Every Rentman trial starts with a sample database of crew members. You can add your own crew members by importing a crew members' file, or you can add crew members one by one in the people Crew members module.

In this article, we walk you through the steps of importing your crew members' list into Rentman.

Preparing your import file

Here's what you need before importing your crew member list:
A .xlsx (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets) or .csv file with your crew members' information. If you don't have one yet, You can download the template from the import window in Rentman. You can also download an example file with explanations at the bottom of this article to use as a reference to create a crew member file.

Use clear headers (titles) in the first row of your file.
Don't import more than 64 columns in one go.
Include at least the most important information (e.g. Name, Last Name, Folder).
Set up a logical folder structure in the people Crew members module, so you can stay organized and find your crew members faster. The folder path of an item must be specified in the Folder column, like this: Freelancers/audio technicians
Make sure the file doesn't have multiple sheets.
Do not insert images in your .xlsx file. You can add them later in the software.
Make sure all information in the file is entered as text, and without markups (bold, italic, colors etc).

Note: You cannot import user roles. Imported crew members are automatically assigned the Default user role. To change crew members' roles, you need to go to the crew members' window and change it individually.

Which information can I import?

General
Description, Email, First name, Folder, Last name, Middle name, Phone

Details
Availability, Display in planner, Driving license, Emergency contact, Receive emails

You cannot import passwords or crew rates.

Administrative

Crew Scheduling Essential

Bank account number, Birthdate, CoC number, Company name, Contract date, Hours in contract, Passport number, Social security number, VAT identification number

Address information
Address, City, Country, Extra address line, House number, Postal code, State/Province

Important: When you import new crew members, they will automatically receive an invitation email. To prevent these emails from being sent immediately, set the "Can log in" column to 0 in your import file. This will stop the initial email notifications. After your workspace is set up, you can update this setting in bulk and send the invitation emails.

can log in.gif

Import your crew member file

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Go to the group Crew members module.
Click on more actions more_vert in the right corner, and click on import.

Select here which type of import you want to do:

Import all rows as new item	Rentman creates a new crew member for every row.
Update existing items with new data	If you want to update the crew members in your database, read how to do it in our article about updating data.
Add new items and skip existing ones	Rentman does not import crew members that are already in your database

Upload your crew members' file in accordance with the "Terms" listed.
If you do not have a file with your crew members available yet, you can download our template above the upload button "Download a sample file here"
Select if your file contains a header or not. If you select yes, the first row of your file will not be imported.
For each column, the system matches the header names with the column names in Rentman. Check if all matches have been made, and adjust where necessary.
Click "Next step" when you've done this for all columns.
Select a Root folder for your import. The root folder is the folder at the top, and it contains your folder structure. New crew members will be placed under this folder. If you have defined folders in your import file, these crew members will be placed under the chosen Root folder. Warning: If your crew member file doesn't contain a Folder column, all items will be placed in the same root folder. This means that your items will not be organized, and it may be difficult to find your crew. We recommend creating your own folder structure, and specify the correct folder path for your items in the Folder column.
If you selected "Add new items and skip duplicate rows" or "Update existing items with new data" in Step 3, you need to select match columns so that the system knows which entries to update. For example, if you are updating the phone numbers of all crew members, you could select "Email" as the match column, as it is unique for every crew member being updated and is not being updated itself. The match column should never be the column you are trying to update. Warning: These columns may not contain double values in the import file, as they are used during the import to identify which crew member should be skipped.
Click "Next step" and check the preview of your data one last time.
Note: Only the first 10 rows will be shown in the preview.
Click Import
After the import has finished, a window will pop up with the results. If your data has been imported successfully, you can Close the window, or choose to "View imported crew members". If the import (partially) failed, please read the Insight into your import result section below.

Insight into your import result

Sometimes it happens that the import might fail (partially or totally). If this happens you can find all your answers in the import result like:

Which rows (crew member) failed.
Why these rows (crew members) failed.
Which rows (crew members) have been imported successfully.

At the bottom of the import result, you can download a file that contains all rows that failed, accompanied by the reason of failure. This gives you direct insight per row what the reason of failure is.

Some reasons why the import fails:

Too much data - Large files could take too long to be processed, and some information might not be imported. If this happens, delete the last import, split up your list in smaller files and import them separately.
Wrong formatting - Every information in the file must be entered as text, and without markups (bold, italic, background colors, etc).
Multiple sheets - If your .xslx file has multiple sheets, it can't be imported in Rentman.

Delete an import

When an import goes partially wrong, the best choice is to delete the information and do it all over again. Every time you import crew members, Rentman creates a tag with the format "import-date-hour". Simply select the tag of your latest update and delete those items.

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Update crew members in your database

If you have already imported your crew member list but you need to make some bulk changes, you can update the items in your database.

Importing extra input fields

Set up the extra input field in the settings Configuration module
Create a column with the extra input field value in your .xlsx file.
When importing the file, match the new column with the extra input field (you'll find it in the 'Extra' section of the columns).

Download our import file example

Import your crew members