Import people and teams

Prepare the file

An administrator opens Account menu → Manage organization → People → Import CSV. Select Download the template, fill it in, and export a UTF-8 CSV. The import accepts up to 2,000 data rows and a 2 MB file; team-only rows count toward that limit.

Keep all six headings exactly once. You can change their order.

Use one row per person. Names and team names can contain up to 80 characters. A parent or manager can appear later in the file. Parents must already exist or have their own row; use the immediate name, such as Sales, rather than a path such as Organization / Sales.

For a team with no direct members, leave Name, Email, and Hire date blank and fill the team columns. If several rows name the same team, their nonblank parent and manager values must agree.

This example creates a Sales branch, gives Maya responsibility for it, and adds Eli to its Enterprise subteam:

Name,Email,Hire date,Team,Parent team,Team manager email
Maya Chen,maya@example.com,,Sales,Organization,maya@example.com
Eli Martin,eli@example.com,2027-01-01,Enterprise,Sales,
,,,Enablement,Organization,maya@example.com

The last row creates Enablement without adding a person. Maya can manage Enablement while belonging directly to Sales; a manager's reporting responsibility is independent of their own team membership.

Understand what the file preserves

For existing records, a blank optional cell preserves the current name, hire date, direct team, parent, or manager. A blank does not clear that value. Use People or Teams to make a deliberate clearing change.

For new people, a blank Team places them directly in Organization. For new teams, a blank Parent team places them under Organization. Enter Organization explicitly to move an existing person or team there. Manage the built-in Organization team's manager in Teams, rather than through the CSV.

Email matching and team-name matching ignore letter case and surrounding spaces. The file is not a replacement roster: omitted people and teams remain. However, changing a team's parent or manager can affect omitted people who belong to that branch; the review includes those consequences.

New people are preregistered as Learners. Naming a Learner as a team manager promotes them to Manager; existing Contributor and Administrator roles are retained. The CSV has no general role or learning-group columns, does not remove direct group memberships, and sends no invitation email. New people still need their first verified Google sign-in.

A new person without a hire date is an Existing user. Supplying a hire date changes the onboarding clock; saved course deadlines stay fixed unless separately recalculated. See Due dates.

Review and import

1. Select Choose CSV file, then Review file. Reviewing does not apply roster changes.
2. Inspect People and Teams. Open a row's details to compare supplied, kept, default, and calculated values, and inspect affected people.
3. Open Issues. Fix blocking errors, such as duplicate emails, conflicting team definitions, missing parents or managers, invalid dates, or a hierarchy cycle. Download issues gives you a list to work from.
4. Review notices and the effects on assigned courses, relevant updates, and manager reporting. Notices may describe intentional changes, such as a missing hire date or reactivation.
5. If you corrected the file, go Back, choose the revised CSV, and review it again.
6. Select Import when the review matches your intent. After it finishes, inspect the resulting People and Teams records.

Search and review filters help inspect the proposal; they do not choose a subset to import. Resolve every blocking issue before applying the file. If the organization changes after the review, Fieldbook requires a fresh review.

Review deleted or inactive people carefully

A recoverable deleted person matched by email receives a warning in the review: Import will restore and reactivate their account. This removes them from Recently deleted and restores access as part of the import. It differs from manual restoration, which returns an inactive Learner.

The import preserves the person's identity and saved history but does not reinstate their former privileges or memberships. The restored person starts from Learner with no direct groups; the CSV can supply a team and can promote them to Manager if it names them as a team manager.

People whose recovery window has ended, whose permanent deletion has started, or whose deletion lock is unfinished cannot be imported as a routine new record. Follow the reported issue and inspect Recently deleted. For an ordinary inactive person who has not been deleted, review and resolve their access in People before importing.

Resolve an uncertain result

If the save could not be confirmed, keep the dialog open and use Retry Import. It checks the same operation, including whether it already succeeded. Do not assume a connection failure means nothing changed.

If Fieldbook says Import saved, but People could not be refreshed, use Reload People. The roster change is already saved; this action reloads the result. If you closed an uncertain import, inspect People and Teams before preparing another change.