SELF-SERVE PEOPLE IMPORT
Moves through the mapper
- First and last name
- Work and personal email
- Preferred name
- Work phone and personal mobile
- Department and job title
- Start date and date of birth
- Work type
SPREADSHEET TO HOLLYHR · A CONTROLLED HANDOVER
Your HR spreadsheet has done its shift. Give it a clean handover.
Bring a CSV or Excel file. HollyHR suggests the column matches, shows five mapped rows for review and records the result, so your team can make the handover with control.
- Map before applying
- Five rows to review
- Results recorded
people-master.xlsx12 useful fields · 3 required ready
Suggested map12 people fields
Before anything changesPreview 5 rows
Named boundaryLeave, files and history stay outside the people import.
THE DIRECT ANSWER
How do you move HR from a spreadsheet?
Choose one signed-off source, remove obvious duplicates, upload CSV or .xlsx, check HollyHR's suggested field matches and preview the first five mapped rows. A System Admin can then import up to 500 rows at a time.
The importer creates or updates people by work email and records aggregate counts plus bounded warnings and errors. It does not move leave balances, documents, working-pattern history, custom fields or workflow state. Reconcile those as separate jobs instead of squeezing them into mystery columns.
MAP, THEN DECIDE
A suggestion is not consent. Check every useful column.
HollyHR recognises common headings, but the System Admin owns the final field map. Required fields stay visible, optional matches can be changed, and irrelevant columns can be left out. The preview shows the first five mapped rows so you can check the shape before applying the import.
- First name, last name and work email are required
- Existing people are matched by work email
- Apply resolves matches, limits and row failures
First nameFirst NameRequired
SurnameLast NameRequired
Work emailEmailRequired
TeamDepartmentSuggested
RoleJob TitleSuggested
Annual leave leftDo not importReview
What apply can resolve
New work emailA new people record can be addedCreated
Same-workspace emailAn existing profile can be changedUpdated
Invalid rowA bounded warning can explain whySkipped
History keeps aggregate counts and bounded issues.
THE MIGRATION PERIMETER
One useful people import, with every other stream assigned.
HollyHR accepts a deliberately useful people shape. That keeps the first move inspectable and makes the remaining work visible.
SEPARATE CUTOVER WORK
Needs its own reconciliation
- Leave balances and policy ledgers
- Documents and acknowledgements
- Manager and reporting-line history
- Working-pattern history
- Custom fields and old notes
- Workflow and audit history
Use synthetic or redacted samples for an early migration conversation. Do not send live employee data through a public form.
THE CUTOVER PLAN
Five calm steps. Each leaves something another person can check.
The aim is not a dramatic migration weekend. It is a short sequence with named evidence, cheap reversibility and no ambiguity about the live master.
- 01A dated, read-only source
Name the master
Choose one file, one owner and one cut-off. Stop fixing different copies in parallel.
- 02A usable people file
Clean what matters
Resolve duplicate emails, missing names, mixed date formats and departments nobody recognises.
- 03A reviewed field map
Map and preview
Let HollyHR suggest matches, adjust them deliberately and inspect the first five mapped rows.
- 04Known edge cases checked
Import a varied set
Include a future starter, a part-timer and someone already in HollyHR before the full run.
- 05One system to maintain
Reconcile, then invite
Read the aggregate result and bounded issues, spot-check the records and only then make HollyHR the live master.
THE FIT CHECK
Do not import the spreadsheet just because it exists.
A move is a chance to retire accidental process. Keep only information with a clear operational or retention reason, then put it in the part of HollyHR built to hold it.
Calculated cells
Keep the signed-off source for evidence. Recreate policy outcomes in the system that will own them.
Private notes
Decide whether each note has a lawful, current purpose before moving it into an employee record or document.
Old leavers
Move retained leaver data only when the purpose and deletion date are understood—not as a default archive dump.
Cutover receiptReady for named review draft
01
Every active person has one unique work email
02
First name, last name and email are mapped
03
Dates have been sampled after parsing
04
New department names are intentional
05
Leave and document work has a separate owner
06
The source file is dated and read-only
BEFORE THE INVITATIONS
Turn “looks about right” into a signed-off handover.
Import history records the file, provider, mapped and ignored columns, counts, warnings and errors, with bounded issue lists. Pair that aggregate record with a short human review of the people who exercise your awkward cases.
- Name the System Admin who ran the import
- Name the people used for spot checks
- Date the read-only source and final map
QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU MOVE
Answers worth having before access changes.
Use these answers to set owners, evidence and timing before the old system stops being your live source.
01Can HollyHR import Excel and CSV files?
Yes. A System Admin can upload CSV or .xlsx people files. The browser parses the file, suggests field matches and shows a five-row preview before import.
02Which spreadsheet fields can HollyHR import?
The current people importer maps 12 fields: first name, last name, work email, preferred name, personal email, work phone, personal mobile, department, job title, start date, date of birth and work type. First name, last name and work email are required.
03How many people can we import at once?
Up to 500 rows per import. Imports are also rate-limited to protect the workspace, so split a larger source into controlled, reviewed batches.
04What happens if somebody already exists?
HollyHR matches people by work email inside the target organisation. An existing profile is updated; a new email creates a person, subject to the plan's active-person limit.
05Does one bad row stop the whole import?
No. Rows are handled individually. Validation and plan-limit rows can be skipped; persistence and access conflicts can fail while other valid rows continue. Each successful row is written in its own transaction, so the batch is partial rather than all-or-nothing, and stored warning/error lists are bounded.
06Will HollyHR import leave balances or documents from a spreadsheet?
No. The self-serve importer is for the 12-field people shape. Leave balances, documents, history and configuration need an explicit reconciliation plan.
07Should we keep the old spreadsheet?
Keep a dated, read-only signed-off source for migration evidence and retention needs. Stop treating it as a second live master once HollyHR has been reconciled.
CHECK THE SOURCE
The facts behind this route.
Product limits come from the shipped HollyHR workflow. Supplier facts come from the supplier's own current guidance, reviewed 18 July 2026.
BRING THE AWKWARD ROWS
Planning a spreadsheet migration? Start with one clean source and a named owner.
Join the early-access list. If your team is invited, a synthetic or redacted sample can make the follow-up useful without sending live employee data through a public form.