Import from CSV

CSV is the most flexible way to bring people into Scout. Any spreadsheet that can save as .csv will work.

Format your spreadsheet

The only required column is Email or First name + Last name. Everything else is optional. Common columns Scout recognizes:

• First name, Last name, Email, Phone
• Birthday (YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY)
• Address, City, State, Zip
• Gender (Male / Female / blank)
• Marital status
• Household (the household name to group people under — leave blank and Scout will infer households from last name + address)

If your column names don't match, that's fine. Scout shows a column-mapping screen during import.

Run the import

Go to People → Import, upload your CSV, and walk through the column mapping. Scout shows a 5-row preview before it commits anything.

Imports run in the background. A church of 500 takes about 30 seconds. You'll see a green confirmation when it's done.

After import

Two things to do:

1. Check for duplicates. See Cleaning up duplicates.
2. Confirm households look right. Open a few profiles and verify spouses and kids are linked correctly. Most fixes are one click on the household card.

If something looks badly wrong, you can roll back the entire import within 24 hours from Settings → Imports.