There are 4 main ways to add Officials to your site:
👉 In Bulk. By importing officials from a CSV (Excel) spreadsheet.
One at a time. By adding officials one-at-a-time from the People screen.
Via your Site Key. By sharing your Site Key URL with officials.
Via an Official's Account Key. By using an official's Account Key URL.
This article covers #1 above — how to add your officials in bulk, via a CSV spreadsheet.
Video Tutorial:
Step-by-Step Instructions:
To add officials to your site from a Spreadsheet, follow these steps:
Step 1: Format your Spreadsheet.
First, make sure you have your spreadsheet in the correct format.
1. Column Headers. Your first row should be your Column Headers, or titles, reflecting what information is in the rows underneath it.
2. One row per official. Each official must be on a single row of your spreadsheet.
3. Recommended Fields. You have the ability to import several different kinds of fields into the system (more info on those fields below!), but we recommend importing at least the following ones for each official:
a. First Name
b. Last Name
c. Primary Email Address — officials will not be able to log in if there is no email in their Profile.
d. Mobile Phone
4. CSV. Save your spreadsheet as a CSV file. If you're working with an Excel file (.xls or .xlsx), you’ll need to select File / Save As / CSV.
Here’s an example of what a properly-formatted spreadsheet looks like:
Now that you have your spreadsheet ready to go, let’s import it into your site!
Step 2: Import your Spreadsheet.
Select the People menu.
Select Import from CSV Text File.
File Type → People.
Select Choose File.
Select the CSV spreadsheet of officials you wish to upload.
Select Open.
Select Upload File.
Map each Column Header that you wish to upload with the system’s corresponding field.
Select Submit.
That’s it! Well done. 👏
Learn how to send login credentials to your officials, and understand their ability next!
💡 Usernames and passwords will not be distributed to your People until you tell the system to send them their credentials.
Importing FAQs:
1. What other fields can I import, besides the recommended fields?
While you don’t have to, you’re more than welcome to include any/all of the following fields in your spreadsheet.
Keep in mind, you’ll need to map each of these fields to their corresponding system fields before selecting Submit, to ensure that the information is added to that official!
Middle Initial
Full Name — you’re only required to use this field if you don’t opt to import First Name and Last Name separately.
Street
Street (Line 2)
City
State/Province
ZIP/Postal Code
Home Phone
Work Phone
ID #1
ID #2
Date of Birth
Secondary Email
Grade/Badge Level
Pay Scale — learn more about pay scales here.
Comment
Group(s)
Permission-related fields — more info on these in the FAQ below.
Is a Referee (i.e. Official) — defaults to Yes.
Is an Assignor — defaults to No.
Is an Observer (League Contact) — defaults to No.
Is a Manager — defaults to No.
2. Tell me more about how the Permissions fields work.
You can learn about the specifics of each permission in the system here.
By default, people will be imported with only Referee permissions, also known as Official permissions.
If you’d like to grant other or additional types of permissions to any of the people you import, you’ll want to create separate columns for each of the permissions you’d like to grant/revoke for folks.
For example, if I wanted to make some of my People observers (league contacts), and the rest referees, I might set up my columns like this:
Permission will be granted if the spreadsheet value is 1, Yes or True.
Permission will not be granted if the spreadsheet value is 0, No or False.
If you do create Permissions columns, remember to map them to their appropriate system field on the upload screen before selecting Submit.
3. Can I use the import process to add people to Groups in bulk?
Yes! What you'll want to do is add a column to your People spreadsheet, titled Groups. From there, you can type in the name(s) of the groups you wish to add each official to, separating each group with a comma.
Be sure to include your Group names in your spreadsheet exactly as they appear under Maintenance → Groups & Rules.
If you're looking to add existing People in your site to Groups, you can follow our batch update process here.
Happy uploading! Let us know if you run into any questions as you complete this. 🙂