• You must have a last name column in the spreadsheet, and a first name column as well. These fields are required.
• The birthday column of your spreadsheet, if you include it, must include a year. It should be formatted as mm/dd/yyyy.
• It is best to have phone numbers without parenthesis or dashes. Just enter the number in the phone number columns of your spreadsheet: 7891234567
• If you have a column for membership status, make sure that the text values in that column match exactly to the text values available on the people screen in ChurchTrac. For example, if your spreadsheet contains a membership status value of “Member”, make sure that “Member” is listed as one of the options in the membership status selection box on the people screen. If not, you can add it to the list by double-clicking inside the membership status selection box. All membership status categories in your spreadsheet must have a matching value in ChurchTrac in order for that value to be imported.
• Don’t try to combine multiple items that you want to import into a single column. Each item requires its own column. For example, don’t combine first and last name into the same column, and don’t combine City, State and Zip code fields together.
• You can also import your user-defined data as well, but it works best to define the user-defined fields on the people screen ahead of time. To do this, open the people screen, and follow the instructions in the user-defined section of this user guide to set up your user-defined fields before importing data into those fields.
• If you encounter an error during the import process, it is likely because the spreadsheet was not configured correctly according to the instructions on this screen. Double-check to make sure all the information appears correctly.

Note: Once a name has been imported, it is not possible to import additional data for that name at a later date. You must import all the data for a name at the same time. If you import a name, and later need to make a change or add additional information, you must edit or enter that information directly on the people screen.

Once your spreadsheet is configured properly, you can begin the import process. Click the “Continue to step 2” button to tell ChurchTrac where to find your spreadsheet.

The final step involves telling ChurchTrac what type of data is in each column of your spreadsheet. ChurchTrac will display a preview of the data, one column at a time. Select the appropriate data type from the list that matches each column, and then click the “Go to the next column” button.

After you have specified what data is in each column of your spreadsheet, ChurchTrac will automatically import the data, and then display a report for your review when the process is complete. If some data could not be imported, ChurchTrac will save the un-imported data into a new spreadsheet, along with the reason why each item could not be imported.

Notes regarding importing data:

• You cannot import more names than your unlock code allows. If you are using the free version, once you reach a total of 100 names in the database, the import process will stop. You can continue the import process after entering a purchased unlock code.
• You can only import people screen data. You cannot import data to the groups screen, attendance screen, or contributions screen. Information for these sections of ChurchTrac have to be entered manually and cannot be imported.