Mass upload leads - should they automatically link to accounts?

[onders]

Good evening everyone - I'm new here, and have spent the last week installing Sugar CRM and going through all the tutorials, and am very excited by the massive functionality of the software!

I've got a query - and can't seem to find an answer to it anywhere, so hoping you can help.

If I mass upload leads - will these automatically be assigned to accounts, if the "account" field is filled in with the corresponding account name? I can't get this to work, and wonder if it should, and if so, how does Sugar deal with account names that are slightly different (potentially mis-spellings)

Main thing though - should this work at all?

Many thanks for your time

[onders]

Sorry - I'm going to try and clarify my question a bit..

If I have new data for people who I intend to "hit" with a sales approach - the first thing I'll do is input their data as a "lead".

Now - if I have around 500 leads, my sales approach may be something like the following

a) Send them all a group email (obviously individually but same template) with an introductory sales pitch

If I did this using my own email software, how would the best way be of updating all 500 leads to reflect that I've sent them all a mail. Can I mass update by setting up a campaign, or is there a better way?

b) If 200 out of the 500 reply, I'd want to input this data as well.. I'm assuming that another mass upload would be the best way - is that correct? Again.. is that possible to put down as an activity, or to change the status of these 200 from "new" to "in process"?

Thanks for your time..