Now that you've decided what data to bring into Beacon, it’s time to get it into the Beacon standard templates so you're ready to import.
You should already have:
✅ Completed the Beacon Lighthouse training
✅ A good understanding of how your Beacon account is set up
Now, let's move your existing data into the right templates—step by step.
👀 Understand the templates
Each Beacon record type (like People, Payments, Events) has its own spreadsheet template. You’ll need to split your data across these sheets.
➕ Action 1 : Open the Beacon standard templates you downloaded.
Look at the column headers—they explain what kind of data belongs in each one. Hover to see help text where available.
Your columns may not match Beacon’s exactly. That’s okay! Focus on understanding what each column in the template is for.
🆔 Add unique IDs
Every record you create in Beacon needs a unique ID. These are crucial for:
Avoiding duplicates
Linking related records (e.g. a payment to a person)
Keeping your data consistent
Each template sheet has:
A
previous database IDcolumn (for that record)Additional
previous database IDcolumns for related records (e.g.payer unique IDin the Payments sheet)
For example:
In the Payment sheet, the Person who made that payment should be referenced in the 'payer unique ID' column
This will be the ID from the 'previous database ID' column in your People sheet.
🔎 Don’t have existing IDs?
No problem! You can create your own using other information you already have:
💡 For example, a person’s ID could be:
An ID from a previous database
PE12345The row that they were on in your master spreadsheet
35Something unique about their personal details
An email address, if it’s not shared with anyone else
person@email.comTheir full name, if it’s not shared with anyone else
JohnSmithTheir phone number, if it’s not shared with anyone else
07457679922Or, if they’re not unique, you could combine multiple things together so that it is:
JohnSmith-person@email.com-07457679922
A payment’s ID could be:
An ID from a donation platform or payment processor
ch_4m4ffdn78sfaA combination of payment details, such as payer + amount + date
JohnSmith-50-2025-01-01
Just make sure it’s unique for each row.
➕ Action: Go through your data and assign a unique ID for every person and then every record. Use this ID consistently across all sheets.
If you have access to IDs:
Make sure you have extracted these with your data sets and are able to add them to your standard templates.
If you don't have IDs:
Manually assign all people a unique ID and apply this ID across all your data sources for that person
If you're using email addresses as IDs, remember they must be unique to each person. Shared emails (e.g. John and Jane using the same one) won’t work.
🧹 Start moving data
Begin adding data into the Beacon templates where it’s clearly obvious where it belongs. Don’t worry if:
You’re not sure where everything goes yet
Some columns are blank (that’s fine! Beacon's importer will ignore blank cells)
Your data isn’t perfectly clean (we’ll tidy it later)
➕ Action: Start copying in what you know.
Begin with things like names, emails, donation amounts, and dates.
Example:
In your 'People' sheet:
Name ✅
Email ✅
Address ✅
Contact consent ✅
Gender ✅
In your 'Payments' sheet:
Amount ✅
Date ✅
Payer unique ID ✅
I'm not yet sure where to put:
Religion
Sexuality
Events attended (Gala 2023, Dig a Well)
Gala dietary requirements
Reason for donation
Current income
📂 Split out related records
Avoid putting everything in the 'People' sheet. Beacon is designed to keep related records separate.
For example:
If someone attended 3 events, you’ll add 3 rows in the Event Attendees sheet—one for each event.
Each row will include the person’s ID and the event’s ID.
Add the event details (like name, date and ID) in the Events sheet.
➕ Action: Review your data and move anything like event attendance, payments, subscriptions, or notes into the relevant templates.
🧱 Add columns for custom data
Still have some data left that doesn’t fit into any of the existing templates? You can now add your own columns!
➕ Action: Create new columns in the templates for any extra data points you need.
Make sure these are clearly labeled as 'new' so you can find and map them later.
Examples:
In the 'People' sheet:
Religion ✅
Sexuality ✅
Income ✅
In the 'Payments' sheet:
Reason for donation ✅
In the 'Event Attendees' sheet:
Dietary requirements for Gala ✅
Tip: Only add dietary data for the relevant event rows—keep your data tidy and specific.
✅ Tick off what you’ve moved
It's handy to keep track of which data you’ve already moved over. It helps you stay organised and spot anything you’ve missed.
Example:
Data Point | Added to Template? |
Name | ✅ |
✅ | |
Address | ✅ |
Religion | ✅ (new column) |
Events attended | ✅ (split across sheets) |
Gala dietary requirements | ✅ (event-specific) |
Reason for donation | ✅ (new column) |
Current income | ✅ (new column) |
🚨 What if you see red highlights in the templates?
The template will show red cells if something’s not quite right.
Common reasons:
Missing a previous database ID
Linking to an ID that doesn’t exist in another sheet
Duplicate IDs where there should be only one
Action: Fix these before importing.
🎉 You’re almost ready to import!
Once you’ve:
✅ Split your data across the correct templates
✅ Added unique IDs
✅ Moved your core data
✅ Created columns for any extra info
You’re ready to move on to importing your data!
Your data should be looking in pretty good shape if you've been paying close attention to those handy tips in your column headers. However, you might still have some data that doesn't need to be migrated, or maybe some things are still a little messy. Let's take a look at some considerations for cleaning your data.
Click to continue your journey
Jump to another section
Migration: Moving data into Beacon standard templates (You are here!)