CSV import: best practices
The five rules we recommend to any school importing a large CSV. Following these saves hours of cleanup.
One student per row
Do not put multiple students in a single cell. Do not use merged cells. Every student gets exactly one row.
Admission numbers must be unique
If two rows share an admission number, the import will flag them. Decide in advance how you will number students — most schools use a format like 2025/001.
Dates in ISO format
Use YYYY-MM-DD for all dates. If your spreadsheet uses a different format, convert it before exporting. Excel and Google Sheets can both do this with a formula.
Guardian phone numbers with country code
Prefix every phone number with +country code. This makes SMS notifications work correctly later and avoids ambiguity.
Test with 10 rows first
Import the first ten students. Verify them. Then import the rest. If something is wrong with your mapping, you will find it in ten rows, not a thousand.