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Import employees from CSV

Drop a CSV or Excel file in, map the columns, import. Every row needs an employee ID, a first name, and a last name. Everything else is optional.

What we accept

A CSV, TSV, or Excel (.xlsx) file with a header row. Three columns are required: an employee ID, a first name, and a last name. Employee IDs can use letters, digits, dots, hyphens, and underscores, up to 50 characters. Rows missing any of the three are skipped, and the preview tells you which ones and why.

Headers we match automatically (case doesn’t matter):

Employee ID (required): employee_id, Employee ID, Emp ID, File Number, Associate ID, Badge Number. Printed on the card and used for barcodes. A column named just IDisn’t matched automatically; pick it by hand in the mapping step.
First and last name (required): first_name, last_name, Given Name, Surname.
preferred_name, nickname: printed instead of the legal first name.
position, title, job title, role: all map to the Position field.
department, dept, team, division: map to Department. New departments are created for you.
Department Code, Dept Code, Cost Center: saved on new departments for reference.
school_year, grade, cohort, class of: for K-12 customers.

Other columns are ignored. Employee records don’t have email or phone fields, so those columns aren’t imported.

Walkthrough

Go to Employees → Import CSV.
Drop your file or click to upload. If an Excel workbook has more than one sheet, pick the sheet to import. A metadata row above the headers (common in payroll exports) is skipped automatically.
Review the column map. Anything our auto-detector got wrong, fix. Optional fields you don’t need can stay on “Don’t use.”
Check the preview below the map. It shows the first five rows as they’ll be stored, how many records are new, how many will update existing ones, how many departments will be created, and which rows will be skipped.
Click Import. New records are added; existing records (matched by employee ID) are updated.

Photos

Photos aren’t part of the CSV import; you upload them separately. After the CSV import:

Use Employees → Bulk photos to match a batch of named photos to records. The matcher reads the filename: 12345.jpg (the employee ID) or jane-doe.jpg(the person’s name) both work.
Or open an individual employee and click Upload file.
Or use the phone-capture flow: click Use your phone on any employee’s page and scan the QR code.

Re-imports update instead of duplicating. Importing a file again updates the existing records (matched on employee ID). Each import also overwrites what it covers: a blank or unmapped optional column clears that field for the people in the file, and every imported row is set to active. Import your full roster each time, and leave former staff out of the file.

Bulk update later

Select several employees on the Employees list and click Editto change the template, department, or status for all of them at once. That’s faster than re-importing for small changes.