Bulk Importing Attendees

Bulk Importing Attendees is a way of adding multiple New Attendees to your Upshot account that can be completed by going to Admin > Import attendees. 

Rather than manually adding new attendees via People > Add New or asking potential participants to complete the external Attendee sign-up form, bulk imports give organisations a way of adding multiple attendees to their account at once with up to 500 attendees able to be uploaded with every saved file.

Because of this, the bulk upload process is especially helpful for organisations new to Upshot who have existing registration data on attendees as this can help them to populate their Upshot account quickly. It can also be helpful for organisations that have an intake of lots of new attendees at certain points in time, such as the start of a new academic year.

Note, this process should only be used for adding completely New Attendees to your Upshot account. Attempting to add profiles of attendees who are already on your Upshot account will lengthen the process and result in possible duplicate profiles of attendees being added to your account. In addition, this process will also not update existing profiles on your Upshot account with extra information and so by including these profiles organisations run the risk of the issues outlined earlier. 

Overview

The Bulk Upload process involves completing an Attendee Import Template XLSX file with the registration data of your new attendees.

Example Attendee Import Template:

The XLSX template file replicates the fields from your Upshot registration form, including whether certain fields are required. Changes must not be made to the template file itself (columns, formatting, spelling etc.) before attempting to upload otherwise the system will not recognise this file and will not be able to complete the upload

If changes need to be made to the registration form this should be done beforehand on Upshot by a System Administrator on your account via Admin > Attendee Data Fields and then a new template downloaded.

Once the information has been added to the Attendee Import Template this can be then be uploaded via the same link as before.

If there are any errors in the upload such as incompatible email addresses/postcodes, required fields missing data or potential duplicates these will be flagged in an Error Log that will be sent to the email address held on the system of the user looking to complete the upload. The errors must be corrected before the upload can be completed.

It is not unusual for new users to this process to receive an error log on attempting their first upload. Consequently, it is worth checking the data before attempting an upload to minimise the amount of time spent correcting the data.

Note, it is important that users adhere to the guidelines listed here and manage this process carefully, as incorrect data entry requires a significant amount of time and resource to correct and if in some cases may incur a charge from Upshot to correct.

Downloading the Attendee Import template

To download the XLSX template file to input your attendee information go to Admin > Import attendees.

Note only users with the Project Manager role will be able to complete this action.

Click on Download under Template.

This is the same link which will be used to upload the saved file later.

Core Rules

  • Only XLSX files are accepted.
  • Required columns are marked with *.
  • First name or nickname must be given.
  • Dates (e.g. Date of Birth) must be formatted as a Date data type (e.g. 21/05/2013).
  • Postcodes must include space (e.g., W1A 1HQ).
  • You may select any number of choices from the columns marked as 'mark any'.
  • You may make only one choice from 'mark one' columns.
  • Only 500 attendees can be uploaded at a time from one particular sheet. If users have more than 500 attendees to upload they should just complete the process again for the additional attendees.
  • The upload process should only be used for New Attendees. Please do double check that the attendees on your upload template are not already on your organisations Upshot account.

Matching your data to the Upshot template

It is likely that organisations will have a mixture of fields:

  • Text area (free text, unvalidated)
  • Single-choice dropdown
  • Multiple-choice field
  • Tickbox
  • Date

The data against these fields must be entered in the correct format otherwise an error will be generated.

For anything where a specific format is required this will be indicated in the row containing the Field Name on the template:

For Single-choice fields – Mark one

For Multiple-choice fields – Mark Any

Note: To mark simply put a character such as an x into the relevant column to indicate the selection.

If users need some additional guidance on converting their existing data into x for the purposes of matching the template here, please refer to the guide here.

For Tick box fields, such as the Upshot default permissions mark TRUE or FALSE as relevant. (i.e. TRUE for the attendee ‘Attendee Has Consented for . . .’ ).

If this is left blank the tick box will be left unticked on the relevant profile once uploaded.

Key information about Upshot default fields

The following Upshot default fields may be displayed on your Attendee Import Template dependent on the data you collect, here is some key information to be aware of:

  • First Name / Nickname: Users MUST enter a 'First name' or 'Nickname' against an attendee.
  • Gender: Users MUST mark one of the 'Gender' options for an attendee.
  • Date of Birth: Columns for date values must be formatted as date data types.
  • Identifying notes: The primary use of 'Identifying notes' is to assist users in situations of ambiguity - for example identifying two separate attendees who may have similar details such as their name.
  • Contact relationship type: The user may choose one and only one contact relationship type from 'Attendee, Parent or Other.' This will indicate whose contact information (Phone, Email) has been collected. Mark the option with an 'x' to select it.
  • Medical details: The user can mark any Medical conditions as needed with regards to the attendee. More information can be provided in the 'Any other conditions, allergies or dietary requirements, etc.' text area column.
  • Disability details: The user can mark any Disability that the attendee may have from the options given - which includes the 'other' option for any disability which is not listed. If the user has no disability, they simply mark the 'No Disability' option. See the below example:

  • Ethnicity: The user has the option to mark only one option from the given list for the attendee.
  • Sexual Orientation: The user can mark only one option from the given list for the attendee.
  • Educational Establishment Name and Type: The user has the option to enter the Educational establishment attended by the attendee, as well as marking the type of establishment too - such as Primary or Secondary School. See the below example:

Note: the above Upshot default fields have options presented in line with the latest UK census. Organisations are free to hide the Upshot default fields and create their own custom fields if they would prefer different options or perhaps a narrower/broader set. System Admins can create custom fields at any time. Please contact support@upshot.org.uk  if users need assistance with this.  

Pre-Upload Duplicate Checker

As mentioned, it is crucial organisations double check that the attendees, they are adding to the 'Attendee Import Template' are New Attendees and do not already exist on their Upshot account.

If organisations attempt to upload existing profiles, they run the risk of having potential duplicates profiles on the account or a large error log to correct before being able to upload.

Please refer to the following guide to help you identify potential duplicates who are on your Upshot account. 

Uploading your completed template

Go to Admin > Import attendees.

Attach your file under Import Attendees and click Upload.

Users will then see the following message:

This will either update to let the user know that the upload was ‘successful’, or you will receive an error message letting users know that there were ‘data validation errors.’

In addition, an email will be received either way informing them of this outcome or have the attached error log if necessary. Please do check junk/spam folder for this.

Note, dependent on the amount of data users are looking to upload/the amount of data existing on the account, this success/error email may take a few minutes to come through.

Understanding the Error Log

If an upload was unsuccessful the user attempting the upload will receive an email like below:

The attachment will contain the errors in the data that need to be corrected before the data can be uploaded.

Here is an example of the type of errors that may be highlighted:

The Row will always be highlighted allowing you to quickly navigate to the issue on your Attendee Import Template file.

Note, it is recommended to correct the errors from the bottom of this file and work your way up. This is because if any rows of data must be removed, this will not affect the ‘row number’ for any errors listed above.

In the examples above this is how they should be dealt with:

  • Row 5
    • Date of Birth needs to be formatted as a date
    • Ethnicity is a single-choice option so one selection must be removed here
  • Row 6
    • Potential duplicates flagged by the system must be removed from the Attendee Import Template - here we would suggest keeping hold of this information on a separate file and after the upload is complete either adding this person manually to the system (where the duplicate checker can be overwritten) if needed.

Sometimes organisations may need to go back to attendees and ask them for missing information to allow them to be added to the system. If this is only a handful of attendees, it can be helpful to remove them from the upload process and look to add either via another upload/manually later when you have all the relevant information so as not to slow down the whole process.

Understanding other Error Messages

Two more common error messages are shown below, these may appear when a user attempts to upload the Attendee Import Template.

Common reasons the above may occur include:

  • The file is not saved in a XLSX file format
  • The template columns have been changed in some way (added, removed, altered)
  • The registration form on the organisation's Upshot account has been changed, meaning the template no longer accurately reflects the most current version of the registration form. In this case a new template should be downloaded, and the data moved across.

Support

If organisations need support from Upshot during this process they may be asked to share the files being used. As these contain potentially sensitive information please do look to password protect and send via a free tool such as WeTransfer.

Password protecting excel documents - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/protect-an-excel-file-7359d4ae-7213-4ac2-b058-f75e9311b599

One Time Secret - (this can be used to share the password, please ensure you note down for your own records) - https://onetimesecret.com/

Please do look to share the file and the WeTransfer link in separate emails to support@upshot.org.uk.

Note - your organisation may have specific practices/tools on how these documents should be shared, please do take these into consideration.

Bulk Edit

Organisations can also look to bulk edit existing attendee data on their account, allowing them to update multiple records at once. This requires different links to the above, so please contact support@upshot.org.uk for more information about this.

Key Terms

Bulk Upload:

A process by which new participants registration data, in the form of a XLSX file, can be uploaded on mass to Upshot. Organisations can add up to 500 people at a time per file uploaded.

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