Importing contacts (Excel / CSV)

The import creates or updates members and companies from an Excel or CSV file.

• Accepted formats: Excel (.xls, .xlsx), CSV (.csv) or text (.txt), 5 MB at most. In an Excel workbook, only the active sheet is read.
• One row per person or per company, and the column headings on the first row. A row with a first name or a last name becomes a member; a row with only a company name becomes a company.
• A column whose heading is the name of a GestiClub field ("First name", "Last name", "Date of birth", "Email"…) is matched automatically.
• Dates are written in the club's date format, for example 31.12.2010.
• An impossible date, such as 31.02.2010, or an invalid email address is shown in red in the wizard, among the unrecognised values. It cannot be corrected in the wizard: correct it in your file, otherwise the field stays empty and the summary says so on the row.
• Several groups in the same cell are separated by a comma or a semicolon. The Groups and Functions columns are read in pairs: the first function goes with the first group. The same goes for Subscriptions and Discounts. An empty place means no function or no discount.
• The language is written as a code: fr, de, it or en.
• The country and the nationality are taken as they are: write "Switzerland" rather than "CH".

To start from a file in which every column is recognised automatically, download GestiClub's template: it contains the import headings, three example rows and instructions.

1. 1Click Import, under Export, and choose your file.
2. 2The Import contacts wizard opens: one row per column of your file, with its heading (Column name) and its value for the first person (Cell content).

1. 1The suggested matchesGestiClub automatically matches each column whose heading matches the name of a field, here Title, First name, Last name, Street and Postal code. Check them.
2. 2The list of fieldsfor a column that is not recognised, here Lieu, open the list and choose the field: Member · City. The fields are sorted by section: Companies, Company contacts, Member, Legal representative 1 and 2, Club data, Billing data. A column left on - Not assigned - is not imported.
3. 3Valid valuesthe expected format: text, date in the club's format, or the list of accepted values, such as Male, Female, Other.
4. 4Unrecognized valuesin red, the values GestiClub does not know yet, here two statuses and a group.
5. 5Correctopens the correction of these values (see below).
6. 6OKstarts the import.

The data shown here is a fictitious example.

The columns linked to a list of the club (status, groups, functions, category, level, subscription, discounts) or to a fixed list (title, gender, language…) only accept known values. Click Correct: the Assignment of unrecognized values window offers, for each unknown value:

• an existing value, to choose in the list;
• + Add "…" to the table, which creates the value in your club, for a status, a group, a function or a category;
• for a group, + Create "…" under "…", which creates it as a subgroup of the chosen group;
• - Not assigned -, and the value is not imported.

1. 1A matched value"Donateur" will be recorded as Passive member, a status that already exists.
2. 2+ Add "Bénévole" to the tablecreates the Bénévole status when the import runs.
3. 3The existing valuesyour club's statuses.

1. 1+ Add "Juniors E" to the tablecreates the Juniors E group at the top level of the tree.
2. 2+ Create "Juniors E" under "Juniors"creates Juniors E as a subgroup of Juniors.

Click OK: the corrected values disappear from the red column. Nothing is created yet: the new values only appear in your club when the import runs.

1. 1Check the matches and correct the values in red: those that remain are not imported.
2. 2Click OK.
3. 3If people in the file look like existing members, the Potential duplicates window opens. For each row, choose New, Update or Skip, then click OK.
4. 4The import runs in the background. The Summary window gives the number of contacts created, updated and skipped and, if there are any, the number of rows in error. The rows in error and those with a remark are listed in detail, with their row number in the file. A notification tells you when it is finished. The imported contacts appear in the grid as soon as you close the summary.

GestiClub recognises an existing member by their first and last name. With the same date of birth, or the same email if the file has no date of birth, the record is updated automatically. A row without a first name or a last name is counted as an error.

When a row of the file updates a member already in GestiClub, the file is the reference for every column it contains, empty cells included:

An empty cell thus erases the title, the salutation, the gender, the address, the AVS number, the email, the phone numbers, the remarks, the photo consent, the category, the level, the licence, the J+S number, the medical certificate dates, the bank details, the billing pause and its reason, the payment arrangement and the custom fields. Likewise:

• an empty Groups cell removes the member from all their groups; the group history is kept;
• an empty Subscriptions cell removes their subscriptions, except those already invoiced (see below);
• an empty Exit cell (the exit date) cancels an exit planned on a future date. For a member who has already left, it changes nothing: their exit date is kept, and the summary says so. To readmit them, use Reactivate member (see "Resignation and reactivation of a member").

Some information is never changed by an empty cell, or never changed at all:

• the first name, the last name and the date of birth are used to find the member: a different spelling or another date in the file does not change them. Correct them on the record;
• the country, the nationality, the language, the invoice delivery, the entry date, the status and the reactivation date: an empty cell leaves them as they are;
• the legal representatives: an empty cell never removes a parent, nor their email, nor their phone number. A parent is removed from the member's record;
• a company row: an empty cell changes nothing there.

A member created by the import is not affected: an empty cell simply creates nothing.

An exit date in the file

• Today or a past date: the resignation applies at once, as with Record resignation: Former member status, removal from the groups, distribution lists, subscriptions and role, and closing of the access to GestiClub if it no longer has a reason to exist. The resignation emails go out as with the button, signed in the club's name.
• A future date: the date is saved and the member stays active until that day, then the resignation applies by itself, with its emails (see "Entering an exit date on the record").

Subscriptions already invoiced

A subscription already invoiced for the current period is never changed by the import, so that a member never receives a second invoice:

• if the file contains the same subscription, it stays as it is;
• if the file changes its discount, the discount is not changed;
• if the file replaces it with another one, for example Adult instead of the already invoiced Junior, none of this member's subscriptions is changed.

In the last two cases, the summary says so on the row. If you still want to make the change, make it on the member's record, knowing that the subscription has already been invoiced.