Move your member list across in one go

Why this usually disappoints

Every member list has grown its own way. One has the initials behind the surname, another the house number behind the street, and almost every export has columns only the previous system understood. Retyping is an afternoon at two hundred members and a week at five hundred.

Ledenboek therefore looks at the names of your columns, not at their order. If there is a column called Surname or Email anywhere, it knows enough. Anything it does not recognise it leaves alone and reports, so you can judge it yourself instead of it quietly disappearing.

How it works

1. 1

   Go to Members and choose Import

   You can upload your own file, or first download the template waiting on that screen. That template already contains your own custom fields, with the right column headings.

2. 2

   Upload your Excel file

   The heading row does not have to be the first row. If there is a letterhead above it with your club name and a date, Ledenboek finds the row where the column names start.

3. 3

   Check the preview

   You see per row what will happen: new member, update or skip. At the top you see which columns were not recognised. Set the checkbox for updating existing members if you want that.

4. 4

   Import and read the summary

   Afterwards you see how many members were created, updated and skipped, plus anything that did not work. A member that was created stays, even if a separate part such as a product or a custom field could not be linked.

Which columns are recognised

Capitals, spaces and a note in brackets make no difference. Several spellings per field, because people call the same thing differently.

If a column is named slightly differently, rename it in your file. That is quicker than adapting the import, and the preview screen shows you straight away whether it worked.

Two things in one column

• •If the name reads "Meijs, G.P.M." in one column, the initials are taken off and you get Meijs with G.P.M. as initials. A prefix after the initials moves to the front: "Vries, J.H. de" becomes de Vries.
• •If the address reads "Einder Coolhoff 94" in one column, street and house number are separated. A suffix stays with the number, so 12a and 12-3 remain intact.
• •If you have Telefoon and Mobiel as separate columns, the landline goes into the phone field and the mobile fills in where that is empty. To keep both, create a custom field for the second number.
• •If two email addresses sit in one cell, separated by a semicolon or comma, the first becomes the member's address and the second becomes the second address.

What it does not do

• •An account number only becomes a mandate when a mandate reference and a signing date come with it. Without those two the number is stored under payment details, where it matches your bank statement to the right member.
• •A product name that does not exist is reported, not created. Create the product first, otherwise that membership stays unlinked.
• •A custom field you have not created yet is not created automatically. So set up your custom fields before importing.
• •If your custom field has the same name as a standard field, for example Voorletters, the standard field wins and your custom field stays empty.

Frequently asked questions