Import Household Members

Add information about multiple Household Members to your site in one pass with data import. Note that you can use this same procedure to add Household Addresses, Households, and Household Members in one process. Unless you need to use Household Labels for invoicing and voting processes, we recommend that you use this unified procedure to import all three forms of Household data simultaneously for greater accuracy and consistency. To determine exactly how to proceed with this data import, please read the topic titled “How to Decide If You Need to Use Households—and Optimize Your Data Imports (Including Members) If You Do” in the “Best Practices” section of this guide.

1. Click on the “Households” tab on the vertical Dashboard menu at the left side of the screen.
2. Click on the “Household Imports” tab.
3. In the “HOUSEHOLD IMPORTS” window that opens, click on the “Households Actions” button and choose “Import Household Members.”
4. In the “IMPORT HOUSEHOLDS” window that opens, click on the “DOWNLOAD IMPORT TEMPLATE” button and download the “import-household-members.csv” file to your computer.
• Always ensure that you download the template file when you actually are ready to use it. This ensures that your template is up to date. An outdated file could be missing newly added required data fields, which would cause errors when you attempt to import it.
5. This file requires Microsoft® Excel® or another spreadsheet program to open it.
6. Enter your Household Member data into the file, with one line for each Household Member. When you have finished, save the file and close it.
• To leverage the information you’ve already entered for individual members, build an import file from your existing Member data.
• In another browser tab or window, click on the “Membership” tab to open it and then on the “Members” tab. From the “Members Actions” button, choose “Download Member Data” to export and save the information about your existing members in a CSV file.
• Open this CSV file in your spreadsheet program. Select and copy the first and last name fields, the e-mail address, and the address information (lot number if available, country, both address fields, city, state, and ZIP Code). Note that you will need to copy and paste these data in several individual steps because the columns are not all next to one another in the same order in both CSV files.
• Paste this information into the “import-household-members.csv” file that you already downloaded.
• When you have finished, save the file and close it.
7. In the “IMPORT MEMBERS TO HOUSEHOLDS” window, click on the “Browse” button and locate the file you just saved. Click on the file name to highlight it and click on the “Open” button. (If you accidentally choose the wrong file, you can use the “Remove File” link to deselect it, or click on the “Cancel” button, press the “Esc” key, or click on the “X” in the top right corner of the window to stop the process.)
8. In the “IMPORT MEMBERS TO HOUSEHOLDS” window, click on the “Review Import” button.
   • In the “HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS IMPORT SUMMARY” window that opens, the “Summary” tab itemizes the numbers of new Household Members, Households, and Household Addresses, the numbers currently in the system, and the total numbers after import.
   • In the “HOUSEHOLDS MEMBERS IMPORT SUMMARY” window, the “Households” tab lists the household types, titles, and address information, and number of Members per Household that will be imported from your CSV file. If your import file does not include any new Households, the “Households” tab does not appear.
   • In the “HOUSEHOLDS MEMBERS IMPORT SUMMARY” window, the “Updated Households” tab lists the household types, titles, and address information that will update based on the data imported from your CSV file. If your import file does not update any Households, the “Updated Households” tab does not appear.
   • In the “HOUSEHOLDS MEMBERS IMPORT SUMMARY” window, the “Addresses” tab lists the lot numbers and address information that will be imported from your CSV file. If your import file does not include any new Addresses, the “Addresses” tab does not appear.
   • In the “HOUSEHOLDS MEMBERS IMPORT SUMMARY” window, the “Failed Rows” tab lists data rows from your CSV file that contain invalid data, along with an explanation of each error. If your import file contains no invalid data, the “Failed Rows” tab does not appear.
9. To complete the import process, click on the “Import” button.
   • If the “HOUSEHOLDS MEMBERS IMPORT SUMMARY” window lists invalid data in your import file, you may wish to exit the import process, correct the file and try again.
   • Click on the “Import” button to add the data from your CSV file.
10. To exit the the “IMPORT HOUSEHOLDS” window without completing the import process, click on the “Cancel” button, press the “Esc” key, or click on the “X” in the top right corner of the window.