Import members from a spreadsheet

The Import spreadsheet tab of the Invite Members window brings the people in a spreadsheet into the community: the attendee list of an event, a member base, the students of a class. Any spreadsheet works: you say where each column goes, choose role, groups and tags for everyone, check a summary and only then import. Each new person gets an invitation by email.

Only import people who agreed to receive emails and to join the community. Bought lists, giveaways and data collected by bots are forbidden. Read the Invitation and member import policy before importing.

#What it's for

#How it works

#Who can import

The owner and admins. The import only gives the Member or Moderator role: anyone who needs to join as admin or finance is invited from the Type e-mails tab. See Invite members.

#The file

• .xlsx or .csv. The old .xls and .xlsm (with macros) are refused, even renamed.
• Up to 5 MB, 5,000 data rows and 100 columns.
• Formulas count by their calculated value; merged cells, by the value of the first one.
• In a CSV, Memberfy works out the encoding on its own (correct accents even in a file saved by an old Excel) and the delimiter (comma, semicolon, tab or pipe). You can change both.

#What happens to each row

#The invitation email

Every person new to the community gets an email on the community's behalf, with the list origin ("You got this invitation because your details are in: Attendees of event X in 2026") and, in the footer, the link Thanks for the invitation, but I do not want to join. The invitation brings Set my password (the link is valid for 7 days and works once), including for someone who already belongs to another community. Existing members get nothing.

Import emails don't count toward the campaign quota.

#In the background

When you click Import, the import goes into a queue and runs on its own: you can close the window. Invitations go out at the same pace as campaigns, about 5 per second, so a list of 3,000 people takes around 10 minutes to be fully delivered. At the end, whoever imported gets an in-app notice and an email with the summary.

A community reads one spreadsheet at a time. If someone else on the team is importing at the same moment, the screen says "Another spreadsheet is being read right now. Try again in a moment."

#What is kept

The import records who imported, when, the file name, the origin and the consent used (the column and the values, or the declaration). A copy of the original file is kept in private storage, with no deletion date: the owner and admins download it from the history (Previous imports › View › Download the original file). On the record of whoever joined, the team reads "Origin: spreadsheet import on …".

#Step by step

Role: owner or admin.

1. Administration › Members, Invite Members button, Import spreadsheet tab.

2. At the top of the window, choose the Role (Member or Moderator), the Groups and the Tags for everyone. New groups and tags are created right there by typing the name. These three fields are the same as on the Type e-mails tab: what you choose on one applies to the other.

3. 1. Source. Write the List origin (required, up to 150 characters, no links), for example Attendees of event X in 2026. It goes in each invitee's email. Choose the file (drag it or click) and click Next.

4. 2. File. Check how it was read: the Sheet (in an .xlsx with several), the Header row ("Header on row 8.", when the spreadsheet has a title above it) and, in a CSV, the Delimiter and the Encoding. Changing any of them rereads the file.

5. 3. Columns. Each column shows with its first 3 rows and the Goes to selector. Columns Recognized automatically (email, first name, last name, phone, job title, bio, existing fields) come first; the others are left on Ignore, collapsed under "28 ignored columns — show". The destinations:

   Goes to	Rule
   E-mail	Required, one column only. Without it, "Choose the e-mail column to continue."
   First name and Last name	Together they make the full name. A full-name column also works
   Phone	Adjusted to the international format, with the community's country as the default; an unreadable one stays empty
   Job title	The profile job title, up to 100 characters. Suggested for headers like Job title, Cargo or Função
   Bio	The profile bio, up to 200 characters. Suggested for Bio or Biografia
   Tags	Each value becomes a tag (separate several with , ; or |). E.g.: Ticket type
   Groups	Each value puts the person in the group with that name; a missing one becomes a new group
   Groups: valid until	One date per row (12/31/2026): the person stays in that row's groups until the end of that day and then leaves by themselves (see Valid until). Empty, invalid or past, the groups have no end date, and the row warns
   Badges	The badges the person already had, by name from the community's catalog, separated by ; (Founder; Mentor). See Badges and initial points
   Initial points	The points the person already had, from 1 to 100,000. See Badges and initial points
   Consent	The column that says who agreed. Mark which values count as yes (Yes, x, agreed…)
   SMS consent	The column that says who agreed to get service notices by SMS. Tick which values say "yes" (see SMS consent)
   Field: …	An existing custom field. For a Multiple choice, separate the options in the same cell with ; or , (Linux; Cloud)
   + New custom field	Creates the field with the column's name (editable) and the type suggested by the content; a column with lists separated by ; may suggest Multiple choice, created with the distinct values as options (2 to 50). It is created optional
   Ignore	The column isn't imported

   Consent, SMS consent, Tags and Groups are never suggested: you choose them. Columns with the same name show separately (Phone (col. 24), Phone (col. 30)), and only one can go to each of the person's details.

6. Consent. With a consent column, only rows with the marked values get in. Without one, tick the declaration "I declare that everyone on this list agreed to receive e-mails and to join this community." Without one of the two, you can't import. With a column in SMS consent, also tick the SMS attestation (see below). Values that aren't options yet. For a column going to a Choice or Multiple choice field, the summary flags the spreadsheet values the field doesn't have yet ("Interests: 2 value(s) in the sheet are not options of the field yet."). Add as options adds those values to the field; without it, the cell comes in with a warning and without the value.

7. 4. Summary. Check before saving: Rows in the spreadsheet, New people, Already members, Will be skipped (with the reason), Skipped because they asked not to join, Invite e-mails to be sent and the groups, tags and fields that will be created, by name. Clicking Import confirms all of this; there's no other question.

8. 5. Result. Progress shows in the window. At the end: Imported, Updated, Skipped and Invites sent, the list of Skipped rows with the reason, the Rows imported with a warning and the Download errors CSV button (the original rows with a reason column, to fix and import again).

Previous imports, on the same tab, shows the history: each import with date, counts, status and the original file.

#SMS consent

For the people in the spreadsheet to get SMS notices, send the column that records that agreement to SMS consent and:

1. Under Which values say "yes" to SMS?, tick the values that count as yes (yes, x, sim…). Empty or another value: the person joins but does not get SMS.
2. Tick "I attest that this community collected SMS consent from the people marked "yes"." The attestation is recorded with today's date and who imported. It is what allows SMS notices to these people: without it, no one in this spreadsheet gets SMS.

The summary shows the rule used (SMS consent from the "Accepts SMS" column (yes: Yes, x).). Each marked person gets the SMS service consent, whether new or already a member: the declaration is the community's, and so is the responsibility for it. New people get the origin import. Some rules don't change:

• Someone who left the channel or withdrew consent is never re-enrolled: the row comes in with the consent-withdrawn warning, and nothing is recorded.
• The phone on a row with the declaration can receive right away: SMS (and WhatsApp, through the API and the assistant) without the code verification, while it is the profile's current phone; a number changed later does not inherit the declaration, and one saved later without a declaration loses it too. It is not verified: verification codes still require the person to confirm it themselves. See Consent declared by the team.
• An admin never declares for the owner: the owner's row records no consent.
• When the person has already verified another number, it stays, and the row says so.

On screen, the import has no WhatsApp consent column: through the API or the assistant, the whatsappConsent column follows the same rule as SMS. For existing members, the team can also record consent without a spreadsheet: see Consent declared by the team. This column is separate from the Consent column, which decides who joins the community.

#Badges and initial points

In the columns step, pick Badges or Initial points in the destination. In the summary, each name outside the catalog has Create badge and Ignore ("Create or ignore each one to be able to import."); it also shows the rows with invalid points, who already got points from an import, the gamification-off warning and The level people will land on.

For anyone coming from another platform who wants to bring each person's history. The full walkthrough is in Migrating from another platform.

• Badges. One column, with the names separated by ; (a comma can be part of a name). Only what is in this community's catalog counts, ignoring case and accents. A name that is not in the catalog blocks the import until you create the badge with that name or mark it to be ignored. Whoever already holds the badge keeps it.
• Initial points. One column, with a whole number from 1 to 100,000. 1.500, 1,500 and 250.0 are accepted; empty or 0 does nothing. A value with decimals (12.5) or that is not a number is invalid: the person comes in without the points, and the row shows a warning. Each person gets import points only once, across every import: in a second spreadsheet, whoever already got them stays as they are. With gamification off, the points are ignored.
• The summary shows the names outside the catalog, the invalid point values (with the row), who already got points before and which level people will land on. People who arrive through the import have no weekly activity yet, so a level that requires activity only comes later.
• Silently. Imported badges and points send no e-mail or bell notice and fire no workflows (Received a badge, Moved up a level, Reached N points). The badge-received webhook does go out, with the import origin. The e-mail invite to new people still goes out as usual.
• They apply to new people and to existing members.

#Decline the invite

Someone who was imported and doesn't want to take part has two ways out:

• From the email: the link Thanks for the invitation, but I do not want to join opens a community page, with no sign-in, with Confirm: I don't want to join.
• In the community: in My Account, the same sentence shows discreetly, with the explanation "You were added to this community by a list import."

On confirming, the person leaves the community and goes on the decline list: the community can no longer import or invite them. Their Memberfy account stays. They only come back by joining on their own, through open sign-up.

• The email link is valid for 30 days and stops working when the person accepts the invite (sets the password and signs in) or when their role changes. After that, to leave, they talk to whoever runs the community.
• Declining doesn't apply to team members (moderator, admin, finance) or to anyone with an active or pending subscription in the community: the person cancels the subscription first.
• The decline list also applies to the email invite and to New Member: whoever declined comes back as "Asked not to take part in this community", and no email goes out.

A single decline isn't a violation; many declines from the same list lead Memberfy to review the community. See the Invitation policy.

#Examples

An event with 220 attendees. The spreadsheet has a title in the first rows and the header on row 8. The organizers check the header row, send the Agreed to receive news column to Consent with Yes counting as yes, Ticket type to Tags and Company to + New custom field. The summary shows 97 new people, 109 without consent, 12 duplicates and 2 without email. They import; 97 invitations go out.

An association bringing in its base again. Half are already members. That half gets the Members 2026 group and fills in the Company that was empty, with no email; only the new people are invited.

#Common errors and how to fix them

#Frequently asked questions

Can I import without sending an email? No. Every new person gets the invitation, with the origin and the decline link: that's what lets them know where their data came from and say no.

Can I undo an import? There's no undo button. To remove someone, use Manage members.

Can I import someone who declined? No. Someone who declined only comes back by joining on their own.

The groups column has a name written differently from the group. The match ignores case and accents (engineering finds Engineering). A name that matches no group creates a new one, and the summary shows which before you import.

Does the consent column cover SMS? No. Consent decides who joins and gets the e-mail invite; SMS needs the SMS consent column and the attestation.

Can I import through Claude or ChatGPT? Yes: attach the spreadsheet to the conversation and ask. See the recipe Import a spreadsheet through the assistant.

#In the API

POST /api/members/imports (the file, as multipart), POST /api/members/imports/{id}/preview, POST /api/members/imports/{id}/start, GET /api/members/imports, GET /api/members/imports/{id}, GET /api/members/imports/{id}/errors.csv and GET /api/members/imports/{id}/file. Declining from the email link is GET /api/invite-opt-out/{token} (the page, no sign-in) and POST /api/invite-opt-out/{token} (the confirmation); signed in, POST /api/members/me/decline. SMS consent is the smsConsent target in the mapping, with the options smsConsentValues and smsConsentAttestation: true; WhatsApp consent is whatsappConsent, with whatsappConsentValues and whatsappConsentAttestation: true. The row warnings are CONSENT_WITHDRAWN (consent withdrawn, nothing recorded) and PHONE_KEPT_VERIFIED (another verified number was kept). See Member Imports in the API reference. The badges and points targets (one of each), with ignoreNames on the badges column for the names to ignore; without it, a name outside the catalog makes start return 400 memberImports.errors.badgesUnknown. The preview carries summary.badges (unknown, ignored, grants) and summary.points (rows, invalidCount, invalid, alreadyImported, gamificationOff and levels). The groupsExpireAt target (one column) gives the row's groups their end date; an invalid or past date becomes the INVALID_VALUE warning, and the groups have no end date. The row warnings are INVALID_POINTS, POINTS_ALREADY_IMPORTED and UNKNOWN_BADGE (the badge left the catalog during the import).

#Related

• Invitation and member import policy
• Invite members
• Custom fields
• Groups and org chart
• Tags
• SMS and WhatsApp notices
• Migrating from another platform