Incident IQ import

Your Incident IQ data, in three files.

Users, then devices, then tickets. Admin → Import reads the CSV exports as they are.

Start a free 90-day pilot

Free and self-serve, with no onboarding fee. Imports send no email.

Before you start

Export three lists.

In Incident IQ, open the Users, Assets and Tickets lists, show all columns, and export each to CSV.

Show every column

The exports we have seen include only the columns in view. Menu names vary by version.

Keep files under 5 MB

About 20,000 rows. Split a longer history, for example by school year, and import the parts oldest first.

Agree on student data

Email hello@beaconhelpdesk.com before importing real people and we sign a student data privacy agreement, including state model agreements.

In Admin → Import, pick the dataset, choose Incident IQ, drop the file, check the mapped columns and run. The switching guide shows where each export lives.

Step 1

Users.

First, so technicians exist before their tickets arrive.

Columns Beacon recognizes

  • Email, or Username when it holds addresses.
  • First Name and Last Name, or Name.
  • Role or User Type: Agent and Technician become agents, Admin and Administrator admins, Requester stays a requester.
  • Location, Title, Phone.
  • User ID, kept on each person.
  • Status, to skip Inactive, Withdrawn, Graduated and the like.

How rows are matched

  • By email. New people become requesters and existing people keep their role, so a Student or Teacher roster never demotes a technician.
  • A row whose ID and email belong to two people is skipped.
  • Imported accounts have no password. People sign in with Google or Microsoft, or use Forgot password while Email people added by an import is on.

Step 2

Devices.

Second, so devices find their holders and tickets find their devices.

Columns Beacon recognizes

  • Asset Tag and Serial Number.
  • Model Category or Asset Type, created when missing.
  • Model, Manufacturer.
  • Status, in Incident IQ's values: In Service stays In service. Assigned stays Assigned when the holder is in Beacon, otherwise In service with site and room kept. Out of Service becomes In repair, or Retired or Disposed when a Status reason column says so. Lost/Stolen becomes Lost, Storage becomes In storage, Retired stays Retired. Beacon's own names (In repair, In storage, Loaner, Stolen, Disposed) pass through. The Statuses card shows each value and its result, and you can change any for the run.
  • Owner Email, Location, Room.
  • Purchase Date, Warranty Expiration, Purchase Price, Funding Source, Vendor, Notes.
  • Asset ID, kept on the device.

How rows are matched

  • By asset tag, ignoring case, or by serial number if you choose.
  • Owners by email. Unknown ones become requesters while Create requester accounts for unknown owner emails is on, otherwise the device stays unassigned and the address is listed as unmatched.
  • Locations by site name or short code. Unknown ones become new sites while Create sites for unknown locations is on.
  • Unknown statuses are listed as unmatched, not guessed.

Chromebooks also in Google Admin? Connect it after this step: the nightly sync matches imported devices by serial number instead of adding copies. Chromebooks from Google Admin.

Step 3

Tickets.

Last, with original dates, history, and the people and devices above.

Columns Beacon recognizes

  • Ticket Number or Ticket ID, kept on the ticket.
  • Subject, Description, Status, Priority.
  • Issue Category, including Parent > Child names.
  • Requestor Email and Requestor. Assigned To Email or Assigned To.
  • Location, Asset Tag or Serial Number.
  • Created Date, Resolved Date, Closed Date.
  • Tags. Comments or Ticket History, as one internal note titled Imported history.

How rows are matched

  • Requesters by email, created when unknown unless you turn that off.
  • Technicians by email or exact name, never created: an unknown one leaves the ticket unassigned.
  • Categories by name, devices by tag or serial number.
  • Statuses and priorities by their usual names. An unknown status takes the default you pick, an unknown priority your usual default, and both are listed as unmatched.
  • Keep the exported ticket numbers reuses unused numbers above Beacon's last, so sort lowest first. Every ticket also keeps its Incident IQ number or ID, with an iiq-import tag.
  • Resolved tickets older than your auto-close window arrive closed.

Create or rename your categories under Admin first: a re-run does not fill them in afterward. Imported tickets trigger no notifications, automations, SLA clocks or AI triage.

No file needed

Or paste from a spreadsheet.

Tidied it in Google Sheets or Excel? Paste the rows straight in.

Include the header row

Paste the rows, column names included, into Or paste from a spreadsheet on the first step. The box counts them before sending.

A single column works too

Paste a bare list of serial numbers or asset tags as Assets. Beacon asks which it is and creates or updates one device per line.

Same wizard after that

Tab, comma or semicolon separated text is detected. Mapping, options and the 5 MB limit are the same as for a file.

Results and re-runs

Check, fix, run it again.

Imports run in the background and end with a summary.

Counts

Created, updated, skipped and errors, live and at the end. Jobs are listed under Import history, and a running one can be cancelled.

Unmatched values

Categories, technicians, sites, devices and statuses Beacon could not place, with counts, and a download of row errors.

Safe to repeat

Import the same file again after a fix: people and devices update in place, failed rows retry, and tickets already imported are skipped.

No double-paying

Run Beacon free until your term ends.

Up to 12 months, for districts switching from Incident IQ. How the switch works · What you gain and give up.

Questions

Asked before the first import.

In what order should we import?

Users, then devices, then tickets. Tickets keep their technician only when that person is already in Beacon, because an import never creates an assignee, and a ticket links to its device only when the device is already there. Importing users first also means the people your devices and tickets point to arrive with their real names, roles, sites and IDs.

Can we run the same file again?

Yes. Users and devices are updated in place, and a blank device cell never erases what Beacon already has. Tickets whose Incident IQ ticket ID is already in Beacon are skipped and counted as skipped, and rows that failed are tried again. Without a ticket ID column a re-run would create duplicates, and the wizard warns you before you run it.

Will anyone get an email from the import?

No. Admin → Import sends no invitations, and imported tickets send no notifications, run no automations, start no SLA clocks and get no AI triage. To keep the people your files added out of Beacon email afterward too, turn off Email people added by an import under Admin → Settings; they still see notifications in the app. People it covers also get no password-reset email and no ticket email, so leave it on unless they all sign in with Google or Microsoft.

Our users export has no email addresses for students.

The Emails card on the mapping step builds addresses from a column you choose, for example {User ID}@students.yourdistrict.org, for the rows you pick. People whose address was built are matched by their ID on the next import. Or leave students out: with single sign-on, people can be created the first time they sign in, and People from Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra can add them from your directory.

Will our ticket numbers change?

Not if you turn on Keep the exported ticket numbers, map the ticket number column, and import oldest first: sort the export by ticket number, lowest first, and import split files in that order. A number is reused only when it is unused and higher than the last one Beacon assigned, and the counter moves ahead so new tickets keep counting up. Either way, the Incident IQ number or ID you mapped stays on every imported ticket.

What if a category or technician does not match?

The ticket is still imported, with the category or assignee left empty, and the value appears in the unmatched list when the job finishes. A re-run skips tickets already imported, so it does not fill those in afterward: create your categories and bring in your technicians before the ticket import, and set any stragglers on the tickets themselves.

What about attachments?

The Incident IQ CSV exports we have seen do not contain files, so an import brings no attachments. If you need file history, email hello@beaconhelpdesk.com.

Our export is larger than 5 MB.

Each file or paste can be up to 5 MB, about 20,000 rows. Split larger exports, for example by school year, and import the parts one after another, oldest first if you keep the exported ticket numbers.

Do we need a student data privacy agreement first?

Before you import real students and staff, yes: email hello@beaconhelpdesk.com and we sign one, including state model agreements. The pilot's sample data contains no real people, so you can try the product before that.

We are in the middle of an Incident IQ contract.

Districts switching from Incident IQ run Beacon free until the current Incident IQ term ends, up to 12 months, so there is no double-paying.

Get started

Start the pilot, then import users this afternoon.

The full District plan for 90 days. No card, no sales call, no auto-conversion, and migration is free.

Start a free 90-day pilot