Import from a spreadsheet

If your records live in a spreadsheet, you can bring them into Campfire in one go instead of typing them in. Fill in a template, upload it, check the preview, and import. Nothing is saved until you tap Import.

What you can import

Members: add people, update their details, link parents to their Scouts, and add roles. See Import members from a spreadsheet. Needs the Add Members or Edit Members permission.
Activities: camping nights, service hours and miles, one row per activity. Needs a permission to sign off advancement (Approve Rank Requirements, Approve Merit Badges or Manage Award Submissions).
Health form dates: exam dates, one row per member. Needs Manage Health Forms, and isn't offered if health forms are turned off under Features.
Past positions: leadership positions people held, with start and end dates. Needs Manage Roles & Permissions.
Events: calendar events, past or future, with the credits they give. Needs Create / Edit Events, or Edit Events to update events an earlier import added.
Attendance: who went to events that have ended. Needs RSVP for Other Members.
Advancement: dates for ranks, merit badges, awards and adventures, and their requirements. Needs the sign-off permission for each kind.
Account history: charges, credits and opening balances on family accounts. Needs Manage Finances, and Campfire Pro with finances turned on.

The person who created your unit in Campfire can import every type. If a type isn't available to you, the page says why. The last five are for bringing in history from another program; see Bring in your history.

How to import

Go to Account Settings → Organization → Import & export. Under Other ways to bring data in, find From a spreadsheet and tap Choose a template.
Under What to import, pick the kind of record. The page lists each column and what goes in it.
Tap Download template. It's a CSV file with just the header row. Fill in one row per record in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
Tap Choose file and pick your file. CSV and Excel (.xlsx) both work, up to 5,000 rows and 10 MB.
Look over the preview, settle any rows that need your choice, then tap Import.

Reading the preview

The preview shows how many rows will be added, changed, left as they are, or skipped. Below the counts:

Needs your choice: rows where Campfire can't tell who the row is about, because no one or several people have that name. For every type except members, pick the right person from the list, or Leave this row out. For members, see Import members from a spreadsheet. Rows you don't decide are left out.
Problems: rows that can't be imported, each with the row number and what to fix, such as "Date must look like 2019-06-14 or 6/14/2019."
Changes: every value an import will change on a record you already have, shown as old → new.

A preview lasts an hour. If someone changes the records between your preview and your import, Campfire asks you to upload the file again so you only ever import what you saw.

Filling in the file

Keep the header row. Columns Campfire doesn't know are ignored, and the preview lists them.
Dates can look like 2019-06-14 or 6/14/2019, or be a date cell in Excel.
In every type except Members and Events, name each person with their BSA member ID or their first and last name. A nickname works as a first name. Filling in Youth or adult helps when a parent and a Scout share a name. Former members match too, so you can bring in their history.
Templates have no Campfire ID column. Only files Campfire makes, like the roster download, carry it, so a file you download, edit and upload again updates the right people. The import still reads it if it's there.
If Excel turns long ID numbers into something like 1.36681E+08, Campfire turns the file away. Format those columns as Text, or start from a fresh download.

What an import never does

A blank cell changes nothing. To clear a value, edit it in the app.
Nothing is deleted. An import adds and updates. Only Undo removes what an import added.
No one is notified. No push, email or chat message goes out.
Nothing is added twice. Upload the same file again and its rows show as unchanged.

Activities

Columns: Type (camping, service, hiking, backpacking, cycling or aquatics), Amount (nights, hours or miles, up to 1,000), Date, and an optional Description. Your ID is optional too: put your own ID for the row there, and a later upload with the same ID updates that activity instead of adding another. Activities are saved as entries a leader added by hand, not tied to an event. See Bring in your history before importing past years.

Health form dates

Columns: Parts A and B date, which also sets the form to expire one year later, and Part C exam date, which marks the form as including Part C. Fill in one or both. A member without a health form in Campfire yet needs a Parts A and B date. Any form file already uploaded stays on the record.

Past positions, events, attendance, advancement and account history

Each has its own template and rules, such as event times, attendance on events with a cost, advancement that only fills blanks, and account history that is never recorded as payments. See Bring in your history.

Undo an import

Every import except a members import can be undone for 30 days. Find the import under Recent imports, on the Import & export page or the spreadsheet import page, and tap Undo.

Undo removes the records the import added.
Changes the import made to records you already had stay. To fix a wrong value, upload a corrected file.
Anything the import added that someone has edited in Campfire since stays, such as an activity with a corrected amount, a health form with a new exam date, notes or an uploaded form, or an event that was changed, canceled or already has RSVPs.

Member imports can't be undone

Adding people touches chats, families and roles, and that doesn't reverse cleanly. That's why the preview shows every change first. Fix a mistake by uploading a corrected file or editing the member in the app.