Managers can use this tool to import schedule and timesheet information in bulk from a spreadsheet.
- Before you begin
- What data fields can be imported?
- How do I bulk import schedule data?
- How do I bulk import timesheet data?
- View import history
- Sample CSV template
Before you begin
Read Getting started with bulk import or update using data from a CSV file.
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 prepared with your data in it and saved as a CSV file. You can create the spreadsheet dataset you need with our CSV sample template.
What data fields can be imported?
Please find below a list of fields and respective validations for each data set you can bulk import.
Note for Enterprise accounts only:
You may notice that the template you download also features your Enterprise custom fields if any are present. These fields may be updated in the same way as updating data in the default fields in your file.
Schedules
IMPORTANT Note: Employees are matched on the email address and not on First Name/Last Name.
| Field | Example | Mandatory | Validations |
| First Name |
This field is to help visually identify employees. This field cannot be used to match employees for updating schedule. Use email address for matching employees. In addition, this field cannot be updated as part of schedule import. Please use employee import to update first name. |
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| Last Name |
This field is to help visually identify employees. This field cannot be used to match employees for updating schedule. Use email address for matching employees. In addition, this field cannot be updated as part of schedule import. Please use employee import to update first name. |
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| "jackjohnson@email.com" |
|
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| Start Date | "2023-01-31" | Yes | Must be in format shown in example |
| Start Time | "09:00:00" | Yes | |
| End Date | "2023-01-31" | Yes | Must be in format shown in example |
| End Time | "17:00:00" | Yes | |
| Location | "Location" | Yes | Valid Deputy location for your business. |
| Area | "Area" | Yes | Valid Deputy areas for your business. These should be ones associated with location provided. |
| Meal Break (Mins) | "30" |
Yes |
Enter the total number of minutes for the meal break duration. Enter "0" is there is no meal break |
| Meal Break Start Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Meal Break Start Time | "12:00:00" | ||
| Meal Break End Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Meal Break End Time | "12:30:00" | ||
| Rest Break (Mins) | "15" | Enter the total number of minutes for the rest break duration | |
| Rest Break Start Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Rest Break Start Time | "15:00:00" | ||
| Rest Break End Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Rest Break End Time | "15:15:00" | ||
| Comment | "This is test schedule" | ||
| Published | "Yes" | ||
| Open | "No" | ||
| Override Warnings? | "Y/N" | Specify override warnings as "Y" to import roster despite having stress profile warnings. |
Important Note - Employees are matched on email address and not on First Name/Last Name.
Open shifts
Open or empty shifts can be created using the following combination of import fields :
| Is email Provided? | Value in "Open" | Outcome |
| No | Yes | Open shift created |
| No | No | Empty shift created |
| Yes | Yes | Open shift, another employee can grab shift even though the email address was provided |
| Yes | No | The shift is assigned to the employee with the email address in the email field and nobody else can grab it. |
Note: If you need to add an open shift with manager approval you will need to manually select this option after the shifts have been imported into the schedule.
Timesheets
IMPORTANT Note: Employees are matched on the email address and not on First Name/Last Name.
| Field | Example | Mandatory | Validations |
| First Name |
This field is to help visually identify employees. This field cannot be used to match employees for updating timesheet. Use email address for matching employee. In addition, this field cannot be updated as part of timesheet import. Please use employee import to update first name. |
||
| Last Name |
This field is to help visually identify employees. This field cannot be used to match employees for updating timesheet. Use email address for matching employee. In addition, this field cannot be updated as part of timesheet import. Please use employee import to update first name. |
||
| "jackjohnson@email.com" |
Yes. It is used to match employees to whom schedules are assigned. |
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| Start Date | "2023-01-31" | Yes |
Cannot be in future Must be in format shown in example |
| Start Time | "09:00:00" | Yes | |
| End Date | "2023-01-31" | Yes |
Cannot be in future Must be in format shown in example |
| End Time | "17:00:00" | Yes | |
| Location | "Location" | Yes | Valid Deputy location for your business. |
| Area | "Area" | Yes | Valid Deputy areas for your business. These should be ones associated with the location provided. |
| Meal Break (Mins) | "30" |
Yes |
Enter the total number of minutes for the meal break duration. Enter "0" is there is no meal break |
| Meal Break Start Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Meal Break Start Time | "12:00:00" | ||
| Meal Break End Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Meal Break End Time | "12:30:00" | ||
| Rest Break (Mins) | "15" | Enter the total number of minutes for the rest break duration. | |
| Rest Break Start Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Rest Break Start Time | "15:00:00" | ||
| Rest Break End Date | "2023-01-31" | Must be in format shown in example | |
| Rest Break End Time | "15:15:00" |
|
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| Employee Comment | "This is test timesheet" | ||
| Is in Progress? | "N" | ||
| Is Approved? | "Y" |
Default "N". This will time and/or pay approve timesheet based on permissions of user doing bulk import. |
How do I bulk import schedule data?
To import schedules in your account:
1. On Schedule tab, click Options and then click Add shifts from file
2. You can click on:
- Sample schedule template if you need a template spreadsheet to enter your schedule information
- View Import History to view previous imports
or click on Continue if you already have your spreadsheet prepared.
3. Click on Upload file and select your CSV file from your computer to upload.
4. Here you will see the names of columns in your CSV and template file. Most of the columns will be automatically matched. Please ensure columns are correctly matched for a successful import.
To help you correctly match columns, you will see a few data points for columns. To view column data, simply hover over column names.
Once you are happy that the columns match correctly, click Continue.
5. You will now see a count of how many of your records are Valid and ready to import and how many have errors in the Invalid tab.
Click on the Invalid tab to display all records with errors. You will see the fields coloured red if they have an error. You can find out more information about the expected format of the field with the error by hovering your mouse over the column names or you can click on the highlighted field to learn more about errors. You can use the Filter to review which fields are invalid and you have the choice to correct the errors in the original CSV file and upload or simply fix the errors now. If you have many data errors it may be faster to correct them in the original file and re load the file, but it is also possible to correct them in Deputy as shown below.
6. Once you have corrected all errors in your data click on Submit and all valid data will be imported.
You will be able to see the progress of the import.
Note: you can close this screen and complete other tasks in Deputy while the data is updated in the background.
During the import process, if there is a scheduling issue found such as an overlap (the team member is already scheduled at the same time as the shift you are trying to import) then these shifts will be rejected.
You can resolve the rejected records by removing the original shift causing the overlap shift in Deputy and reimporting the shifts from the file or simply leave the shifts as rejected so that the original shift stands.
How do I bulk import timesheet data?
To import timesheets in your account:
1. On the Timesheets tab, select Approve Timesheets. Click on the arrow next to Add timesheet and select Add timesheets from file.
2. You can click on:
- Sample timesheet template if you need a template spreadsheet to enter your timesheet information in
- View Import History to view previous imports
or click on Continue if you already have your spreadsheet prepared.
3. Click on Upload file and select your CSV file from your computer to upload.
4. Here you will see the names of columns in your CSV and template file. Most of the columns will be automatically matched. Please ensure columns are correctly matched for a successful import.
To help you correctly match columns, you will see a few data points for columns. To view column data, simply hover over column names.
Once you are happy that the columns match correctly, click Continue.
5. You will now see a count of how many of your records are Valid and ready to import and how many have errors in the Invalid tab.
Click on the Invalid tab to display all records with errors. You will see the fields coloured red if they have an error. You can use the Filter to review which fields are invalid and you have the choice to correct the errors in the original CSV file and upload or simply fix the errors now. If you have many data errors it may be faster to correct them in the original file and re load the file, but it is also possible to correct them in Deputy as shown below.
6. Once you have resolved or discarded all errors in your data, click on Submit and all valid data will be imported.
7. Once you have resolved or discarded all errors in your data, all valid data will be imported.
You will be able to see the progress of the import.
Note: you can close this screen and complete other tasks in Deputy while the data is updated in the background.
During the import process, if there is an issue found, such as an incorrect timesheet date (timesheets can not be submitted for the future) these will be rejected. Click Close.
You can resolve the error (in this case by correcting the date) and click Resubmit to import these timesheets if required.
When you have no further records to import click on the cross at the top right of the pop up.
and then click Yes, Exit.
View import history
You can view a history of the previous import for Schedule by going into the Schedule page and clicking on Add shifts from file then:
1. Click View import history
2. You can see a log of the imports that have occurred.
Note: clicking Download will export all data that was finally imported. This may not necessarily be data that was initially prepared in the original CSV. If any data was changed or errors were corrected during the import process they will be included in the file you download.