CampusESP is updating the way we process imported user data. These improvements add new safeguards to catch data issues earlier, make import results easier to understand, and improve the accuracy of your data in CampusESP.

For Student Enrollment customers, these updates also improve how we associate students with their cohort and funnel stage, including students who may be associated with multiple cohorts.

Most of these requirements are already considered import best practices. With the updated process, CampusESP will validate them more consistently.

If your team manually imports files into CampusESP:

Yes. Review the requirements below before your institution transitions to the updated import process.

If you have an automated integration with CampusESP:

Yes. Your files will need to meet the requirements below. Before changing the structure of an automated file or query, contact integrations@campusesp.com. CampusESP monitors changes such as file size and column headers, so unexpected structural changes may pause an automated import.

If you send files to CampusESP Support for import, or CampusESP requests files from you and imports them on your behalf:

No action is needed from you. Our team will review and prepare those files as part of the import process.

Your files should meet the following requirements:

Your files must meet all of the standard requirements for FC above, plus two additional Student Enrollment-specific requirements:

This is especially important because CampusESP now evaluates a student's stage within a specific cohort, rather than treating funnel stages independently. This allows the same person to be associated with different stages across different cohorts when appropriate.

If your institution uses both solutions, follow the requirements based on the type of data being imported:

All files:

Student Enrollment data additionally requires:

If you have separate Family Communication and Student Enrollment files, your Family Communication file does not need stage and cohort simply because your institution also uses Student Enrollment.

Use this checklist to prepare files that your team imports directly or sends through an automated integration:

If CampusESP Support imports your files on your behalf, you do not need to make these updates yourself.

Because a student can now have a different funnel stage in different cohorts, some targeting in CampusESP will also become cohort-specific.

When using dynamic targeting for emails, text messages, user exports, and dynamic communities, selecting a funnel stage will also require selecting the applicable cohort.

For example, instead of targeting everyone who is Admitted, you could target users who are:

Fall 2027 → Admitted

Posts, advertisements, and areas that do not use dynamic user targeting are unchanged at this time.

This section applies to customers who manually upload and process files in CampusESP. If your files are imported automatically through an integration, you generally won’t interact with the Import Preview, Skipped Rows, or Row Warnings described below.

The updated import process gives admins more visibility into what will happen before an import is completed and makes it easier to identify individual records that need attention.

Before completing an import, the Import Preview shows what CampusESP expects to happen based on your file and configured rules.

You'll see a more detailed breakdown of:

This provides more visibility into exactly how your file will affect users before you process the import.

The Preview shows what CampusESP expects to happen based on the file and rules at that moment.

The Final Summary shows what actually happened once the import was processed.

Because conditions can change between those two steps, the counts may occasionally be different.

A Skipped Row is a record CampusESP cannot safely process. That individual row will not be imported or updated, but other valid rows can continue processing.

The Import Preview will tell you which rows were skipped and why. Reasons can include:

By default, if skipped rows account for 20% or more of the file, the entire import will fail as a safeguard. Your institution's threshold may vary depending on its configuration.

A Row Warning means CampusESP found something you should review, but the row can still be processed.

For example, a user might match two rules with conflicting actions—such as one rule telling CampusESP to add the user to a community and another telling CampusESP to remove them from that same community.

CampusESP will identify the affected row so you can review your rule configuration.

Occasionally, a row may be valid when you generate the Preview, but something changes before the import is processed.

For example, CampusESP may initially identify someone as a new user. If that person creates their CampusESP account before you finish processing the import, the actions shown in the Preview—such as creating the user or sending a welcome email—are no longer appropriate.

Instead, CampusESP places that record in an Unprocessable Rows file.

If you're running a manual import: Download the Unprocessable Rows file from the Final Summary and run it through a separate import.

If CampusESP encounters rows that need to be reprocessed during an automated import, CampusESP will automatically process those rows as a separate import. When this happens, you may see a second import in your Import History. The file will also be available from the summary of the original import.

That way, automated customers only get the one piece that is actually visible/relevant to them, rather than having to understand Preview, warnings, manual reprocessing, etc.

If you're unsure whether your files meet these requirements or whether these changes apply to your institution, reach out to your CampusESP team.

For questions or changes related to an automated integration, file structure, or CRM query, contact integrations@campusesp.com.

For general import questions, contact support@campusesp.com.