Importing users through CSV
The fastest way to add or modify your users in bulk
Barry Huang avatar
Written by Barry Huang
Updated over a week ago

Importing a .csv file is the fastest way to add or modify or deactivate several employees at once, and this functionality is available to all company administrators.

One recommended way to utilize it is by exporting a .csv file of employees from your HR system of record, updating it to match our column headers and format, making your desired changes, and importing it to TravelBank.

Before getting started, here’s a refresher on how Departments work on TravelBank, in case you need it. Having the right department structure is important to formatting your CSV correctly.

Here’s how the CSV import works:

  1. In the sidebar: Company Settings > click “Import” at the top of the page in the “Employees” section.

  2. Upload your .csv file. Please ensure your file is formatted with the correct headers and each row has valid values, as outlined below. The easiest starting point is to download the template provided in that dialog, also available here. You can also use a tool such as csvlint.io to validate your file.These are the exact column headers, and valid values, that you’ll need:

  3. Employee ID: This is an optional field that you can use to track any unique ID associated with each employee in your internal HR systems of record. TravelBank simply stores this value and does not use it in any way

  4. First Name: Employee’s first name. Can either be blank, or between 2 - 50 characters.

  5. Last Name: Employee’s last name. Can either be blank, or between 2 - 50 characters.

  6. Departments: The department(s) that employee belongs to. If employee belongs to multiple departments, separate them with a comma (for example, “General,Sales,Support”). TravelBank will create Departments that do not already exist, and then add respective employees to them Department names must be between 2-255 characters.

  7. Manager Emails: The email of the employee's manager or approver. The department(s) for which employee is the first-line approver. If employee is approver for multiple departments, separate them with a comma (for example, “General,Sales,Support”). TravelBank will create Departments that do not already exist and make the employee an approver for them. Department names must be between 2-255 characters.

  8. is Admin: If you’d like to grant this employee Administrator privileges to your company’s TravelBank account, input “True” here. Otherwise, input “False” or simply leave blank.

Other general restrictions:

  1. File type must be .csv; TravelBank does not accept other file formats at this time

  2. File must contain the header rows as written exactly above (if in doubt, simply download our template) and must have at least one row of data

  3. File can be no larger than 10,000 rows. If you have more than 10,000 users to bulk-add or edit, please split into multiple files

Once you've imported the file:

  1. New employees that have been invited.

  2. Existing employees: If there were any updates, those changes will be reflected, else the employees’ data will remain the same.

  3. New department names which we encountered, and for which we’ll create as new departments.

  4. If you choose to "Deactivate Excluded Users" any employees missing from the CSV will be deactivated in TravelBank's system. You will be prompted to confirm the changes.

Review the changes. The blue “Accept” button will display the number of changes, click to apply these changes. Otherwise, click “Cancel” to discard the changes, and try again by uploading a different .csv.

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