How do I assign people to groups during a profile import?
Overview
There are two ways to put the people in your spreadsheet into groups while you import them, and they do different jobs. A Groups column assigns person by person, using the names written on each row. The Assign groups action on the Customize & Assign step assigns the whole file to the same groups at once. You can use either, or both.
This article is about putting people into groups. Getting the groups themselves into Vome, including creating ones that do not exist yet, is covered in How do I import groups when I mass import profiles?
Plan required: Groups is on the Enterprise and Ultimate plans. On Recruit and Pro there are no groups to assign anyone to, so leave the Groups and Group Role columns out of your file.
1. What are the two ways?
They differ in how precise they are.
- Per row, with a Groups column. Each person joins the group or groups named on their own row. Separate several groups in one cell with a comma.
- For the whole file, with Assign groups. Everyone in the import joins the groups you pick, whatever is on their row.
Use the column when your list is mixed. Use the whole-file action when the list belongs together already, for example one school's students or one company's staff.
2. How do I assign the whole file to a group?
On the Customize & Assign step, open Assign groups and pick the groups you want. Everyone in the import joins all of them.
Two things are worth knowing about this route:
- It only offers groups that already exist. It does not create one. If you need a group that is not in Vome yet, either create it in the Groups module first, or use a Groups column, which can create groups as it goes.
- It has no role option. If some of these people need to be leaders rather than members, that has to come from a Group Role column.
Groups is one of six things you can assign to the whole file from this step, alongside profile tags, opportunities, shifts, sequences and sites.
3. How do I assign group by group instead?
Put a Groups column in your spreadsheet and map it on the Map fields step. Every person then joins whatever is written on their own row.
Once that column is mapped, a Groups from your file card appears on the Customize & Assign step, listing every distinct group name your file contains and what is going to happen to each one. That card is also where a name Vome does not recognise gets created or skipped.
4. Do the two routes compete?
No. They add up.
If your file has a Groups column and you also pick groups for the whole batch, people end up in both sets. Nothing is overwritten and nothing cancels out. This is the same way the Opportunities column and the bulk opportunity assignment behave.
5. How do group roles work?
A person joins a group either as a Member or as a Leader. You have two ways to decide which.
- Map a Group Role column to set it per row. It is forgiving about how you write it, so 0, 1, Member and Leader are all understood.
- Set a default under Role when your file does not say on the Customize & Assign step. It covers anyone whose row does not specify one, and if you map no Group Role column at all, everyone joins with it.
The default only ever applies to new memberships. If someone is already in the group and their Group Role cell is blank, the role they already have is left alone rather than reset.
A Group Role column on its own does nothing. Without a Groups column beside it there is nothing for the role to apply to, so Vome ignores the column and says so on the Customize & Assign step rather than failing quietly. Go back to Map fields and map a Groups column to make it count.
6. What happens to people who are already in Vome?
Group assignments are added to what those people already have. Nothing is removed.
Someone who is already in three groups and turns up in your file with a fourth ends up in all four. This is true for the whole-file assignment and for the column, and it is true whether you chose to update existing profiles or to skip them.
7. Can I split one list across different groups?
Yes, with the column. That is exactly what it is for.
The whole-file assignment cannot do it, because everything on the Customize & Assign step applies to the entire import. If you have no Groups column and your list should land in two different groups, that is two imports rather than one.
Summary
- Groups needs the Enterprise or Ultimate plan.
- Two routes: a Groups column for per-row assignment, and Assign groups on Customize & Assign for the whole file.
- The whole-file action offers existing groups only, and has no role option.
- A column can create groups that do not exist yet.
- The two routes add up. Using both puts people in both sets.
- Roles come from a Group Role column (0, 1, Member or Leader) or from the default role, which applies to new memberships only.
- Group Role without Groups is ignored.
- On existing profiles, assignments are added and never replace what is already there.