# Running Enrichments

Enrichment takes the data you already have (like email addresses or company names) and fetches missing information from trusted data providers. In minutes, your incomplete prospect list becomes a detailed database ready for outreach, analysis, or CRM import.

## What Is Enrichment?

Enrichment connects your data to external information sources. Here is the flow:

1. **You have:** A list of 500 email addresses
2. **You set up:** An Action column that says "use email to find job title"
3. **You run enrichment:** TexAu sends those emails to a data provider
4. **You get:** Job titles populated in seconds

## Set Up Action Columns

Before you can run enrichment, you need Action columns configured. (If you have not done this yet, [learn about column types](understanding-columns.md).)

Quick review:
1. **Create an Action column** (for example, "Job Title")
2. **Choose a data provider** (Apollo, BetterEnrich, FullEnrich, etc.)
3. **Specify what to look up** (for example, "use the Email column to find this information")
4. **Save the column**

Now you are ready to enrich.

> **Already set up?** If your table already has Action columns configured, skip ahead to selecting rows and running enrichment.

## Select Which Rows to Enrich

### Enrich All Rows
- Run enrichment normally and it processes every row

### Enrich Selected Rows
1. **Select the rows** you want to enrich (hold Shift or Ctrl, click row numbers)
2. **Click "Run Enrichment"**
3. **Choose "Selected Rows"** from the options
4. Only those rows are processed

### Enrich Only Empty Cells
Save credits by filling in just the gaps:

1. **Click "Run Enrichment"**
2. **Choose "Only Empty Cells"**
3. TexAu enriches only rows where the target column is empty
4. Rows that already have data are skipped

> **Credit savings:** If you already have job titles for 200 people out of 500, enriching only empty cells saves credits on those 200 lookups.

### Re-Enrich All Rows
1. **Click "Run Enrichment"**
2. **Choose "All Rows (Overwrite)"**
3. Previous results are replaced with fresh lookups

Useful if you have added more context or want to try a different provider.

## Understand Enrichment Progress

### The Progress Dashboard
- **Total rows being enriched**: "Processing 1,250 of 5,000 rows"
- **Rows completed**: Green, with checkmarks
- **Rows in progress**: Blue, animated
- **Rows failed**: Red, with error icons
- **Estimated time**: How long until completion
- **Credits used so far**: Real-time tracking of your credit consumption

### Live Status Updates
Watch each cell's status change in real time:
- **Pending**: Enrichment just started
- **Processing**: Data provider is looking it up
- **Completed**: Data found and populated
- **Failed**: Provider encountered an error
- **Skipped**: Cell already had data or did not meet criteria
- **Not Found**: Provider searched but found no match

### Real-Time Cell Updates
As results come in, your cells update instantly. You see email addresses, job titles, and LinkedIn URLs appear without refreshing.

## The Waterfall Pattern (Automatic Fallbacks)

Waterfall logic ensures you get data even when one provider does not have it.

### How It Works

Set up multiple providers for the same data type:

**Example:**
- Provider 1: Job Title from Apollo
- Provider 2: Job Title from BetterEnrich (fallback)
- Provider 3: Job Title from FullEnrich (final fallback)

When you run enrichment:
1. TexAu tries Apollo first
2. If Apollo finds data, it uses it
3. If Apollo returns empty, it tries BetterEnrich
4. If BetterEnrich is empty, it tries FullEnrich
5. Result: Most rows end up with data from one of the providers

For most enrichment actions, you only pay when data is found. If a provider does not find data, TexAu moves to the next provider. Some actions charge per lookup regardless of result. Check the credit cost in the action configuration panel before running.

### Why This Matters

- **Better coverage**: More rows end up with complete data
- **No single point of failure**: One provider being down does not stop your enrichment
- **Automatic optimization**: Set it up once. TexAu handles the fallback logic.
- **Cost efficiency**: For most enrichment actions, you pay only when data is found. Some actions charge per lookup. Check the credit cost in the action configuration panel.

> **Real-world impact:** Using waterfall logic, you might go from 60% complete data (using one provider) to 85% complete data (using multiple providers with fallback).

## What Happens When Data Is Not Found

### Cell Shows Not Found
- The provider searched but found no matching data
- The cell remains empty
- The row is ready for you to fill in manually or leave blank

### Error Status
- Provider had an issue (API down, rate limit hit, etc.)
- You can re-run enrichment to try again

### Handling Gaps
- **Leave blank**: Sometimes partial data is fine
- **Manual research**: Research a few rows yourself
- **Different provider**: Switch to a different data source
- **Derive from other data**: Use a Formula column to extract information you already have

## Monitor Enrichment Status

### Active Enrichment
While enrichment is running:
- **Pause:** Temporarily stop processing (resume later)
- **Stop:** Cancel the whole enrichment run
- **View logs:** See which rows failed and why

### Completed Enrichment
After enrichment finishes:
- **Summary:** "Successfully enriched 1,200 of 1,250 rows"
- **Error report:** Which rows failed and why
- **Credit report:** How many credits were used
- **Duration:** How long the whole process took

### Check Results
- **Sort by status** to see all failed rows together
- **Filter to failures** to investigate what went wrong
- **Spot-check data** to ensure quality looks good

> **Tip:** Always review a few rows of results before moving on. Spot-check an email enrichment to make sure the data makes sense.

## Stop an Enrichment

1. **Click the Stop button** while enrichment is running
2. **Choose:**
   - **Stop after current batch**: Finish the batch being processed, then stop
   - **Stop immediately**: Halt right now
3. **Completed rows keep their data**: Work done so far is saved

No penalty for stopping. If you realize mid-enrichment that you want to filter your data differently or use different providers, stop and start over.

> **Note:** Credits are only charged for rows that actually completed. You are not charged for rows that had not been enriched yet when you stopped.

## Credit Costs and Usage

### How Credits Work
- For most enrichment actions, you pay only when data is found
- Some actions charge per lookup regardless of result
- Check the credit cost in the action configuration panel before running

### Credit Tracking
- **Before you enrich:** TexAu shows an estimate of credits you will use
- **During enrichment:** Live counter shows credits used so far
- **After enrichment:** Final report of credits used
- **Account dashboard:** View total credits used this month and your remaining balance

### Cost Optimization
Save credits with these strategies:
- **Enrich only empty cells**: Skip rows already populated
- **Filter before enriching**: Enrich only relevant subsets (for example, just new leads)
- **Choose efficient providers**: Some providers cost fewer credits for the same data
- **Set up waterfall**: Use multiple providers so you pay only for the one that finds data

## Re-Run Failed Rows

1. **After enrichment completes**, filter to show only failed rows
2. **Select those rows**
3. **Click "Re-run Enrichment"**
4. TexAu attempts enrichment again on just those rows
5. Often succeeds on the second try (temporary provider issues, rate limiting, etc.)

> **When to re-run:** Usually worth trying once. If rows fail twice, investigate why (bad data, provider cannot find a match, etc.) rather than running indefinitely.

## Enrichment History and Logs

### View History
- Click **Enrichment History** in your table
- See every enrichment run with timestamps
- View which columns were enriched
- See credit usage for each run

### Logs and Details
For each enrichment run:
- **Start time and end time**
- **Total rows processed**
- **Rows succeeded / failed**
- **Total credits used**
- **Failed row details**: Which rows and why they failed
- **Provider information**: Which provider was used

### Troubleshoot from Logs
If something went wrong:
- **Check error messages**: Often they explain what happened
- **Note the pattern**: All failures on a certain provider? Try a fallback.
- **Review your data**: Empty or malformed source data causes failures

## Best Practices for Enrichment

### Before You Enrich
1. **Clean your data**: Remove obvious duplicates and blanks
2. **Verify source columns**: Ensure email/company name columns are populated
3. **Check your balance**: Make sure you have enough credits
4. **Set waterfall fallbacks**: Add multiple providers for better coverage

### During Enrichment
1. **Monitor progress**: At least for the first run, watch it process
2. **Watch for patterns**: If lots of rows fail, stop and investigate
3. **Note credit usage**: Make sure it is in line with your expectations

### After Enrichment
1. **Review results**: Spot-check a few rows
2. **Check error logs**: Understand why failures happened
3. **Assess coverage**: What percentage of rows got enriched?
4. **Plan next steps**: Export? Re-enrich with different provider? Use in CRM?

## Common Enrichment Questions

### "Why did this row fail?"
- Email address typo or does not exist
- Company name is too generic
- Insufficient data to match against the provider's database
- Temporary provider issue

Check the error log for specifics.

### "Why did I get different results this time?"
- Providers' databases constantly update (new people hired, roles changed)
- Different provider used in waterfall
- More context data available now (filled in missing columns since last run)

### "Can I enrich the same column twice?"
Yes, and often you should. Second enrichment sometimes finds data missed the first time. Use "All Rows (Overwrite)" to try again with fresh lookups.

### "Why are some credits charged even for empty results?"
Some actions charge per lookup whether they find data or not. Check the credit cost details in the action configuration panel to understand the pricing model for each provider.

---

**What's Next?**
- Learn how to [export your enriched data](exporting-data.md) for use in other tools
- Explore [understanding columns](understanding-columns.md) to set up more enrichment sources
- See [working with rows](working-with-rows.md) for advanced row management