Import takes the spreadsheet you already keep. Paste the rows in, check the columns, look at what it is about to do, press it. That is the whole job, and it is five screens.
You do not have to tidy the file first. Any spreadsheet your club has been keeping will do.
Paste it, or pick a CSV
Copy the rows out of your sheet, headings and all, and paste them in. That is the quickest way and it is what most clubs do.
The other way is a file, and it has to be a CSV. Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets all save one: it is Save as in the File menu, then pick CSV. An .xlsx on its own will not open here.
Does the file leave my laptop?
No. It is read in your browser, on the machine you opened it on. Only the rows you have approved are sent.
So your club's spreadsheet is not sitting on a server anywhere, and a column you chose to ignore never left the room.
Do I have to say what each column is?
Usually not. The columns are matched for you, first by their headings and then by what is in them. A column full of things with an @ in is an email address whatever it is called.
You get the matches on screen and can change any of them. A column you want left out is one you leave alone.
What will it actually do?
Step three tells you, before anything happens. It counts and lists three things:
- New people, who are about to be added.
- People it has matched to somebody already on your register.
- Rows it cannot use, and why.
Nothing is written until you press the button on that screen. Read it, then press it.
What if it goes in wrong?
One press undoes the lot. Every list you have ever brought in is on the first screen of Import, each with its own Undo.
So an import that went in wrong is not a morning of deleting rows. Undoing one leaves behind anybody who has done something since: played a match, signed in, paid. It tells you who it kept and why.
Then what?
They are on your register, and the boxes and the ladder draw their players from it. Your members is where you tag people, find them and mark somebody as left.
Importing brings the names in. Inviting everybody is the other half: it tells the people you have just imported that the club is running something.