Importing Profiles
The CSV importer lets you bring a list of people into Qik from a spreadsheet — useful when moving from another system, loading a new intake of students or members, or adding a batch of contacts from an event. Each row in your file becomes one profile.
This article covers what is specific to importing people. The importer works the same way for every content type, and Importing Events and Other Content from CSV explains column mapping, date formats, progress and failed rows in more detail.
Preparing your file
- Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file (UTF-8). Excel files (.xlsx) aren't accepted — save as CSV first.
- Put column headings in the first row. Headings that match a field name, such as "First Name", "Last Name" or "Email", are mapped automatically.
- Use one row per person.
- If you want to import information that profiles don't have a field for yet, add a custom profile field first — see Custom Fields. Custom profile fields appear in the mapping list alongside the standard fields.
- Several values for one field (for example two phone numbers) can go in one cell separated by a semicolon or vertical bar, or in separate columns mapped to the same field.
Starting the import
- Go to People and click Import from CSV in the Profiles panel. (You can also drag a CSV file onto the dashboard and choose to import its contents as profiles.)
- Drag your CSV onto the import area, or click it to choose the file.
Import from CSV only appears if you're allowed to create profiles.
Mapping columns
The import screen shows a preview of your rows, one column per CSV column. Under each column, choose where its values should go:
- Map to — the profile field this column fills. Choose (Skip) to leave the column out.
- Data Type — shows the type of the chosen field, so you know how the values will be read.
- For date fields such as date of birth, choose a Format (for example DD/MM/YYYY) and, if needed, a Timezone. The preview shows how each date will be read, so you can catch day/month mix-ups before you start.
- For fields with a fixed list of options, you can remap the values in your file to the options Qik expects.
When the mapping looks right, click Start Import and choose the scopes the new profiles should be placed in. You can only choose scopes where you're allowed to create profiles.
Following progress
The file uploads, is prepared, then rows are imported in the background. You don't need to keep the page open — you'll get an email when the import is complete. If you stay on the page, it shows how many rows were imported successfully and how many failed. A row usually fails because a required field is empty or a value (often a date) can't be read in the chosen format. Fix those rows in your spreadsheet and import just the corrected rows.
Duplicates
The importer does not check your rows against the profiles already in Qik. A row for "Jane Smith" creates a new profile even if a Jane Smith with the same email already exists.
The one exception is re-importing the same rows. Each row is fingerprinted from its exact contents, so if you import a row that is identical to one imported before, the profile that row created is updated rather than duplicated. A row that differs in any way, even by one character, creates a new profile. This makes it safe to re-run an import that stopped part-way through.
To catch overlaps with people who were already in Qik, run a duplicate scan after the import and merge the matches. See Finding and Resolving Duplicate Profiles.
Tips
- Import 5–10 rows first, open the profiles that were created and check every field before importing the whole file.
- Remove obvious duplicates from your spreadsheet before importing.
- Keep your original CSV until you've checked the results.
- To update a field on profiles that already exist, use bulk editing rather than re-importing an edited file.