How do I import sequences from a spreadsheet?
Overview
Sequences are how you take someone from interested to ready: the forms, the training, the checks and the sign-offs, in the order you want them. If you are setting Vome up, or you run a different onboarding path for each program, building each sequence one step at a time is slow.
The sequences importer creates a batch of sequences from a single spreadsheet, matches the step names in your file to the steps you have already built, and then lets you set the shared settings once for the whole batch.
One row becomes one sequence. You can import up to 500 sequences in a single file.
Nothing is created until the last step. You can upload a file, work through the matching, change your mind and leave. No sequences and no folders are created until you press Import on the review step.
1. Where do I find the sequences importer?
Go to the Sequences module, open the New sequence button at the top, and choose Import sequences. Or go straight there: www.vomevolunteer.com/org/import-sequences.
The same menu holds New sequence, which builds one sequence step by step. Importing counts as creating, so any admin whose role gives them the Sequences module can also import.
2. What does my spreadsheet need to look like?
Upload a .xlsx or .csv file. The first row is your column titles, and every row after that is one sequence.
Only one column is required:
- Title
Everything else is optional:
- Description.
- Folder, the folder the sequence is filed in.
- Coordinator, the admin who owns it.
- Watchers, other admins who follow it.
- Step 1, Step 2, and so on, one step per column. See the next question.
On the first step, Upload, there is a Download template button, and it hands you the current template in your own language. Starting from it is the easiest way to get the column titles right, though you do not have to: your own Excel or CSV file works just as well, because column titles are matched loosely, so "Sequence title", "Name" or a French heading all resolve to Title.
The Watchers cell can hold several names. Separate them with commas.
3. How do the step columns work?
Put one step per column, headed Step 1, Step 2 and so on, up to 20 step columns. In each cell, type the name of a step you have already built in Vome.
Three things are worth knowing:
- The number in the heading is what orders the steps, not where the column sits in your sheet. A file with Step 1 and Step 3 and no Step 2 still produces steps in the right order.
- A blank cell in the middle just closes up. Step 1, blank, Step 3 becomes a two-step sequence, which is almost always what you meant.
- You never say what type a step is. The type comes from whichever of your libraries the name was found in.
That last point is the whole reason a sequence fits in a spreadsheet. Vome searches every step library for the name you typed: File Upload, Interview, Training, Orientation, Custom, Fillable PDFs, Fillable forms, Videos, Checklists, Background Check, E-Learning and Courses. Whichever one holds it decides the step type.
If your file has step columns past Step 20, they are ignored, and Vome tells you how many were dropped rather than quietly truncating your sequences.
4. What happens to a row that is not complete?
It is skipped, and the rest of your file still imports. One typo does not cost you the upload.
A row is skipped when it has no title, or when the same title already appeared earlier in the same file. Every skipped row is listed with its row number, so you can fix the file and upload again, or import the good rows now and add the rest by hand.
A sequence with no steps is not an error. It imports as a draft you can finish later.
5. How does the "Match your file" step work?
Your spreadsheet contains names. Vome contains records. The matching step is where you say which is which.
Vome collects every distinct value in your step columns and in your Folder, Coordinator and Watchers columns, matches what it can, and asks you about the rest. For each value you choose to match it to something that exists, create it, or skip it. Where a value is close to an existing record you get a "Did you mean" suggestion you can accept in one click, and each value shows how many rows use it so you can see what a decision affects. Every column also has Match all and Skip all at the top, plus Create for all on the columns where creating is possible, and clicking a choice a second time clears it.
Each column behaves in its own way:
- Steps are matched against everything you have already built, across all twelve libraries. If a name exists in more than one library, Vome shows you the candidates with their type and you pick which one you meant, because both are valid answers and only you know which.
- Folders can be matched or created. Creating one opens a short form where you name it and choose which sites can use it. A default folder is optional: rows with no folder of their own are simply imported without one.
- Coordinators are matched to your existing admins. New admins cannot be created here. Every sequence needs a coordinator, so a default coordinator has to be chosen before you can continue. It starts on you.
- Watchers are matched to your existing admins too. A name that matches nobody is simply left off.
At the bottom of the step there is a checklist of everything still waiting on you. Click any item in it and Vome scrolls you to the column that needs the decision.
If your choices add up to more than 100 new records, Vome asks you to tick a confirmation first. That check exists because a large number almost always means the wrong column was matched.
A step name that matches nothing cannot be created from the import. Building a new library entry needs its own setup, so a name Vome does not recognise is left off the sequences that used it, and it is listed for you on the review step. Add the step to your library first and upload the file again, or import now and add it to the sequences afterwards.
6. What are the "Settings for all"?
These are the settings you would normally fill in one sequence at a time. Set them once here and they apply to every sequence in the import. You can change any of them afterwards.
- Visibility. Who can see each sequence, and who is allowed to change it. Private keeps it to the coordinators and watchers on it. Public opens it to any admin who can reach the module.
- How the steps run. Whether future steps are visible before someone reaches them or locked until they do, and whether the steps have to be done in order or can be done in any order.
- Database. Whether someone who starts one of these sequences is added to your database automatically.
7. What is not imported?
The importer builds the sequence and its running order. It does not build the parts that need their own setup:
- The steps themselves. You match to library entries you have already built. See the caution above.
- Step-level settings. Due dates, reminders, expiration, automations and profile tag assignment are set on each step after the sequence exists.
- People. The import creates the sequences. It does not put anyone in them.
8. Do the imported sequences go live right away?
You decide, on the review step.
- Publish everything now makes them live as soon as the import finishes.
- Leave it off and they are created as drafts, so you can look them over before anyone is put through them.
A sequence needs at least one step to be published. If a row ended up with no steps, Vome says so on the review step, and you either add steps in your file or turn publishing off and finish them later.
The review step also gives you the counts: how many sequences, how many new folders, how many rows are blocked, and how many rows are being skipped.
9. What if a title in my file already exists in Vome?
Those rows are blocked, and everything else still imports.
Vome checks your titles against the sequences you already have and lists any matches on the review step. Rename them in your file and upload again.
An import never updates an existing sequence. A sequence title has to be unique in your account, so a repeated title is not created as a second copy and it is not merged into the old one. It is left out, and named for you on the review step.
Summary
- Sequences module, New sequence, then Import sequences.
- One row per sequence, up to 500 rows, .xlsx or .csv. Title is the only required column.
- Put one step per column, headed Step 1 to Step 20. The heading number sets the order, and the step type comes from whichever library the name was found in.
- Description, Folder, Coordinator and Watchers are optional. Separate multiple watchers in one cell with commas.
- Names in your file are matched to Vome on step 2, where you match, create or skip each one. Coordinators, watchers and steps can only be matched, never created.
- Shared settings (visibility, how the steps run, database) are set once and apply to the whole batch.
- Steps, step settings and people are not imported.
- Nothing is created until you press Import, and a title that already exists is left out rather than duplicated.