"
  3. Update import mapping table in ACME to read both "mem_membership_id" and "ME_AttDesc_1" as valid data points for a Membership ID, and read both "mem_import_id" and "ME_AttDesc_2" as valid data points for a Membership Import ID.
    • For example, in the from column you can add: 
      • #acmeUtil.coalesce(ME_AttDesc_1, mem_membership_id) pointed to Membership ID
      • #acmeUtil.coalesce(ME_AttDesc_2 mem_import_id) pointed to Membership Import ID
  4. Repeat step 3 using the customer alias fields you created in step 2.
  5. Update membership export file in RE to include newly created alias and attribute fields.
  6. Send sample export files to support@acmeticketing.com so we can see new headers for validation.

More details about our recommended and required fields can be found in our Raiser's Edge Export Guide.