How do I format my spreadsheet for importing members?

⚠️ Just a heads up: 

The key to a successful import is formatting your spreadsheet properly! If you have our regular Flocknote subscription, please be sure to check out the first part of this guide -- we promise it's super simple. If you also have Flocknote People (our optional add-on subscription) enabled, make sure to look through the second half of this guide for added info on importing those custom fields (address, birthday, gender, etc.) you've set up + bulk organizing by households. 

Click here to download an easy + free import template! Then, read on to learn how to fill it out. 

To import with Flocknote: 

You'll need either a .csv or .xls file, and the only columns that should be on the spreadsheet include: 

  • Name (you can either have a separate column for first and last name, or you can keep full names in one column)
  • Email address...
  •  ...and/or phone number. 

Easy peasy!

Please note: Each member can only be imported with one unique phone number and/or one unique email address. This means that two members cannot be added with the same phone number/email address. Also, there cannot be several columns for "Phone Number 1" and "Phone Number 2". If you need to add members that have multiple phone numbers, for instance, you'll want to enter them as two separate line items as if they are two separate members (this will count as 2 additions to your total member count). If you do not have any contact info for the member, you can still import them and they will still count as a member with just their name (like Ricky Jr. ↑). 

To import members with Flocknote People added:

First, you'll want to be sure that you've set up custom profile fields for your groups. Click HERE to learn how to set those up. Then, you'll need either a .csv or .xls file, and the only columns that should be on the spreadsheet include: 

  • Name (you can either have a separate column for first and last name, or you can keep full names in one column)
  • Email address...
  • ...and/or phone number
  • Plus any additional information (like birthday, date of baptism, occupation, t-shirt size, coffee order, mailing address...the sky is the limit!) you'd like to track using custom profile fields, each in a separate column. 
  • Plus the External Household ID if you want to organize by households. 

A note about importing households: You can organize and bulk import households by a unique External Household ID that you assign. When importing, please be sure to note this ID # as a separate column. The "head of household" defaults to whoever is on the spreadsheet first for each household. For example, Ricky, Fred, and Carolyn would be the heads of their households based on the spreadsheet above ↑. 

🎉 NEW! Now you can export Flocknote IDs for each member!

Why's that important, you ask? Since the Flocknote system recognizes members by their email address and/or phone number, a member without any contact info (like children, for example) was previously hard to import and update with all the added custom field data. But now, when you export your members, we'll auto-assign each person a Flocknote ID so that you can update the spreadsheet/ add various custom fields, and then import it back in. The system will recognize the member by their Flocknote ID regardless of if they have contact info on file or not. Woohoo!  

Check out the articles at the bottom of the page for further help on the importing process. As always, you can email your friendly Happiness Engineers at help@flocknote.com if you'd like us to take a peek at your spreadsheet and make sure everything looks A-OK before importing.

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