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Bulk Import

This feature is available to users with the User Manager role. See Roles

The Bulk Import feature, located under the User Management section, allows administrators to onboard many learners at once from a spreadsheet instead of creating accounts one at a time. The workflow is staged around a preview and review step so you can verify your column mapping before any accounts are created.

Preparing Your Import File

A valid CSV or Excel (.xls / .xlsx) file is required. At minimum, each row must contain a Full Name and an Identifier (username).

Additional columns you can include:

  • Email address
  • Phone number (required if you want to deliver credentials via SMS)
  • Group name — a column whose value is the name of the group to assign each user to. Different rows can have different group names in this column; the system will look up each group by name and create it automatically if it does not already exist.

Tip

There is no required column order. The import tool lets you map any column header to the appropriate field, so you can use whatever file layout suits your existing data.

Step-by-Step Import Process

Step 1 — Upload Your File

Navigate to User Management > Bulk Import and upload your spreadsheet. The system will parse the file and display a preview of the first rows.

License Capacity Check

If the total number of rows in your file exceeds your remaining available license seats, the preview is blocked immediately. You will see a message indicating how many rows were submitted and how many seats remain. No accounts are created at this point.

Step 2 — Map Columns & Configure Options

In the preview screen, map each column in your file to one of the following fields:

Field Required? Notes
Full Name ✅ Required Display name for the user.
Identifier ✅ Required Unique username for login.
Email Optional Used to deliver login credentials.
Phone Optional Used for SMS credential delivery if SMS Consent is enabled.
Group Optional Assigns each user to the named group; group is created automatically if it doesn't exist.
(Ignore column) — Use this to skip any column you don't want to import.

Options to confirm before importing:

  • Do not import the first row (headings): Check this box if your file has a header row to prevent it from being treated as a user.
  • The identifier field is also the user's email address: Check this box if the identifier column contains email addresses — the system will use the same value as both the login identifier and the email address.

Step 3 — Select Groups & Roles to Apply to All Rows

Optionally, select one or more groups and/or roles to apply uniformly to every user in the import file, regardless of any group column value per row. This is in addition to any per-row group assignments from a mapped group column.

If your file includes a phone number column, you will be asked whether the imported users have consented to receive their initial login credentials via SMS.

SMS Consent

The SMS Consent checkbox must be checked for the system to send credentials to a mobile phone number. This consent is used solely to deliver the one-time initial password and is cleared immediately after credentials are sent.

If no email or SMS channel is available for a user, their temporary password will be displayed once on screen at the end of the import for you to communicate manually.

Step 5 — Confirm & Run Import

Click Confirm Import. The system performs a final license capacity check at this point. If capacity has changed since the preview step and there are no longer enough seats, the import is cancelled and you are returned to the import screen.

For each row, the system validates independently:

  • Name and identifier are required and must be unique across existing users and within the file itself.
  • If a phone number column is mapped, the number must pass phone format validation.
  • Rows that fail validation are skipped and recorded as failures — they do not prevent valid rows in the same file from being created. The import summary will report the total number of successes and failures.

Successfully created users receive their login credentials via email or SMS (where available and consented), following the same process as manually created accounts.

File Deletion

Your uploaded file is automatically deleted from the platform's storage as soon as processing finishes, regardless of outcome, to limit how long raw data is retained.

Import History

Every completed import is saved as a batch record in the import history, allowing you to review and manage past imports over time.

Reviewing a Past Import

Navigate to User Management > Bulk Import > Import History. Each batch shows:

  • The original filename
  • Total users created vs. rows that failed validation
  • A paginated list of the users linked to that import (including any that have since been deactivated)

Bulk Deactivating Users from an Import

Click Trash Import Users on a batch to deactivate (soft-delete) all users still linked to that import in one action. This is useful for quickly offboarding an entire cohort.

Deleting an Import History Record

Click Delete on a batch to remove the import history record itself.

Delete vs. Deactivate Import

Deleting an import batch record only removes the historical record; it does not delete or deactivate the user accounts that were created. To remove the user accounts, use Trash Import Users first, or deactivate users individually from the Manage Users screen.