Use our CSV import tool to import or update many profiles at once. View the necessary steps to import a CSV file, as well as provide some troubleshooting tips and accepted fields. If people in your CSV match existing people in your Planning Center account, their information will be updated according to the information in the CSV file.
Check out the video or follow the steps below to import a CSV file.
Organization Administrator information cannot be updated by a CSV import, and importing is available to Managers and Administrators only.
CSV files can be opened in any spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets. Many systems generate CSV files with some unnecessary data in them, so make sure everything looks okay before starting your import.
When you've made changes to the spreadsheet, be sure to export it as a CSV file and not an Excel or Numbers file.
Accepted Default Fields
These default fields already exist in People. You can import all this information by making sure your information is listed as outlined in the Accepted Answers column.
If your Localization setting shows the date format in DD/MM/YYYY, follow that formatting instead of the MM/DD/YYYY.
| Accepted Fields | Accepted Answers |
|---|---|
| Given Name | Any Text |
| First Name | Any Text |
| Nickname | Any Text |
| Middle Name | Any Text |
| Last Name | Any Text |
| Birthdate | any combination of: YYYY-MM-DD MM/DD/YYYY follow the formatting from your Accounts Localization Setting If your person’s record doesn’t have a birth year, use 1885 as the birth year; this shows no age in People |
| Anniversary | any combination of: YYYY-MM-DD MM/DD/YYYY follow the formatting from your Accounts Localization Setting must have Marital Status as Married or Widowed |
|
Medical Notes |
Any Text |
| Household ID | names, numbers, or a combination of both |
| Household Primary Contact | TRUE only include next to Primary Contact; do not include False next to those who aren't |
| Grade | -1 to 12 (where -1 is Pre-K, 0 is Kindergarten) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. not case-sensitive |
| School Type | Elementary, Middle School, High School, College, Other |
| School Name | Must match school names exactly |
| Gender | M/F Male/Female not case-sensitive |
| Child | Y/N Yes/No True/False 1/0 not case-sensitive |
| Barcode | Any Text |
| Status | Active/Inactive |
| Inactive Reason | Moved, New Church, Deceased, Divorced, or custom is case-sensitive |
| Marital Status | Single, Married, Widowed, or custom is case-sensitive |
| Membership | Unassigned, Member, Attender, Guest, Outreach, or custom is case-sensitive |
| Name Prefix | Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Dr, Rev, or custom is case-sensitive |
| Name Suffix | Jr, Sr, Ph.D, I, III, or custom is case-sensitive |
| Background Check Cleared | Y/N Yes/No True/False 1/0 not case-sensitive |
| Background Check Date Completed | any combination of: YYYY-MM-DD MM/DD/YYYY follow the formatting from your Accounts Localization Setting must have Background Check Status entered |
| Background Check Expires On | any combination of: YYYY-MM-DD MM/DD/YYYY follow the formatting from your Accounts Localization Setting |
| Background Check Note | Any Text |
| Home Email | Any Text multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Work Email | Any Text multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Other Email | Any Text multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Home Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Work Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Mobile Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Pager Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Fax Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Skype Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Other Phone Number | any length, with or without dashes multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) |
| Home Address Street Line 1 | Any Text |
| Home Address Street Line 2 | Any Text |
| Home Address City | Any Text |
| Home Address State | abbreviation or full name |
| Home Address Zip Code | Any Text |
| Work Address Street Line 1 | Any Text |
| Work Address Street Line 2 | Any Text |
| Work Address City | Any Text |
| Work Address State | abbreviation or full name |
| Work Address Zip Code | Any Text |
| Other Address Street Line 1 | Any Text |
| Other Address Street Line 2 | Any Text |
| Other Address City | Any Text |
| Other Address State | abbreviation or full name |
| Other Address Zip Code | Any Text |
Anything you put in a field will be imported; in addition, if you leave the field blank, any information already listed in your account will be blank.
If you need to import any information other than what is listed in the Accepted Fields column, first create a custom field and follow the formatting for those fields. If you are importing into a field with multiple options, like multiple check boxes, the responses need to be seperated by a |.
Notes cannot be imported into People Profile Notes. They have to be imported as custom fields.
Households
To import families, each family member needs his or her own profile in the CSV. Link the profiles together using the Household ID column made up of letters or numbers. As long as that ID matches for each member in the family, they will be linked together in a household. A few things to keep in mind:
- Household ID only exists in the current import. Once you process the import, that household ID is not saved in the person's profile.
- Only people in the current file will be affected by the household ID; keep your family members together in the same CSV file.
- As long as everyone is listed on the CSV file, and they all have the same household ID, the household will be updated.
During the preview stage of the import, you will be able to see how many households will be created and how many will be updated. If you select the changes that will be made to the right of the person's name, you will see the household name, who will be made the primary contact, and how many members will be in that household.
Remote ID
Before a new record is imported by CSV, the importer first checks to see if the profile being imported already exists. If we find an existing profile with a matching first name, middle name, last name, and suffix, the importer will update that profile instead of creating a new one. In some scenarios, especially when importing data to Planning Center from another system, this may not be exactly what you need.
In that case, we recommend you use the Remote ID field. The Remote ID is intended for storing a user's ID from another system. When you match a column in your CSV to Remote ID, the normal method of matching rows will be skipped. Instead, the importer will only check for matching remote IDs when deciding if a row in the CSV corresponds to an existing person or is a new record.
The Remote ID column in your CSV file must be named remote_id. The contents of that column must be positive whole numbers, numbers with a decimal won't cooperate.
Names will not be updated on import. If you need to update a name, use a Remote ID field.
Remote IDs cannot be added to existing profiles. If you are importing multiple profiles that already exist in Planning Center, they will need to be merged after the import. The best way to do this is to import basic information, including the Remote ID, and merge the profiles. Upon merging, the profile will take on the Remote ID and can then accept any merges with the Remote ID.
Processing the Import
To import a CSV file, click the gear icon on the People tab, and then click CSV Import/Export.
On the next screen, select Start Import, and then choose your file to upload.
Only import a .csv file; .excel and .numbers files will not import.
Once you've uploaded your file, begin matching the fields from your file with the fields in People.
Matching Fields
Match the columns in your CSV file to the fields in People, so we put the information in the correct place.
- Know which step you've finished (green check), which you're on (green dots) and which steps are next (gray dots).
- Verify the fields match up with the correct column name from an example of what is listed in your CSV file.
- If you do not want to import a particular column, select Not Used.
- If you accidentally uploaded the wrong file or noticed from the examples that you missed some information, replace the CSV with the correct file.
Once you've verified each field, click Preview Import.
Previewing
After you match your fields, you will be given a chance to preview all changes in separate lists. You can see new profiles that will be created or updated, households that will be created or updated, any errors the importer found, and all records that are identical.
- By default, all records in all tabs will be selected to be created or updated. If you do not want to update or create a particular record, uncheck the box next to their name. If you want to skip all the records in a tab, you can select Ignore All.
- You can download a CSV of all the records in a tab. If you have any errors in your file, download the CSV from the Errors list to make adjustments and re-import later. That CSV will help you easily nail down the errors and the incomplete data will not be imported to your account.
Select Finish Import to process your import and either update or create all profiles that were selected.
If you receive an Oops! message, you probably have a blank column header in your CSV file.
Enter a column header or delete the column completely.
If you do not want to import data into a particular field, exclude that column from the CSV. Leaving it blank, adding dashes, or typing N/A in that field will replace the existing data in People with blank information, a dash, or N/A.
Undo the Import
If you have a panic moment and think the CSV file isn't correct, or some of the information from the tabs isn't what you expected, you can undo the import.
Go back to the Data Import & Exports page by going to the People page. Click the gear and then CSV Import/Export.
Scroll to the bottom of the Data Import & Exports page, and then select View Results on the import you want to undo.
Select Undo to undo the import. This will not remove any new profiles that were created during the import; it will only remove information that was updated.
If you want to completely reverse the import (including all the people that were created), you will need to email our support team by clicking the ? in the upper right corner.
Please include the following from your Data Import & Export Page:
- Name of the CSV file
- Date of import
- Time of import
Once you've added people to your database, you can see the statistics of your people from the dashboard.