Import employees from CSV

What we accept

Any CSV (or Excel .xlsx) with a header row. The minimum columns are first_name and last_name. Common optional columns we recognise automatically:

• employee_id or id— printed on the card and used for barcodes.
• position, title, role— all map to the “Position” field.
• department, dept.
• school_year, grade, cohort — for K-12 customers.
• email, phone— stored but not printed unless your template binds to them.

Walkthrough

1. Go to Employees → Import.
2. Drop your CSV or click to upload.
3. Review the column map. Anything our auto-detector got wrong, fix. You can also choose “Ignore this column” for fields you don’t want imported.
4. Click Preview. We show the first 10 rows as they’ll be stored, plus a count of any duplicates we found.
5. Click Import. New records are added; existing records (matched by employee_id) are updated.

Photos

Photos aren’t part of the CSV import — you upload them separately. After the CSV import:

• Use Employees → Photos → Bulk photo import to match a folder of named photos to records. The matcher reads the filename: jane-doe.jpg or 12345.jpg (employee_id) both work.
• Or open an individual employee and click Upload photo.
• Or use the phone-capture flow — click Use my phone on any employee’s page and scan the QR.

Bulk update later

You can select multiple employees from the Employees list and use Bulk editto change department, position, or template for many at once — faster than re-importing for small changes.