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.
Build your step libraries first, mostly. The importer assembles sequences out of steps that already exist, and it can create four of the simpler step types as it goes. Everything else has to be built before you import, so this is generally one of the later things you do when setting up onboarding. Nothing is created until the last step either: you can upload a file, work through the matching, change your mind and leave.
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, semicolons or line breaks.
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 the step you want in that position.
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. A name that matches nothing can be set to Create, where you choose which type it should become. See the note below for which types can be created.
- 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.
Four step types can be created during the import. Set an unmatched name to Create, choose what it should be, and Vome builds that library entry before the sequences are made, then attaches it to every sequence that named it. Those four are Interview, Training, Orientation and Custom, because each one is really just a title you can fill in afterwards.
The other eight libraries hold records with their own setup: a form to build, a PDF to prepare, a video to link, a course to assemble. A step of one of those types has to exist before you import, and a name Vome cannot build is listed on the review step and left off the sequences that used it.
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:
- Most step libraries. Interview, Training, Orientation and Custom steps can be created as the import runs. The other eight need their own setup, so those steps have to exist first. See the note above.
- Step-level settings. Due dates, reminders, expiration, automations and profile tag assignment are set on each step after the sequence exists. That includes the four types the import can create: it makes the entry and gives it its name, and you fill in the detail afterwards.
- 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 is switched on by default, so if you change nothing, the whole batch goes live as soon as the import finishes.
- Leave Publish everything now on and they are live immediately.
- Switch it off and they are created as drafts, so you can look them over before anyone is put through them.
While you are still setting Vome up, drafts are usually the right choice: import the batch, walk one of them end to end yourself, then publish.
A sequence needs at least one step to be published. If a row ended up with no steps, Vome blocks the import while publishing is on and says so, 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
- Build your step libraries first. The import can create Interview, Training, Orientation and Custom steps as it goes, but every other type has to exist already.
- 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, semicolons or line breaks.
- Names in your file are matched to Vome on step 2, where you match, create or skip each one. Coordinators and watchers can only be matched.
- Shared settings (visibility, how the steps run, database) are set once and apply to the whole batch.
- Step settings and people are not imported, and a created step arrives as a named entry you fill in afterwards.
- Nothing is created until you press Import. Publish everything now is on by default, so switch it off if you want drafts.
- A title that already exists is left out rather than duplicated.