Several things have changed in the individuals bulk import. One of them will reject a spreadsheet you have used before, so it is worth two minutes now rather than a failed import later.
Fix your rows in the app, before anything is imported
The import now shows your file as an editable table. Every row you upload appears in a preview you can type directly into, with any problems marked against the row and column they belong to, rather than as one long list of errors after the fact.
Fix a bad cell in place and the error clears. You do not need to go back to your spreadsheet, correct it and re-upload.
Nothing is saved to your account until you press import.
Country of nationality is now required
Every row needs a Country of nationality. It tells Borderless which compliance checks apply to each person, so capturing it correctly matters.
This applies to every row, including rows where you are only creating the person and not their employment details.
Use the country name in full: United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Nigeria, India.
Nationalities and country codes are rejected. British, GB and GBR will all fail, because British is not a country.
There is no transition period. Download a fresh template before your next import, because a file saved from the old one will be rejected until you add the column.
Role ID is now optional
You no longer have to have a role set up before you can import someone. Leave Role ID blank and Borderless creates the person without their employment details, so you can get your list of people in first and attach roles afterwards.
If you do supply a Role ID, nothing changes: Borderless pulls the job description and SOC code from that role, and the row needs the rest of the employment details alongside it.
Your rows are saved while you work
Mapping a large spreadsheet used to be all or nothing. Now your rows are kept if you refresh the page or close the window by accident, so you can come back to a part-finished batch.
A Reset button sits next to the upload button if you want to clear the table and start again. It asks you to confirm first.
Your stored rows are cleared once an import succeeds, or when you choose a new file.
Two smaller changes
You can import up to 100 rows per file. Split anything larger across several files.
Column headings in the template are now in sentence case, and the guidance explains that roles and sites are matched against ones you have already created. Templates you downloaded before this change still import, because heading matching ignores capitalisation and punctuation.
What has not changed
Two things people often ask about, so they are worth stating plainly.
Hours per week still has to be between 30 and 48 on any row where you are supplying employment details. If you are trying to import a part-time or zero-hours worker, for example someone on a student or graduate visa doing 20 hours, that row will still be rejected. We know about it and it is being worked on.
A sponsored row still needs sponsorship details on its role. Only Skilled Worker can be sponsored, so a row on any other visa type is imported as non-sponsored whatever you put in the Currently Sponsored column.
Full instructions
See Bulk Import Individuals for the complete column list and step by step guide, and Managing Roles for finding a Role ID. If a row will not import and the message is not clear, open the Support tab at the bottom right of your screen and send us the file.