Import a CSV File in People

Updated September 24, 2024 20:10

If you want to transfer your church’s people information into Planning Center, upload it in bulk! Export your data as a Comma Separated Value (.csv or CSV) file from your existing database or favorite spreadsheet program. CSV files can be opened and edited in any spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.

Check out this Planning Center University video to see how it works!

Tip

Only profile information can be imported into Planning Center. If you want other data in your Planning Center database, use the following options:

Giving history: use a third-party integration
Attendance history: add previous sessions and enter attendance manually
Notes: use a third-party integration
Groups: create a custom field to store groups from a previous database, create lists based on that custom field, and use bulk actions to add them to a group

Format Your CSV File

You should have the option to export a CSV file from your current database. Many systems generate CSV files in different ways, so check out the following tips to make sure your data is ready to be loaded into Planning Center:

Name your CSV file's column headers the same as the default fields in Planning Center. Download the sample CSV file to see how to set up your CSV file.
If you’re new to Planning Center, learn about households and names to see how they're used throughout Planning Center products. This will help you decide how to best structure your CSV file to translate well into Planning Center's structure.
Delete any fully blank columns or rows.
Delete any columns you don't want to import.
If you have more than 100,000 individual cells in your import, break the data up into separate CSV files and import each one individually. When breaking up your CSV into multiple files, make sure members of a household are kept together in the same file.
To import addresses in specific formats, change the format in the CSV columns before importing.

Check out the accepted default fields, along with the formatting requirements below!

Default Fields

These default fields already exist in People and cannot be renamed. Make sure the column names in your CSV file match the fields listed below.

Name Fields

The importer will match profiles based on name fields (first, middle, last, suffix) unless you use a Remote ID.

Default Fields	Accepted Answers
First Name	Any text
Last Name
Given Name
Middle Name
Nickname
Name Prefix	Must match prefix names exactly
Name Suffix	Must match suffix names exactly
Household ID	Names, numbers (up to 9 digits), 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

Household ID

To create households, add a Household ID for each person. Add the same characters to a Household ID column for each household member. As long as that ID matches each household member, and the whole household is in the same import, they will be linked together in a household.

During the preview stage of the import, you will be able to see created and updated households. Select the changes that will be made to see the household name, primary contact, and household members.

The Household ID is not saved to the profile; it only exists in the current import, so keep your household members together in the same CSV file. If you want to save the Household ID number to reference it later, create a custom field with a different name and duplicate the Household ID column with that name.

Tip

If you're using numbers for the Household ID, you can only use up to 9 digits.

Contact Info

If importing an address, you must include all the fields. If a field is left blank in the CSV file, you can choose for it to overwrite the current address with a blank field or ignore the field entirely.

Default Fields	Accepted Answers
Home Email	Any text multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;)
Work Email
Other Email
Home Phone Number	Any length, with or without dashes (formatted to your preference) multiples can be separated by a semicolon (;) *Mobile phone carriers cannot be imported.
Work Phone Number
Mobile Phone Number*
Other Phone Number
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
Home Address Country Code	2-letter country codes
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
Work Address Country Code	2-letter country codes
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
Other Address Country Code	2-letter country codes

Background Checks

To create background checks with an import, a column for Background Check Cleared with an accepted answer is required. If the other background check columns are not included in your CSV, you will create background checks with partial data.

Background checks must be manually deleted.

Default Fields	Accepted Answers
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 Cleared 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

Other

Default Fields	Accepted Answers
Birthdate	Any combination of: YYYY-MM-DD MM/DD/YYYY follow the formatting from your Accounts Localization Setting If the person doesn’t have a birth year, use 1885; 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
Grade	-1 to 12 (where -1 is Pre-K, 0 is Kindergarten) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. not case-sensitive
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 Notice Barcodes must be manually deleted; they cannot be overwritten by an import. If you import a barcode, it will just be added to the profile.
Campus	Must match campus names exactly
Status	Active/Inactive
Inactive Reason	Moved, New Church, Deceased, Divorced, or custom is case-sensitive
Inactive Date	Any combination of: YYYY-MM-DD MM/DD/YYYY follow the formatting from your Accounts Localization Setting
Marital Status	Single, Married, Widowed, or custom is case-sensitive
Membership	Must match Membership Type exactly

Don't See a Field You Need?

If you don't see a field above that matches some of the data you're trying to import, create them as custom fields before importing your file!

Here are some tips for importing into custom fields:

Give your custom field a unique name. If you re-use a default field name, the data will be imported into the default field.
If you import multiple items into a checkboxes field, separate the responses by a "|" character.
Set the column to be the name of the field, not the name of the tab.

Match Existing Profiles

A Remote ID is a unique identifier that allows you to update a profile with future imports, without relying on name fields. Add Remote IDs to new profiles when importing, or if you already have profiles in Planning Center, use Remote IDs to improve accuracy and decrease the chances of duplicate profiles.

Using Remote IDs

When a Remote ID is added to a profile, future imports with a matching Remote ID will automatically update the correct profile.
You can add a Remote ID to an existing profile if that profile has an email address and the name and email fields match exactly with the information in your CSV.

Important

If the profile does not have an email address, a duplicate will be created and will need to be merged in the duplicate detector or manually.

The Remote ID column in your CSV file must be named remote_id, and the contents of that column must be positive whole numbers.
Some database providers include an Individual ID in their exported CSVs. If this is unique for each person in your CSV, you can repurpose that column by changing it to remote_id before importing.
Planning Center exports include a Person ID that is unique for each profile. You can repurpose that column by changing it to remote_id before importing.
If you want to save the Remote ID to a profile so that you can view it, create a custom field. Duplicate the column in your CSV and rename the new column to match your custom field name.
Remote IDs do not show up anywhere on a profile, but they are visible in exports.

Matching by Name

If you're not using Remote IDs, always keep the main Name Fields (First, Middle, Last, and Suffix) and the column names to match them when you import. This ensures that your import updates the correct profiles.

Upload the File

A manager or administrator can upload the CSV file by selecting the gear icon on the People tab, and then by selecting CSV Import/Export.

On the next screen, select Start Import and choose your file to upload.

Caution

Information about an organization administrator cannot be updated by a CSV import.

Match Fields

If you didn't use the default fields, you can still match the columns in your CSV file to fields in People. This helps the importer put information in the correct place.

Compare the Planning Center Field column with the CSV Column Names to make sure they match with what you want to be imported into those fields.
If you have columns in your CSV file that you don't want to import, select Not Used. Any field marked as such will not be imported.
If you accidentally uploaded the wrong file or noticed from the examples that you missed some information, replace the CSV with the correct file.

Tip

Check the box to remove any existing data from a profile if the CSV field is blank. Leave the box unchecked if you want to ignore blank fields and keep the existing data.

Once you've verified each field, select Preview Import at the bottom of the page.

Preview Data

View new or updated profiles and households, errors the importer found, and all identical records. Review over few profiles to make sure the data is getting imported into the expected fields. If you do not want to update or create a particular person, uncheck the box next to their name.

If you have any errors in your file, go to the Errors tab, and then select Download CSV at the bottom of the page to make adjustments to those profiles. Uncheck the errored profiles and finish this import, and then fix the errors in the file you exported and re-import that file.

Select Finish Import to process your import and either update or create all selected profiles.

Import Errors

If you receive an error message at any part of the import process, it means you have formatted something incorrectly or excluded required information from your CSV file. Here are the errors you might get and the solutions to fix them.

Error Message	Explanation	Solution
*Oops!*We were unable to process the CSV file you provided. Could not read CSV file. Attribs can't be blank.	This error usually means one of 3 things: There is a blank column header in your CSV file. There is a line break on a column header. The CSV file is delimited by a semicolon or other character rather than a comma.	Enter a column header or delete the column completely. Column headers must be on only one line. Delete any extra rows that are part of the column header. Change the delimiter to a comma in your spreadsheet program's settings.
First and Last name fields must be selected.	You did not match any of your columns to the first name and last name fields during the matching phase of the import.	Restart the import, making sure you match the appropriate columns to the first name and last name fields.
No profiles matched this Remote ID and a new profile couldn't be created because a similar profile with a different Remote ID already exists.	A profile in your database has the exact same first name, middle name, last name, suffix, and email address as the row in your CSV file, but the Remote ID's do not match.	Make sure that person in your CSV file has the same remote ID as their existing profile.
Email address has invalid formatting.	The person's email address in your CSV file is formatted incorrectly.	Make sure the email address in your CSV file is formatted correctly.
For security, an Organization Administrator's profile can not be updated via CSV update.	Organization administrators cannot be updated via imports.	Update that organization administrator's profile manually. The importer will skip over this profile.

Undo the Import

If there are any errors in the import that you missed in the Preview step, you can undo the import up to 48 hours after you imported it.

Danger

If you have merged any profiles from the import, do not undo the import. Undoing the import can completely delete the merged person from your database, removing any scheduled positions, registered events, donations, etc.

Undoing an import will have the following side effects:

If a profile was created by the import, it will be deleted.
If a profile was created by the import and then chosen as the primary when merging with an existing profile, the profile will be deleted.
If two existing profiles were updated by the import, and then merged, any information imported for either profile from the merge will be reverted.
If the profiles created during the import were given admin permissions, anything assigned will be unassigned, such as groups, lists, workflows, teams, etc.
If a data field was untouched by the import, the data will remain untouched.
If the import changed a field, but you manually change the same field after the import, it will revert to what it was before.

To undo an import, use the gear icon on the right of the People tab and select Import/Export CSV from the dropdown.

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 remove anything created or updated by the information in the import.

You can continue updating the people you've added by importing other CSV files with information.

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