def add_nulls_to_vals(columns, vals):
    """Takes a list of columns to be inserted/updated and a value dictionary.  Any columns
    that are not present in the dictionary keys will be added with a None value, translating
    to Null in the db. Used to help input dictionarys

    Args:
        columns (list of str): column names
        vals: (dict of str): keys = column names, values = their values

    Returns:
        dict: where columns not found in vals.keys() are added with a None value
    """
    new_vals = vals.copy()
    new_vals.update({col: None for col in columns if col not in vals})
    return new_vals