Moving a member list out of a spreadsheet goes smoothly in five steps: clean the sheet, agree on one set of columns, import it once, check the duplicates, and retire the old file so nobody keeps editing it. The import itself takes minutes. The cleaning is where the time goes — and it is worth doing, because every mess you import you will meet again later.
Step 1: Find every copy of the list
Most groups have more than one list: the main sheet, the treasurer’s copy, a sign-up form export, and the contacts on the organizer’s phone. Gather them all before you start. Pick the most complete one as the base and merge the others into it.
Step 2: Clean before you import
- One person per row. Split rows that hold a couple or a family into separate people.
- First name and last name in separate columns.
- One email and one phone per person, in the same format for everyone.
- Delete test rows, blank rows, and people who asked to be removed.
- Sort by last name and email to spot obvious duplicates by eye.
Step 3: Agree on one set of columns
Keep the columns that you will actually use: first name, last name, email, phone, a few tags (such as “volunteer” or “junior”), and a household name if families matter to you. Columns like “notes 2” or “old phone” usually do not survive the move — and that is fine. If a column is important but unusual, keep it as a custom field.
Tags are more useful than many yes/no columns. Instead of a column for each team or role, put the labels in one tags column, separated by semicolons.
Step 4: Import once, and check the result
Save the cleaned sheet as a CSV file and import it. A good import shows you a preview before anything is saved: which rows are new, which look like people already in the list, and which are missing something. Fix problems in the sheet and import again rather than patching hundreds of records by hand afterwards.
Step 5: Retire the spreadsheet
This is the step people skip, and it is why lists split again. Once the import is checked, rename the old file to say it is archived, move it out of the shared folder, and tell everyone where the list lives now. From that day, changes happen in one place only.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Importing before cleaning, then fixing the same errors one record at a time.
- Keeping the old spreadsheet “just in case” where people can still edit it.
- Inventing many columns you will never fill in.
- Forgetting people who asked not to be contacted.
Doing this in Kanbei
Kanbei has a CSV template with first name, last name, email, phone, tags, and household columns. Its import shows a preview before saving, marks people who are already in Kanbei so they are skipped, and can also bring people in from phone contacts (.vcf), Google Contacts, Outlook, Mailchimp, Brevo, and MailerLite. People can be grouped into households and tagged, with custom fields for anything else. It costs $20 a month for the whole organization, with unlimited members.