Import Members

Import Members lets you upload a spreadsheet and create many member accounts at once. This is how most clubs with existing membership data get their members into Clubistry during initial setup.

Who can access it

Import Members is available to Administrators only. You'll find it under Membership Tools in the Club Management Portal.

Before you import

Set up Roles and Membership Types first — you'll need them during the import.

Prepare your file:

Create a separate file for each membership type (the tool assigns one type to all records in a file)
Include a heading row
At minimum, provide First Name, Last Name, and Email
Use CSV, XLSX, or XLS format
If using Excel, format columns as text to preserve data exactly as entered

The tool includes downloadable sample files in both CSV and Excel format if you need a starting template.

The import workflow

The process has five steps:

Upload your file.
Configure — Map your spreadsheet columns to member fields and choose a membership type. The tool auto-matches columns when headings match field names exactly. Non-required fields can be left empty, and you can set a single value to apply to all rows for a mapped field.
Preview — Review a sample of the mapped data before committing.
Import — Run the import.
Review — See how many rows imported successfully, plus any validation failures or errors with row-by-row details.

All imported members receive the selected membership type and are set as currently paid.

If the number of new members would exceed your club's plan limit, the preview step blocks the import and shows an upgrade message.

Member custom fields in imports

Custom fields that are active and have Available for Import turned on will appear as mapping options during the configure step. Fields not marked for import won't show up.

Fields that aren't imported

The import tool does not include these system-managed fields in the mapping:

Communication and privacy settings
Active status
Board position
Password
Creation method
Internal notes
Membership status
Membership type (set once for the entire file during configuration)

Tips

Use one file per membership type.
Clean up heading names before uploading so auto-matching works better.
Review the preview carefully — it's much easier to fix problems in the spreadsheet and re-import than to correct records one by one in the portal.
If you have more than 40 members, upgrade your Clubistry subscription before running the import.