Import Data

If your church already has its records in a spreadsheet, Import Data lets you bring them in instead of retyping everything by hand. First choose what you’re importing: Members, Visitors, Giving history or Groups. Each has its own template and its own columns; the steps below are the same for all four (see “Visitors, giving and groups” further down).

Before you start

• Use your file as it is. Excel (.xlsx, .xls), LibreOffice (.ods) and CSV files all work. The columns can have any names and be in any order, and extra columns are fine: you choose what each one fills in the next step.
• Starting from scratch? Click Download template (Excel or CSV). It has the right columns, an example row and, in the Excel version, an Instructions sheet saying what to write in each column. Fill it in and import it here.
• Custom fields first. If your file has information HolyCRM has no field for (a baptism date, a membership class…), create a custom field for it in Settings → Custom Fields (full app) before importing. It then appears in the column list and in the template. The Import Data screen lists the custom fields you already have.

The four steps

1. Upload

Upload the file. If an Excel file has several sheets with data, pick the one with your people. The first row should be the column headers. Files over 500 rows are rejected: split a larger file and import it in batches.

2. Match your columns

For every column in your file, choose which HolyCRM field it fills — first name, last name, email, phone, birth date, status, tags, location, your custom fields and more — or Don’t import. HolyCRM guesses the matches from your headers, in English, Spanish or Portuguese (“Apellido”, “Nome”, “Celular”…), and a filled-in template matches itself. A sample of each column’s values is shown next to it, so you can check what’s really in the cells.

First name and last name are the only required fields.

3. Preview

See every row exactly as it will be saved, with all the columns you matched. Each row shows whether it’s Ready, ready with a warning (something small was left blank, like an unreadable date; the row still imports), or has an error (no first or last name; the row is skipped). Use Show to see only the rows with warnings, with errors, or people who are already in HolyCRM.

4. Import

Rows are saved a few at a time with a live count. At the end you see how many people were created, updated and skipped, and the reason for anything that failed.

People who are already in HolyCRM

The preview checks every row against your directory:

• Same person — the same email, the same phone number (even written differently: +54 9 11 5555-1234 and 11 5555 1234 match), or the same first and last name (accents and capitals don’t matter).
• Possible match — a similar name: a typo (“Jonatan” / “Jonathan”), a nickname (“Pepe” / “José”, “Bill” / “William”), a short name (“Ale” / “Alejandra”, “Juanito” / “Juan”), or one surname of two (“María López” / “María López García”).

For the same person rows, choose once what happens to all of them:

• Skip them (the default) — the existing records stay as they are.
• Update the existing people — fills in the columns from your file. Blank cells never erase anything, tags are added to the ones the person already has, and the person’s name is never changed.
• Import them as new people anyway.

Possible matches are imported as new people unless you choose otherwise, because a similar name can be a different person. Every matched row also has its own choice in the table — Skip, Update this person or Import as new — so you can decide one by one.

If the same person appears twice in your file, the second row shows a warning (“Looks like row 4”). Both rows are imported, so delete one from your file if needed. To clean up people who were already entered twice, use Find Duplicates; the summary screen has a button to open it.

Good to know

• Tags are created automatically if a tag name in your file doesn’t exist yet.
• Locations are matched by name, never created. If a location in your file doesn’t match one you’ve set up, that cell is left blank, with a warning.
• Dates: a date cell from Excel is read exactly. Dates typed as text are read as day-first or month-first on a best-effort basis, so spot-check a few birthdates after importing. A CSV file keeps dates and long numbers the way the spreadsheet displayed them (3/7/85, 5.49E+12), so upload the Excel file itself when you can.
• Custom fields are read by their type: a number, a date, yes/no, or one of the choices of a list field. A value that doesn’t fit is left blank, with a warning.
• Minor status is worked out from the birth date with your church’s age cutoff — see Members.

Visitors, giving and groups

• Visitors — first name (required), last name, email, phone, WhatsApp, address, first visit, how they found us, stage and notes. Visitors already in HolyCRM are spotted the same way as members.
• Giving history — one gift per row: date and amount are required. The giver is matched with your members by email or by first and last name; if nobody matches (or two people have that name), the gift is recorded without a giver and won’t show in a person’s giving statement. Amounts can be written 1500.00 or 1.500,00. A blank currency means your church’s; another currency needs an exchange rate column. A category that doesn’t exist yet is created; blank uses your first income category. Gifts that are already in HolyCRM (same date, amount, giver and reference) are flagged, so importing the same file twice doesn’t count them twice.
• Groups — name (required), type, leader (matched like a giver), meeting day and time, where they meet, host, description and status. A group with the same name as one you have can be skipped or updated.

Roadmap

Import more than 500 rows at once, the members of each group, or expenses.