Church Admin Plugin

Import Schedule CSV

⭐ Premium

The Import Schedule CSV screen lets you bulk-create or update rota entries by uploading a spreadsheet rather than filling in each slot individually on screen. Useful when you plan the rota in a spreadsheet and want to import it in one step, or when migrating from another rota system.

Go to Church Admin → Schedule → Import schedule CSV.

Downloading the template

Before importing, download the CSV template from the screen. The template contains the correct column headers and an example row showing the expected format. Fill it in with your rota data and save it as a CSV file before uploading.

CSV format

The CSV requires the following columns — the order must match the template exactly:

  • date — the service date in YYYY-MM-DD format, for example 2025-10-05
  • service_id — the numeric ID of the service this rota entry belongs to. Find service IDs in Church Admin → Sites & Services — each service’s ID appears in the URL when you click Edit on it.
  • rota_id — the numeric ID of the schedule job (rota task). Find job IDs in Church Admin → Schedule → Schedule jobs — each job’s ID appears in the URL when you click Edit.
  • rota_entry — the text to enter in the slot, typically a person’s name or a free-text entry such as a sermon title. This is what appears in the rota for that date and job.
  • people_id — the Church Admin directory ID of the person being rostered, if the slot is linked to a person record rather than just free text. Enter the people_id to connect the slot to a directory entry so the person receives schedule notifications. Leave blank for free-text entries like sermon titles. Find people IDs by searching in Church Admin → People — the ID appears in the URL when you open a person record.

Uploading the CSV

  1. Click Choose File and select your completed CSV
  2. Click Upload
  3. The screen processes each row in turn and reports the result — either confirming the entry was saved or reporting an error for that row

If a rota entry already exists for the same date, service, and job, it is updated with the new value from the CSV. If no entry exists, a new one is created. This means the import is safe to run more than once — rerunning it with corrected data updates existing entries rather than creating duplicates.

Common errors

  • Invalid date format — dates must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. Excel may reformat dates automatically when you open a CSV — if this happens, format the date column as Text in Excel before filling it in.
  • Unknown service_id — the service ID doesn’t match any service in Church Admin. Check the ID against your services list.
  • Unknown rota_id — the job ID doesn’t match any schedule job. Check the ID against your jobs list.
  • Unknown people_id — the person ID doesn’t match any directory record. Leave people_id blank if you only want free-text entries without a directory link.

After importing

Go to Church Admin → Schedule and review the rota for the imported dates to confirm everything looks correct. If any slots are missing or incorrect, fix the CSV and re-import — existing entries will be updated rather than duplicated.

Run the non-availability clash check after importing to identify any rostered people who have declared themselves unavailable on the imported dates. See Non-availability clash check.

Editing with CSV instead of importing from scratch

If you prefer to export the existing rota, edit it in a spreadsheet, and reimport it, use the CSV export first to get a file with the correct IDs already populated. See CSV schedule export. Then make your changes and import the updated file.

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