Available for the following plans: Employment Plus, Employment Unlimited Available for the following HR plans: Premium, Platinum
Available for the following user access level: Admin
Updating your employee records individually is a time-consuming process, which is why a CSV bulk uploading feature is essential. This article explains how to use the Import Employees feature. This lets you choose from a pre-prepared template or your own CSV file and then bulk upload the data to your HR platform. It also includes a field mapping product so you can customise the location of specific data fields in your CSV file.
Helpful Hint
Currently, you cannot use the Bulk Import feature to update Account Emails. This is due to the Account Email being used to map the changes in the CSV File to the correlating HR File.
Interactive learning
Getting started
Important
Within your CSV file, address details, such as street address and country, will need to be grouped together for a successful import.
Warning
Please do not delete any of the columns in your CSV file. If you delete or remove columns in your CSV file and upload it into the platform, this will result in clearing some of your data on the platform too. This will lead to errors and affect your records and system.
- Click the People menu.
- Click the Import Employees submenu.
- Choose the template you need:
- Update Employee Employment Details.
- Advanced Import Employees (including pay details).
- Quick Import Employees.
- Update Employee Custom Fields.
- Choose whether to:
- Include existing user information.
- Include terminated users.
- Click the Download button.
- Enter the required details in the template you downloaded.
- Save the changes you made to the file.
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To upload the edited file, you can choose to do one of the following actions:
- Click the Upload tile and select the file; or
- Drag the file to the Upload tile.
- Click the Yes button.
- Map the columns in the CSV file to the correct fields in the HR platform.
Important
If the Contract Type column is included in the CSV then it must have one of the available options (Permanent or Fixed Term) filled in. It cannot be left blank.
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Click the Continue button.
Helpful Hint
The platform will show a list of any errors that need to be corrected. Otherwise, you will see the Imported Successfully page, where you can see the number of employee records created or updated.
You can click the Go to Employee Page button to view them.
Helpful Hint
This will trigger email invitations to new employees that you have just imported, inviting them to create their HR/Employment Hero Work account password in Employment Hero Work app, and begin the onboarding process.
FAQs
We recommend you use the pre-prepared sample CSV templates available. We have listed some tips on how to best use these templates and guarantee a successful upload of your data below:
- We recommend adding a personal email in the Account Email column. This means that employees will still be able to log in to access their read-only employee information after they leave your organisation.
- Do not use a generic email for your employees, for example, info@company.com.
- If you receive any error messages during your upload, the error message always corresponds to the following row. For example, an error in row one means the error is in row two, and so on.
- Fields with an asterisk are mandatory fields, and you must complete these fields.
- Follow all naming conventions referenced in the column headers of your CSV. For example, if an employee is in multiple teams (such as HR, Admin, and Payroll), you must separate those team names with the following symbol: | (in other words, it should look like this: John Smith HR | Admin | Payroll).
- In the Update Employee Employment Details csv, Start Dates and Job Titles are interdependent. You can not complete one field without the other.
- In the Advanced Import Employees (including Pay Details) csv, Salary and Pay Details effective date are interdependent. You can not complete one field without the other.
- Downloading the Advanced Import Employees (including Pay Details) csv removes the leading zeroes from sort codes and account numbers. You must reformat these columns by making the column custom and adding six zeros for sort codes and eight zeros for account numbers.
We recommend you have your employees data in Employment Hero before you assign their teams and managers. You can then use the Update Employment Details template to assign teams and primary/secondary managers to employees in bulk.
| CSV Column Name. | Platform Field Location. | Notes. |
|---|---|---|
| First name. | Personal details. | |
| Last name. | Personal details. | |
| Account email. | Personal details. | |
| Location. | Employment details. |
| CSV Column Name. | Platform Field Name. | Notes. |
|---|---|---|
| Primary cost centre. | Employment details. | |
| Additional cost centres. | Employment details. | Separate additional cost centres with a |. |
| Primary manager email. | Employment details. | |
| Salary | Pay details: Salary history. | |
| Salary option | Pay details: Salary history. | |
| Pay schedule. | Pay details: Salary history. | |
| Pay category. | Pay details: Salary history. | |
| Pay details. | Pay details: Salary history. | |
| Leave allowance template. | Pay details: Salary history. |
Troubleshooting
If you receive general errors when bulk-updating employees via a CSV file, try splitting them into separate files based on key differences (such as employment type). Then, upload each file separately.
For example, if your CSV includes both hourly and salaried employees and you encounter an error, move the hourly employees into a separate file. Upload the salaried employees first, followed by the hourly employees. This helps prevent formatting issues and ensures a smoother update process.
Important
If an import error occurs in the platform, it will show which row contains the error. However, note that the platform starts counting from the first employee in your CSV file and ignores the heading row.
For example, if the platform reports an error on row 10, look at row 11 in your Excel file to find and fix the issue.
- From the platform, re-download the file that had the import error.
- Open the downloaded file and fix the errors. (The errors will appear in red text in the Resolve Errors section and will display the row in which the error needs to be resolved.)
- Re-upload the corrected CSV file.
| Additional spaces | If a cell contains a space at the beginning or end, it can cause an upload error. To prevent this, check for and remove any extra spaces before uploading your file. |
| Format errors |
When copying from Excel to CSV, the format changes. This also changes the data, most often with numbers that have leading zeros, such as BSBs and phone numbers. You will need to reformat the column to a custom format that includes the zero. |
| Adding hyphens |
TFNs and BSBs are the most common to have added hyphens. There should not be hyphens in these sections. |
| Data missing from columns linked to other columns |
When inputting data into certain columns, you will need to fill out others. Examples are the super columns, banking columns, and tax columns. If you do not have all the data, it is better to delete all these related columns before upload. You can come back instead when you have the data. |
| Missing column header |
Ensure every column has a header and that no data exists in a cell without a corresponding header. |
| Uploading the advanced spreadsheet when Payroll settings are turned off | The platform will not allow this action. You need to delete all columns that have disappeared along with payroll settings, and then upload. |
| Missing surnames | Ensure every employee has a surname. If any surnames are missing, either remove those employees from the file or add the missing surnames. |
| Blank columns | If optional columns (e.g., Cost Centre and Primary & Secondary Managers) have no data, delete them from the CSV to prevent errors. Keep only mandatory fields marked with asterisks. |
| Missing mandatory fields | Ensure all mandatory fields (marked with an asterisk) are filled out before uploading. Missing mandatory fields will cause the upload to fail. |
| Leading zeros appear in dates | If leading zeros appear in dates where they are not allowed, revise the formatting rules and remove them. |
| General errors persist | If general errors persist, try uploading a smaller dataset (e.g., a file with only three employees) to manually pinpoint errors before uploading the full list. |
Further information
Field locations that support <<clear>> feature
When using the Personal Details platform field location, you can only use the <<clear>> feature in the following columns:
- Address_Country.
- Address_Postcode.
- Address_State.
- Address_Suburb.
- Address_line 2
- Address_line 1.
- Date of birth [dd/mm/yyyy].
- Gender [Female | Male | Non-binary | Prefer not to say].
- Home phone.
- Marital status [Single | Married | In a Relationship].
- Middle name.
- Preferred name.
- Nationality.
- Personal mobile number.
- Preferred name.
- Title [Mr | Ms | Mrs | Miss | Dr | Mx].
When using the Employment Details platform field location, you can only use the <<clear>> feature in the following columns:
- Company email.
- Company landline.
- Company mobile.
- Length of probation.
- Employee code.
- Primary cost centre.
- Primary manager email.
- Secondary manager's email.
- Team [separate multiple teams with ' | ' e.g. Accounts | Engineering | Sales].
When using the Emergency Contacts platform field location, can only use the <<clear>> feature in the following columns:
- EmergencyContact1_Name
- EmergencyContact1_Relationship
- EmergencyContact1_Phone (daytime)
- EmergencyContact1_Phone (after hours)
- EmergencyContact1_Mobile
CSV fields that need to be updated together
If you need to update the bank account details stored on your HR platform in bulk, you will need to update all the following fields together:
- BankAccount1_AccountName.
- BankAccount1_AccountNumber.
- BankAccount1_AllocatedPercentage (Not applicable for Xero payroll).
- BankAccount1_FixedAmount (Will always hold the remaining balance. Please enter 'Remaining').
You can only have one of the below columns in a row:
- BankAccount1_AllocatedPercentage (Not applicable for Xero payroll).
- BankAccount1_FixedAmount (Will always hold the remaining balance. Please enter 'Remaining').
- Sync with payroll
If you need to update the Employment History details stored on your HR platform in bulk, you will need to update all the following fields together:
- Employment type (Full-time | Part-time | Casual).
- Job title.
- Start date (dd/mm/yyyy).
If you need to update the KiwiSaver details stored on your HR platform in bulk, you will need to update all the following fields together:
- Is KiwiSaver Enrolment Status [Automatically Enrol/Opt In/Savings Suspension/Opt Out/Not Enrolled/Ineligible]
- KiwiSaver Ineligibility Reason [Not A Citizen Permanent Resident/Not Normally Living In New Zealand/Under 18 Years Of Age]
- KiwiSaver Employee Contribution [3, 4, 6, 8, 10%]
- KiwiSaver Employer Contribution %
- KiwiSaver Opt Out Date [dd/mm/yyyy]
- KiwiSaver Savings Suspension From Date [dd/mm/yyyy]
- KiwiSaver Savings Suspension To Date [dd/mm/yyyy]
If you need to update the Pay details stored on your HR platform in bulk, you will need to update all the following fields together:
- Salary.
- Salary option (Annum | Month | Fortnight | Hour | Day).
You will need to enter data into the CSV column 'Pay details - Effective from' if you update any of the of the following columns:
- Salary.
- Salary option (Annum | Month | Fortnight | Hour | Day).
- Override template rate.
- Pay schedule.
- Pay category.
- Leave allowance template.
- Kiwisaver (%).
Explore related content
- How Do I Assign Admin Access This FAQ answers a common question we receive around how do I assign an employee admin access to our platform?
- How Do I Re-activate a Terminated Employee This FAQ answers a common question we receive around how to re-activate a terminated employee.