With Deputy's bulk import feature, you can now bulk import or update data from either a CSV or an Excel (XLSX) file.

• Before you start
• What kind of data can I bulk import or bulk update?
• Where can I access bulk import?
• How can I export existing data from my Deputy account?
• How can I view import history?
• FAQs
• Sample CSV templates

Before you start

Before you can bulk import or bulk update information in your Deputy account please ensure you have the access level permission of a System Administrator or Location Manager. 

Note: Location Managers can only bulk import and update team members for the locations that they manage.

You will also need a spreadsheet containing your data, saved as a CSV/XLSX file. You can either:

• create the spreadsheet dataset you need from one of our CSV sample templates or
• Export your existing Deputy data as a file and edit or add to that data in the spreadsheet before re-importing it back into Deputy.

What kind of data can I bulk import or bulk update?

Currently, you can bulk import or bulk update the following sets of data from a CSV/XLSX file.

Click on the links below for step by step instructions on bulk updating the following sets of data: 

• Employee / team member information
• Training modules
• Training records
• Employment terms
• Schedules
• Timesheets
• Locations and Areas
• Sales data

The ability to bulk import and update other data sets of information from a file into your Deputy account will be released in the future.

Where can I access bulk import and update?

This depends on the type of information you wish to update or import:

For bulk importing or updating information about People or Training

On the People tab, click Add People and then Bulk import and update.

Note: Enterprise accounts also have a Bulk Import/Update menu option on the Enterprise tab.

For bulk importing or updating Schedule information

The bulk import of schedules is accessed from the Schedule page

For bulk importing or updating Timesheet information

The bulk import of timesheets is accessed from the Approve Timesheets page

For bulk importing or updating information about Locations or Areas

The bulk import of locations and areas is accessed from the Locations page

How can I export existing data from my Deputy account?

Just as you can bulk import, you can also export existing data for:

• team member information
• training records
• training modules
• employment terms (Enterprise only)
• locations and area information

Data is exported in CSV or XLSX format, as in our sample templates for import.

If you need to perform a bulk update of information in Deputy you can simply export the relevant data, update it in the spreadsheet and then re-import it.

How can I view import history?

A history of your bulk import and bulk update activity can be viewed for up to 3 months from within the Bulk Import history page. 

1. Click View import history

2. You can see a log of the imports that have occurred.

3. The Bulk Imports page lists all previous imports for the past three months across all data sets.

On this page, you can see details of each previous import:

• Date and time of the import
• Data set type that was imported (ie. Employee, Training Record or Training Module)
• Number of data records imported
• User (who imported data)
• Outcome of import - success or failure
• Option to download data

Note: clicking Download will export all data that was finally imported. This may not be necessarily data that was initially prepared in the original File. 

Example: Let's assume the data for 100 employees was entered into a file for import. However, upon import, Deputy highlighted that the locations nominated for 10 of those employees were invalid.  The manager importing the data decided to ignore those records with errors and only import the 90 employees with correctly assigned locations. In this case, the downloaded data from the import history page will show 90 valid employees and none of the employees that generated errors. Similarly, if the manager importing the data decided to change the location of 10 employees to valid locations during the import process to correct the errors then the downloaded data will contain 100 employees with locations as allocated during the import process, not the locations indicated in the original file.

3. Once the export file is ready, you will see a new notification in the notification centre in Deputy. Click on the notification to download exported data.

FAQs

What happens if a file I am importing contains information for both new employees as well as updates to existing employees already in Deputy?

Bulk import is smart! It will check if the employee already exists in Deputy. If it exists, it will update any new information. Otherwise, if the employee does not already exist it will create a new employee record.

When determining if an employee or training record already exists in Deputy the email address will be used as the unique identifier to match the record. The training module will be matched based on the text in the title of the training module. 

Can I use this tool to delete data from my account?

No. Information can only be added new or updated using the bulk importer updater. Data such as training records, schedules, timesheets or sales data can not be deleted using this tool.

I've having problems with the date format not being in the correct format to upload to Deputy

If you are using Excel to edit your spreadsheet then please read this troubleshooting guide to change your default date format to match YYYY-MM-DD as required by Deputy.

What is recommended way to update a large number of employees or training records using bulk import?

Simply export existing data, open the downloaded file in a spreadsheet editor, update the required fields in the spreadsheet and then import the updated file into your Deputy account.

I exported existing data, but I don't see any file being downloaded.

Once the export file is ready, you will see a new notification in the notification centre (bell icon on the top right of the screen) in Deputy. Click on the notification to download exported data.

While I'm uploading my file can I still use Deputy to perform other tasks?

Yes, if you have many records to update or a large file and the bulk updater is processing it's OK to go to complete other tasks in Deputy. The upload will continue in the background and you will informed when it has completed.

Is Bulk Import available on mobile?

No, bulk import and update is available only by logging into the Deputy website.

Can I use Bulk Import with my web browser in Incognito mode?

No, currently bulk import doesn't work in Incognito mode.

On the import history page, I see my import failed. What can I do?

Please download the file and re-import it again. We are working to automate this workflow.

Sample CSV templates