How do I import groups when I mass import profiles?
Overview
If the people you are importing already belong to teams, schools, companies or families, you do not have to build those groups by hand first. Put a Groups column in your spreadsheet and the profile import will match the names to the groups you have, create the ones you do not, and put each person where they belong, all in the same pass.
This article is about getting the groups themselves into Vome. Which people end up in which group, and the roles they get, is covered in How do I assign people to groups during a profile import?
Plan required: Groups is on the Enterprise and Ultimate plans. On Recruit and Pro there are no groups to import into, so leave the Groups and Group Role columns out of your file.
1. Can a profile import really create groups?
Yes. Groups is the one column of its kind that can.
This is worth knowing because the Opportunities column beside it cannot. An opportunity needs its own schedule, recruitment settings and shifts, so the importer will not invent one from a name in a cell. A group needs none of that, so a name is enough to build one.
2. Where do the group names go?
In a Groups column in your spreadsheet, which you map on the Map fields step like any other column. It is in the template attached to the mass import article, though you do not have to use the template, because column titles are matched loosely and French headings work too.
One person can belong to several groups. Write them all in the same cell and separate them with a comma.
3. Where do I decide what happens to each name?
On the Customize & Assign step. Once a Groups column is mapped, a Groups from your file card appears there.
The card collects every distinct group name in your file and shows you three things per name: the value as you wrote it, how many rows use it, and what is about to happen to it. Above the list, three counts tell you the shape of the whole decision at a glance: how many groups will be created, how many matched an existing group, and how many are being skipped.
No group is created until you run the import. Everything on this card is a decision you are recording. You can change any of it, go back a step, or leave entirely, and nothing has happened until you press the button on Review & Save.
4. What are the two options?
The card opens with a choice that covers every unrecognised name at once.
- Create groups that do not exist yet. Any group name Vome does not recognise becomes a new group, and everyone in your file with that name joins it.
- Only add people to existing groups. Nothing new is created. A name that matches no group is skipped, and the person still imports normally.
Pick the first when you are migrating a structure that only exists in your spreadsheet. Pick the second when your groups are already built in Vome and the column is only there to file people correctly.
5. Can I decide name by name instead?
Yes. The choice above is the default for the whole file, and every row in the list can be overridden on its own.
Open the dropdown next to any name and you get three answers:
- Create as a new group.
- Skip, do not add.
- Add to an existing group, then the group you mean.
Where a name in your file is close to a group you already have, Vome shows a Did you mean line underneath it, and one click accepts the suggestion. It is only ever offered, never applied for you, because folding one group into another is not something you can undo afterwards.
6. What if my file would create a lot of groups?
Above 100 new groups, Vome stops and asks you to tick a confirmation before you can continue. It tells you the exact number first.
That check is not there to be cautious for its own sake. A number that large almost always means the wrong column was mapped to Groups, and new groups have to be deleted one at a time, so an accident is slow to undo. Read the number, and if it surprises you, go back to Map fields before you confirm.
7. What does a group created this way look like?
It starts with the name from your file and the people your file put in it. Anything else a group can carry is added afterwards in the Groups module, once the import has run.
An import never renames or merges an existing group. Two spellings of the same group are two groups. If your file says "St Mary's" and Vome has "St. Mary's", creating rather than matching leaves you with both. Tidy the spellings in your spreadsheet before you upload, and take the Did you mean suggestions seriously.
8. What happens to a name that is skipped?
Only the group membership is lost. The person still imports.
A skipped name never costs you a row, so a group you did not want to create is not a reason to fix the file and start again. You can add those people to a group from the Database afterwards.
Summary
- Groups needs the Enterprise or Ultimate plan.
- A Groups column can match existing groups and create new ones. The Opportunities column beside it can only match.
- Several groups go in one cell, separated by commas.
- The Groups from your file card on Customize & Assign is where every name is resolved, with row counts and a running create, matched and skipped tally.
- Choose Create groups that do not exist yet or Only add people to existing groups for the whole file, then override any name individually.
- A close spelling gets a Did you mean suggestion, offered rather than applied.
- Over 100 new groups needs an explicit confirmation.
- Nothing is created until you run the import, and a skipped group name never skips the person.