The Import from Excel page creates new members or updates existing records from a file. A wizard guides you through four steps: File, Columns, Check and Import. Nothing is saved before the last step: you first see who will be created, who will be updated and what needs fixing.

Open it from the left-hand menu: Members, then Import from Excel.

1Choose the file

Drag your file into the box or click it to choose it. Accepted formats: Excel (.xlsx, .xls), LibreOffice (.ods) or CSV, up to 15 MB. The header row is found automatically.

The four steps and the file drop area.

• Columns are recognised by their title (Name, First name, E-mail, Zip code, Geburtsdatum, Phone…): their order does not matter.
• The button Template file, at the top of the page, downloads an empty file with the right headers: basic fields, the club's custom fields and one column per current sport-season for the subscription.
• A Plugin Excel export can be re-imported as is: members are found by their ID and updated instead of being created twice.

2Check the columns

Plugin.ch shows each column of the file with its header, a few sample values and the Plugin field it has been matched with. The summary above shows how many columns were recognised.

Each column of the file is matched with a Plugin field.

If needed, correct the field in the drop-down list, or choose — Do not import — to skip a column. The last name and first name columns are required. A Family (grouped invoices) column groups the rows that have the same value: the first row of the group receives the others' invoices. Then click Check the data, or Another file to start again.

3Check each row

The tiles summarise the file: rows to create, to update, to fix and ignored . The table shows each row as it will be saved; the chips All and To check filter the list.

The check: two members to create, one row to fix.

Existing members

Each row is compared with the members of your club only: by Plugin ID, then by e-mail and first name, then by last name, first name and date of birth. A person who is found is set to Update; an empty cell in the file never erases an existing value. A member who was removed from the club is reinstated. A person found by last name and first name only is flagged for checking. In the Action column, you can choose Create a new member or Ignore instead.

Rows to fix

A row marked To fix is never imported. Click the cell in error to fix it directly, click Ignore, or use Ignore rows to fix to set them all aside. The most common errors:

• Username already taken in Plugin or present twice in the file: it must be unique. Empty the cell, or click the chip Free usernames so that Plugin chooses one for all these rows;
• Phone: it is saved in international format (+41 79 123 45 67). A national number is converted with the country code of the row's country; if that is not possible, enter it with the country code;
• Zip code not valid for the row's country, or town without a zip code;
• unreadable title, country, language, date or e-mail, unknown subscription for this sport-season.

Import options

Turn on Send the welcome e-mail to new members to send them the club's “new member” template, with a link to choose their password (valid for 3 days). It goes to active members who have an e-mail address. If this template is turned off for your club (Messages, Automatic e-mails), the option says so.

4Run the import

Click the Import (it shows the number of members) and confirm. The import runs in small batches, with a progress bar: keep the page open until the end.

The result gives the number of members created, updated and failed, with row-by-row details, and the username and password of the new accounts. Click Download the logins (CSV) to keep these logins, See members to open the list, or New import to import another file.

5Custom member fields

Below the wizard, expand Custom member fields to manage your club's own information (licence, AVS no., level…). It appears on each member's record and is imported like the other columns, by its name.

The custom fields and the Start from scratch area.

Click Add a new field, enter the field name and choose its type: Free text, Unique choice, Multiple choice, Date, Telephone, Number, Price, Long text or File. For a choice, write the options separated by commas (for example Yes,No). The four buttons at the end of the row show whether the field is visible to the member (eye), editable by the member (pencil), required (tick) and asked at course registration (school). Click Save the fields.

Automatic fields: admission date, resignation date, AVS number

• Admission date: a Date field with the choice IN (in capitals). Each time a member is created (by the administrator, through online sign-up or when registering for a course), it is pre-filled with today's date. In an import, the date from the file is used.
• Resignation date: a Date field with the choice OUT. Several times a day, the system removes from the members, and deactivates the account of, those whose resignation date is today. A future date is therefore handled on the day itself; a date already past is never handled: remove the member yourself in that case. Only one OUT field is taken into account per club, and removing a member manually enters today's date in it.
• AHV number: a Free text field whose name contains “AVS” in capitals. In forms, the entry is formatted as 756.9999.9999.99. In an import, the number is taken as is: enter it in this format already.

6Start from scratch