Overview

You never have to use our template. Every importer offers one you can download, and every importer also accepts your own Excel or CSV file. The templates are a reference, not a requirement.

1. What can I import?

• Profiles, the people themselves. Database module, Create profiles, then Mass import. One row is one person, up to 10,000 rows per upload. How do I mass import profiles into my database?
• Categories, the folders your opportunities sit in. Opportunities module, Categories, Create category, then Import categories. One row is one category, up to 500 per file. How do I import categories from a spreadsheet?
• Opportunities. Opportunities module, Add opportunity, then Import opportunities. One row is one opportunity, up to 500 per file. How do I import opportunities from a spreadsheet?
• Shifts. Schedule, Actions, then Import shifts. One row is one shift, and one file covers one opportunity, so a spreadsheet of shifts is always a spreadsheet for a single opportunity. How do I import shifts into my schedule?
• Sequences. Sequences module, New sequence, then Import sequences. One row is one sequence, up to 500 per file, with one step per column. Only the title is required. How do I import sequences from a spreadsheet?

A sequence import mostly assembles, rather than builds. Each cell in a Step column names a step, and the usual way to work is to build your libraries first and then use an import to put them into order across many sequences at once. Four of the simpler step types (Interview, Training, Orientation and Custom) can be created as the import runs; everything else has to exist first. Up to 20 step columns are read, and anything past that is ignored.

2. What order should I import in?

• Categories first, because your opportunities file can name the category each opportunity belongs to, and those names then match to something that already exists.
• Opportunities next, because a shift has to belong to one.
• Shifts after that, one file per opportunity.
• Profiles last. The profile importer can assign everyone in the file to opportunities, shifts, groups, sequences, profile tags and sites as they come in. Do it last and all of those exist to assign to, which saves you a second pass through your database.

3. Do I have to use your templates?

4. What do the importers have in common?

• .xlsx or .csv. The first row is your column titles, and every row after that is one record.
• Names in your file are matched to Vome. Rather than trusting a text match, each importer collects the distinct values in your file and asks you to match them, create them, or skip them.
• A cell can hold several values. Where a column takes more than one (watchers, tags, sites), separate them with commas, semicolons or line breaks.
• You see it before it happens. Every importer ends on a review step with the counts: what is about to be created, and which rows are being skipped and why.
• Nothing is created until you press the last button. You can upload a file, work through it, change your mind and leave with nothing changed.
• An import creates rather than updates. For categories and opportunities, a title that already exists is created again as a separate record and you are warned on the review step. Two importers behave differently: the profiles importer can update existing profiles if you tell it to, and the sequences importer blocks a repeated title instead of creating a second copy, because a sequence title has to be unique.

5. What is not covered by an import?

• Cover photos and page layouts. Imported categories take a cover from your theme library, and imported opportunities inherit their category's. Layouts are customized per opportunity afterwards.
• Forms, courses, and most kinds of sequence step. These are built in Vome. A sequence import can create the four simplest step types as it goes, but anything with its own setup, a form to build or a video to link, has to exist first.
• Recurrence patterns. An opportunities file can say one-time or recurring, but the pattern behind "recurring" is set once for the batch rather than per row.
• Past attendance and hour records. There is no importer that recreates a history of who worked which shift. Lifetime hours come across as a single figure per person instead, which is the next question.
• Admins. Coordinators and watchers in an opportunities or sequences file are matched to admins you already have, never created. Add your team under Users & Access before you import.

6. What happens to the service hours people already logged?

Summary

• Profiles in the Database, categories and opportunities in Opportunities, shifts in the Schedule, sequences in Sequences.
• Import in the order categories, opportunities, shifts, profiles, so each one has something to attach to. Sequences fit wherever.
• .xlsx or .csv in every case. Use our template or your own file.
• Every importer previews what it is about to do, and creates nothing until you press the final button.
• Imports create records. Only the profiles importer can update ones that already exist, and only the sequences importer refuses a repeated title outright.
• Historical service hours come across as a per-person total with Hours Logged (Off-Vome), not as a shift-by-shift history.