Bulk-import employees via CSV file

James Nixon

Updated 11 March 2025 05:01

EH Content Team

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.

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Getting started

Upload a CSV file

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:
- Advanced Import Employees (including pay details)
- Quick Import Employees
- Update Employee Employment Details
- 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.
Upload the file by entering it in the tile named Click or Drag file(s) here to upload.
Click the Yes button.
Map the columns in the CSV file to the correct fields in the HR platform.

Note: 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.
Click the Continue button.

If there are no errors detected by the platform, you will now see the Imported Successfully page, which will list the number of employee records that have been both created and updated.

Otherwise, the platform will now present a list of errors in the data that you will first need to correct.

Note: Once you have successfully finished the import process, automatic email invitations will be sent to the new employees that you have just imported. Those emails will invite the new employees to create their HR/Employment Hero Work account password in their Employment Hero Work app, which is needed to begin the onboarding process.

Further information

How do I get the most out of this feature?

We recommend using the pre-prepared sample CSV templates available.

We have also listed some tips below on how to best use these templates as well as important things to keep in mind so you can ensure a successful CSV upload:

Add a personal email in the Account Email column. Employees will then still be able to log in to access their read-only information after they leave your organisation.
Do not use a generic email for your employees (such as 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.
Always ensure mandatory fields (those with asterisks) are filled out properly.
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).
Start dates and job titles are interdependent in the CSV that's named 'Update Employee Employment Details'. You can not complete one field without the other.
Salary and Pay Details effective date are interdependent in the CSV named 'Advanced Import Employees (including Pay Details)'. You can not complete one field without the other.
Downloading the CSV named 'Advanced Import Employees (including Pay Details)' removes the leading zeroes from sort codes and account numbers. You must reformat these columns by making the column custom. This is so you can add six zeros for sort codes and eight zeros for account numbers where required.

How do I update employee teams and reporting lines?

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.

General issues

Adding spaces.	Any cell that starts or ends with a space will cause an error in the upload.
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.	Bank details 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.
Deleting a column header.	Check that all headers are present and that there are not any data in a cell with no header.
Uploading the advanced spreadsheet when Payroll settings are turned off.	The platform will not allow this action. You would need to delete all columns that disappeared along with payroll settings, and then upload.

Importing errors

If an import error occurs, the Payroll classic platform will outline which row the error has occurred on. Please note that the platform will start counting the rows from the first employee on your CSV file, it does not consider the heading row. This means if an error is listed on row 10 for example, please refer to row 11 on your Excel file to resolve the issue.
To resolve import errors, follow the below steps:

Download the attached file in Step 1.
Open the downloaded file and fix the errors. The errors will appear in the red text and will display the row in which the error needs to be resolved.
Re-upload the corrected CSV file.

A - F

ABN	Incorrect number of digits.
Account Columns	Hyphens being included. Not 6 digits. Including alpha characters. Space between digits 3 and 4.
Account email	Account emails can only be changed within the person’s profile, not via CSV. If you change someone’s account email in the CSV, you will create a new employee.
Account Number Columns	Spaces in the numbers. Hyphens in the numbers. Including alpha characters.
Additional Cost Centres	Adding ‌a cost centre before updating from Payroll classic. If it has been added to the Payroll classic platform and not re-synced to Employment Hero, Employment Herowill think it does not exist. Not utilising the "\|" symbol to separate multiple additional cost centres.
Allocated Percentage Columns	Empty for those with multiple accounts.
Anniversary date [dd/mm/yyyy]	Not in dd/mm/yyyy format.
Classification	Misspelling. Inputting a combination that does not exist.
Company Landline	Leading zero being dropped. Spaces being added.
Company Mobile	Leading zero being dropped. Spaces being added.
Contract type [Permanent\|Fixed term]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed. Leaving blank for Full-time or Part-time employment types. Head to the 'Contract Type' column in your CSV file and enter either Permanent or Fixed Term, depending on the employees employment status.
Contract type is only applicable for full-time and part-time employment types.	Ensure the 'Contract Type' field is left blank for independent contractors Anniversary Date: If an employee is assigned to an award (Classification, Industrial Instrument and/or Pay rate Template), they will need to have an anniversary date listed. This is the anniversary date of the pay rate and indicates when the employee may be eligible for their next pay increase based on the award settings.
Could not assign the correct Pay Rate Template to employee	This error occurs when the pay rate template listed in the CSV data does not align with the classification and/or industrial instrument selected for the employee. Please ensure the correct pay rate template is listed.
Date of birth	Not in dd/mm/yyyy format.
Employing Entity	Misspelling.
Employment type [Full-time \| Part-time \| Casual]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed.
End Date	Not in dd/mm/yyyy format.
ESA	Details missing from one column that is related to the others.
Fixed Amount Columns	Leaving empty.

G - L

Gender [Female \| Male \| Non-binary \| Prefer not to say]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed.
Home Phone	Leading zero being dropped. Spaces being added.
Industrial Instrument	Misspelling. Inputting a combination that does not exist.
Job Title	Leaving empty.
Leave allowance templates	To rename leave allowance templates (LATs) in the payroll platform so that the same name is not used against different templates. If awards are in use, it may be helpful to amend the name of the template to include the award number at the end to help differentiate the LATs.
Line 1 contains empty header or columns	This occurs when the CSV file has empty columns at the end of the document. To open this, open the file, delete or all needed 'Columns' and then save as CSV again.
Line 0 unfortunately an error has occurred	This error tends to occur when mandatory columns are removed from the CSV file. For more information on what columns are required when updating certain fields, please refer to the section CSV fields that need updating together in this article.

M - R

Marital status [Single \| Married \| In a Relationship]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed.
Nationality	Listing a nationality that is not listed. Misspelling.
Pay category	Misspelling. Inputting an option that does not exist in your platform.
Pay details - Effective from [dd/mm/yyyy]	Not in dd/mm/yyyy format. Not updating this field when you are attempting to create a new salary line. Please ensure a date is listed in the Pay details - effective from column.
Pay Rate Template	Misspelling. Inputting a combination that does not exist.
Pay schedule	Misspelling. Inputting an option that does not exist in your platform.
Personal Mobile Number	Leading zero being dropped. Spaces being added.
Primary Cost Centre	Adding ‌a cost centre before updating from Payroll. If it has been added to the Payroll platform and not re-synced to HR, HR will think it does not exist. Not utilising the "\|" symbol to separate multiple additional cost centres.
Primary Manager Email	Putting an email that is not the account email for the manager. Putting the manager’s name instead of an email.

S - Z

Salary option [Annum \| Month \| Fortnight \| Hour]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed.
Secondary Manager Email	Putting an email that is not the account email for the manager. Putting the manager’s name instead of an email.
SMSF Account Name	Details missing from one column that is related to the others.
SMSF Account Number	Details missing from one column that is related to the others.
SMSF BSB	Details missing from one column that is related to the others.
SPIN/USI	Pasted in incorrectly, causing error in cell.
Start Date	Not in dd/mm/yyyy format.
Super Account Name	Details missing from one column that is related to the others.
Super Choice [Regulated \| SMSF \| Company nominated]	Misspelling. Inputting an option that does not exist in your platform.
Super Fund ABN	Not enough digits. Spaces being added.
Super Member Number	Details missing from one column that is related to the others.
Tax File Number	Inputting asterisks instead of numbers (most common with Xero and MYOB clients). Hyphens listed. Spaces being added. Less than 9 digits.
Team [separate multiple teams with '\|']	Not utilising the "\|" symbol to separate multiple teams.
Termination Date	Not in dd/mm/yyyy format. Missing when termination type is populated.
Timesheets [Enabled \| Disabled \| EnabledForExceptions]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed.
Title [Mr \| Ms \| Mrs \| Miss \| Dr \| Mx]	Misspelling. Adding a full stop at the end. Inputting a type that is not listed.
Type [Employee \| Contractor]	Misspelling. Inputting a type that is not listed.
Unable to touch historical versions	File imports are only able to update the 'current' salary record on an employees profile or create a new record. It is not possible to amend previous salary records. To resolve this error, please ensure the Pay details - effective date matches the date listed on the employee's current salary details or list a new date to create a new salary record.

Explore related content

HR Employee File FAQ: 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?
Employee Management HR FAQ: How Do I Re-activate a Terminated Employee This FAQ answers a common question we receive around how to re-activate a terminated employee.

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