Upload constituent data to Constituent Manager

In this Article

• Complete the datasheet
• Download your datasheet with the right file extension
• Upload the datasheet

This article explains how to create new or updated Constituent Manager profiles using a data spreadsheet upload. Before you begin, make sure you see the Import Data option in Constituent Manager > Settings.

Note: If you do not see this link, please contact Finalsite Support to have that option enabled.

If you do see this menu item, you’re ready to complete your datasheet and upload the data to Constituent Manager.

Go to the Downloads section of the Knowledge Base to find the datasheet templates for faculty, students and parents, and alumni. Open the template for the role you want to upload in your favorite spreadsheet software, such as Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

Complete the datasheet

Once you’ve downloaded the datasheet template and started working in it, you’ll need to populate it with constituent data. It may be advantageous to start by uploading only a few constituents at a time, until you are familiar with the process.

You can only populate one role at a time, so choose one file to start with. We recommend starting with faculty.

Refer to Populate constituent datasheet templates or the instructions in each template for specific details about how to complete each datasheet.

Download your datasheet with the right file extension

Step 1: .tsv format

If using Google Sheets, select Download As in the File menu and Download your datasheet as a Tab Separated Values file (.tsv) into a location where you can access the file. 

Step 2: .txt format

Once you have the .tsv file, rename the file manually so that the new file extension is .txt. 

Upload the datasheet

With your datasheet saved and ready, go to Constituent Manager > Settings > Import Data > Constituent Profile Data, and click “Continue” to open the upload utility.

Click Choose File to select the Unicode .txt version of your datasheet.

Click Import to begin the import of the datasheet.

Select the correct items from the dropdown menus:

• Constituent Role: For this example, we’ll use Faculty & Staff. When uploading, select the appropriate role for the datasheet you’re using. Choose Student as the role when uploading the relationships.
• Match Criteria: Use the importID option whenever possible. Using the FirstName LastName option isn’t always accurate, because you may have more than one John Smith at your school.
• Constituent Origin: Because we’re using Finalsite’s datasheet template, we’ll put Finalsite System Default as the source for this data upload. If this data was coming from an export from another student information system, we would indicate that here.
• Constituent Feed: Because Finalsite System Default is the constituent origin, the only option here is finalsite.

Make sure the Uploaded Columns and the Database Columns match. This will go a long way toward preventing errors in the upload.

Ensure that the checkboxes under New and Update are both checked for the columns you are uploading. You can determine which rows are imported on the following screen.

Once you have verified the columns, click Confirm Data to move to the next step.

On this screen, you can confirm that all the data appears the way you expect it to. If any of the column headers don’t match the data that’s below it, click Redefine import fields to go back to the previous step and select the correct field(s) from the dropdown menu. If everything appears correct, click Import Data Now.

The import may take a few minutes to process. Once the import has completed, you’ll see a table of your new and updated Constituent Manager profiles with OK next to each row.

After you have finished uploading, always check the profiles in Constituent Manager to make sure everything looks correct!