To move college records from Excel into management software, decide what to bring across, import in the right order (courses, then staff, then students, then fee balances), clean your spreadsheets first, import a small sample, fix what the software flags, then import the rest and check the totals before you go live.
Decide what to move
You do not need to move everything. Most institutions bring across:
- Courses with their codes, levels and durations.
- Staff who will use the system.
- Current students, with their course, intake and class.
- Opening fee balances for each current student.
Past payments and records of students who have already graduated are optional. If you keep them, keep them for a reason, such as issuing transcripts or answering fee disputes.
Move records in the right order
Records depend on each other, so the order matters:
- Courses first, because every student belongs to a course.
- Staff, so they can be invited with their roles.
- Students, matched to their course by its code.
- Fee balances, matched to students by admission number.
- Past payments, if you are bringing them.
Clean your spreadsheets first
Most import problems come from inconsistent spreadsheets. Before importing:
- Use one row per student and one column per field. Remove merged cells, subtotals and blank rows.
- Make course codes match exactly the codes you set up, for example
DCH, not "Dip. Community Health". - Write intake names consistently, for example "January 2027 Intake" on every row.
- Check for duplicate students. The same person typed twice becomes two records.
- Use one date format throughout, and phone numbers in one format, such as
0712345678. - Keep existing admission numbers if you have them. Leave them blank only if the software should create new ones.
Import a sample, then the rest
Take the first 10 to 20 rows and import those first. A good import tool will show each row before saving it and tell you exactly what is wrong, for example "unknown course code". Fix the problem in your spreadsheet, not in the software, so your file stays the source of truth. When the sample imports cleanly, import the full file.
Check the result before you go live
- Count the students per course and intake, and compare with your spreadsheet.
- Open a few student profiles at random and check every field.
- Ask finance to compare total opening balances with their records. See how to prepare fee balances.
- Have one person from each department sign in and confirm they can find what they need.
Common problems and how to avoid them
- Students with the wrong course: caused by inconsistent course names. Fix by using codes.
- Duplicates: caused by importing the same file twice or by duplicate rows. Import once, from one cleaned file.
- Balances that do not add up: caused by payments recorded after the export. Agree a cut-off date with finance.
- Missing phone numbers: students cannot receive SMS or activate the portal by phone. Fill the gaps before importing.
For the full setup process, see how implementation works.