Our Bulk import tool allows you to import up to 5,000 users at once. This article will walk you through:
💹 Managing imports
All user imports are managed from the Imports page in Admin. To access this section Open Blink Admin, click on Users in the left-hand navigation, and then click on the Bulk Update button at the top of the Users table.
✏️ Setting up your import template
After the Bulk Update tab, you will be able to view all Imports that were started, failed, and completed. Click on Start Import to get access to the Import Template that will be used for Importing users.
There will be three options to choose from, Update Users, Import New Users, and Skip to Upload. To get your Import template select the second option - Import New Users.
Select which Teams you would like to add to your Import. The Default team will already be included in the list of teams, you just need to add the rest of Teams. These will appear as separate columns in the template file which you can use to import users to specific teams.
After your Teams have been added you can click next and your Import file will be ready to download.
💻 Preparing your import template
Open your import template in an editor of your choice.
Add user information
The more information you add now the easier it will be for your users to register
Add users to teams
If you selected teams to add to your template from step 2 you should see these teams as columns in the template file
Add an X in that column to add a user to that team
In the import template, each user row MUST contain one or more of the following:
Email Address
Phone Number
Job Title
First Name or Last Name
First Day (YYYY-MM-DD)
Last Day (YYYY-MM-DD)
Column | Required | Description |
Email Address | Yes/Optional | The user's email address. This is optional if you provide a telephone number for the respective user. If you provide both the first name and the surname of the user, the email address is no longer necessary to upload the file. |
Telephone Number | Yes/Optional | The user's telephone number. This is optional if you provide an email address for the respective user. If you provide both the first name and the surname of the user, the telephone number is no longer necessary to upload the file. Be sure to enter the phone number using the international number format: for example, a US based phone number would begin with +1 and should be entered as +1XXXXXXXXXX. |
First Name | Yes/Optional | The user's first name. This is optional if you provide a telephone number or an email address of the respective user. |
Last Name | Yes/Optional | The user's last name. This is optional if you provide a telephone number or an email address of the respective user. |
Job Title | Yes/Optional | The user's job title within the company. This is optional if you provide a telephone number or an email address or both first name and second name of the user. |
First Day | Optional | The user's first day at the company. This is optional but is expected to be filled out in the format YYYY-MM-DD. This cell must be in a text format: the upload will fail or register as an incomplete template if the cell and values aren't entered in the correct format. Check out this article for more information. |
Last Day | Optional | The user's last day at the company. This is optional but is expected to be filled out in the format YYYY-MM-DD. This cell must be in a text format: the upload will fail or register as an incomplete template if the cell and values aren't entered in the correct format. Check out this article for more information. |
Department | Optional | The user's department name. This is optional if you provide a telephone number or an email address or both first name and second name of the user. |
Employee ID | Optional | The user's ID number. This is optional if you provide a telephone number or an email address or both first name and second name of the user. |
Company Name | Optional | The user's company name. This is optional if you provide a telephone number or an email address or both first name and second name of the user. |
Team | Optional | This is a team within the org you wish the user to belong to. This is optional. You chose these during the download of the import template. To select the team, you place an X in the corresponding team's field. If you do not select a team, the users will automatically be added to the default team during registration. |
❗ Some columns need extra attention. Review your fields as described below:
📬 Email Address
The email address should be unique to the user. If they do not have an email with your organisation's domain, this is fine, as you're inviting them through the Admin Portal we will automatically add them to your organisation.
☎️ Telephone Number
Each number must be a mobile number, no landlines allowed
Each number must be written in the international format (+44, +41, +49)
Check if each number is of the same length, shorter or longer numbers often indicate that they're invalid
Do not include any spaces, parentheses, or dashes. For example, you would enter +44XXXXXXXXXX.
⬆️ Uploading your template and importing users
Head back to the Import page (where you received the downloadable import page), click Next.
Add an Import Name but make sure this is specific, like the date and who you are importing to Blink for example.
Upload the newly saved import template that you have filled out with all of your user information.
Press Upload. Imports can take up to 5 minutes, but it does depend on the amount of users.
Once this has completed you will receive an Import complete message to confirm that it is done. You will also be able to see your import at the starting page after you click Bulk Update with Success written next to it, if it was successful.
🤷 What to do once your import is complete
Providing there are no errors in the import template you will receive an email from us letting you know that all of your users have been imported.
In order to get everyone signed up you will need to either Send Invitations or Download Starter Packs, or you can click Skip, and do this at a later date/time.
📩 Invite users
You can trigger invites to your recently imported users from the Admin Panel in Blink.
Head back to the imports page
Locate the import and click on Send invitations
💡 Helpful Hint 💡 You can also trigger invites to one team at a time when you do a bulk import. |
🔰 Downloading personalized Starter Packs:
You can download personalized invitations for everyone in the import or download them individually from each user's profile.
Head back to the imports page
Click on the ⋮ button
Click on Download Starter Packs from the menu that appears
⚠️ Errors with your import template
If there are any errors with the import template the import will fail and none of your users will be imported to Blink. You will be shown a list of errors and all you need to do is fix those errors and then re-upload the full import template again.
Head back to the import page
Click on the import that has failed
From here you can see each error, line by line
Open your import template and correct the errors
Re-upload your file and press Next
We will import your users again and email you to let you know if it has worked - if it doesn't work you will need to repeat these steps