---
title: "Workflow for geocoding addresses"
url: "https://kb.retailsonar.com/en/article/workflow-for-geocoding-addresses"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2024-11-04T13:53:47.837Z"
---

# Workflow for geocoding addresses

[What is the geocoder ?](https://kb.retailsonar.com/en/article/geocoder) 

**Step 1**: **Download the excel template.**

**Download the excel template.**

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/5f632dcd-91b3-4b51-b4ef-3c8492234047)  
 

Click on *Download Template* to **download** an excel template for address data sets. **Enter data in the template**. This template has four column headings:

-   **ID**: every row in your excel needs a unique id (optionally)
-   **House number & Street**: name of the street and house number (mandatory)
-   **Postal code**: zip code of the municipality (mandatory if the city field is empty)
-   **City**: name of the municipality (mandatory if the postal code field is empty)

***Important Remark!*** *The Geocoder can only handle one country at the time. For each country, create a separate template.*

***RetailSonar Tip!*** *Before you copy-paste your data to the template file it might be useful to put the whole excel-file in type "text". This way you avoid that data gets transformed to a different data type during copy-paste.*   
 

​​

**Step 2:** **Upload the template with the address data.**

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/5f632dcd-91b3-4b51-b4ef-3c8492234047)

Upload the excel by clicking on the *Upload Excel* button. A pop-up window will appear.

​![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/3f059e07-2826-4a2f-ab1f-f19908ffef43)​

-   Select the **country** for which you want to geocode addresses
-   Browse for the **Excel file** that has the addresses (saved on your computer) 
-   If you want the Geocoder to not only return coordinates (latitude and longitude) but also the code of a zone it belongs to, then select the relevant zone layer to **geoallocate to**.

Click on the *Upload* button to confirm the selection.

***Remark!*** *The max upload of the file is restricted to 1million addresses.*

**Step 3:** **Wait until the geocoding process is finished.**

To verify whether the process is still in progress you can check the **status icon**. An icon with grey moving arrows will appear on the left side of the line and indicates that the geocoding is still in progress.

​![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/36d3ea54-495e-4e38-9d02-a1d563eb73d6)​

A geocoding job is divided over a number of tasks:

-   **Validation** of the format of the excel file (presence of all mandatory column values).
-   **Geocoding subjobs** per batch of 1000 locations
-   Data is exported to the **results Excel file**.

You can check the progress of the geocoding in the **progress column**. The **success rate** is constantly being updated. The success rate is the share of addresses that could successfully be geocoded into coordinates (and a zone if the option was selected).

You can also open the **jobs window** to check progress of the geocoding job. In this window you have the option to **cancel the job** by clicking on the grey cross icon.

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/2ec162e9-ffd1-4dca-91ba-c31f259642e9)

**Step 4:** **Use the results.**

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/b30290a6-0719-453b-96b3-0ed42d31080c)

When the geocoding process is finished the status icon will be **green**, **orange** or **red**. You can now **download the original file** with addresses, **download the file with geocoding results**, or **remove** the entire job row.

-   The **results Excel file** contains the original addresses with the successfully geocoded results on the first sheet. The second sheet contains the addresses that could not be geocoded. 
-   As long as the line is not removed you will be able to download the Excel file and the log file.