Importing your data

When you move to Campfront, you can bring your existing records in from a spreadsheet instead of typing them in one by one. The importer is a guided wizard that reads your file, matches your columns to Campfront fields, checks for duplicates, and imports everything in the background. This is for admins setting up a camp or adding a batch of records at once.

What you can import

You can import three types of data:

• Campers - campers and their families, parents, enrollments, addresses, emergency contacts, sessions, cabins, and tags

• Staff - staff members and their employment details, departments, roles, compensation, and cabin assignments

• Transactions - historical payments and charges, matched to the right enrollment

A camper import can populate a lot in one pass. A single row can create or update the family, up to two parents, the camper, their enrollment for the season, home addresses, up to two emergency contacts, a school contact, session and camper-group assignments, a cabin assignment, tags, and a linked staff record.

Before you start

A little preparation makes the whole thing go smoothly.

• You'll need permission to edit Camp settings. The importer lives at Camp settings > Imports

• Put one record per row, with a header row naming each column. Clear headers like "Parent email" or "Date of birth" get matched automatically

• Save your spreadsheet as a CSV file encoded as UTF-8, so accents and special characters stay intact

• For camper and staff imports, decide which season the records belong to

Running an import

Go to Camp settings > Imports and choose New import. The wizard walks you through five steps.

1. Setup - pick what you're importing: campers, staff, or transactions. For campers and staff, choose the season. You can create a new season right here if you need one

2. Upload - upload your CSV file. Each row becomes a record

3. Map - line up your spreadsheet columns with Campfront fields

4. Review - check the summary, resolve any duplicates, and start the import

5. Done - the import runs in the background, so you can keep working

Mapping your columns

Campfront reads your header row and matches as many columns as it can for you, then tells you how many it matched, like 18 of 24 columns. Check its work and set anything it missed. Any column you don't need can be left unmapped, and it'll be skipped.

Some columns need their values matched too, not just the column. For fields like Session, Camper group, Cabin, Tags, and OTC Medications, you'll line up the values in your file with the ones already in Campfront. If something doesn't exist yet, such as a tag, cabin, staff department, or over-the-counter medication, you can create it without leaving the wizard.

A column listing the over-the-counter medications someone is approved for, such as "Tylenol; Benadryl", maps to OTC Medications under Health Profile. Each name is matched to your camp's OTC medication list. A name that isn't on the list is added to it, unless you set Unmapped values to Do not map. On import, the person's over-the-counter permission is recorded with those medications approved.

When you're importing into a season, tag and note columns also get a checkbox: Create new tags from this column for this season only, or Only show notes from this column in this season. Leave it unchecked and new tags and notes apply across all seasons.

Columns that don't fit a built-in field can be mapped to a custom form field, so no data is lost. Campfront can also read free-text columns to draft a camper's health profile and notes for you, which you can review after the import. An over-the-counter medicine it finds there is matched to your OTC medication list, or added to it, and approved for that person rather than queued as a prescription for medical approval.

If you don't map an Enrollment status column (for campers) or Employment stage column (for staff), Campfront asks which stage everyone in the file should start at. Pick one and it applies to every row. Skip it and rows come in at the Lead stage, so set a stage if you're importing records that are already active.

Reviewing duplicates and errors

Before anything is written, Campfront checks each row against your existing records. It matches on IDs from your old system first, then on names and email addresses.

• Duplicates lists rows that match someone already in Campfront. For each one, choose Update to apply the new details or Skip to leave the existing record untouched. Set them one at a time, or use Update all or Skip all

• Errors lists rows that can't be imported as-is, such as a camper with no parent contact. Fix these in your spreadsheet and import again

The summary shows how many records will be added, updated, and skipped, so there are no surprises.

After the import

The import runs in the background and can take a few minutes for a large file. Open the import to watch its progress and see the totals for added, updated, skipped, and failed rows.

• Download failed rows gives you a CSV of just the rows that didn't import, with your original columns, so you can correct them and try again

• Re-import starts a fresh import from the same file and carries your column mapping over, so you don't have to set it up again

• A completed import stays in your history as a record. You can delete an import that hasn't finished yet, but completed imports can't be deleted

Tips for a clean import

• Import campers and staff before transactions, so there's an enrollment for each payment to attach to

• Include an ID column from your old system if you have one. Campfront uses it to match records reliably, even when an email address has changed

• Start with a small test file to confirm your mapping looks right, then import the full file

Telling families about the move

Imported records are half the switch. Families still need to hear from you and sign in. See Moving your families to Campfront for the order to work in and sample messages.