CSV Import

CSV import is the fastest way to bring entries in from a spreadsheet, last year's program, or another platform. Click Import in the Entries header (next to Add entry) to open the import wizard.

When to use it

• Migrating from Google Forms, Typeform, or another platform mid-cycle
• Bringing in entries collected outside AwardKit (an existing pre-screening process, a sponsor channel)
• Repopulating last year's nominees into this year's program for a "previous winners" reference category
• Seeding test data while you're configuring the entry form

For a single entry, use Add entry instead. CSV import is optimized for batches.

Download a sample CSV

The upload step has a Sample CSV button (next to the dropzone). Clicking it downloads an awardkit-sample-entries.csv file with the canonical column names and two example rows: one with a 3-member team and one with a solo entrant. If your program already has categories configured, the sample pre-fills the first one so the file is a working starting point you can edit and re-upload.

Use it when you're not sure how to name your columns, want to confirm the ;-separated list format, or just need a clean starting point.

CSV requirements

The importer accepts standard CSV files (comma-separated, UTF-8). Maximum 1,000 rows per import, 50 team members per row.

Header names are matched flexibly. Any of Entry Name, Entry Title, entry_title, Entry, Title, or Project Name map to the entry name column. The same forgiving matching applies to team names, team emails, description, and categories. Lead Name and Lead Email are also accepted for single-member entries.

Teams

Teams are imported lead-first. Both Team Names and Team Emails are ;-separated lists, and the importer pairs them by position: the first name belongs with the first email, the second with the second, and so on.

• The first member is the lead. They become the Lead on the entry and own the entry page.
• Every other member becomes a team member. They're added with role Team Member.
• Email is required for every member, including the lead. AwardKit keys entrants on email per program, so a member without an email can't be created. If you don't have an email for someone yet, leave them out of the CSV and add them through the entry's edit flow later.
• Team Names and Team Emails must have the same number of entries. If they don't, the row is rejected with a clear error.
• Duplicate emails inside one team are rejected. A typo that lists the same email twice surfaces as a row-level error rather than silently merging members.
• Empty entries inside a list (Maya;;Lin) are dropped before counting, so a stray double-; doesn't break a row.

Example

Entry Name,Team Names,Team Emails,Categories,Description
Greenfield Rebrand,Maya Chen;Lin Park;Sam Diaz,maya@example.com;lin@example.com;sam@example.com,Best Innovation;Brand Identity,A complete brand refresh for a 50-year-old institution.
The Changemakers Report,River Kim,river@example.com,Community Impact,A 12-month investigation of community-led recovery programs.

In this example, Maya Chen is the lead of Greenfield Rebrand with Lin Park and Sam Diaz as team members, and the entry competes in two categories. The Changemakers Report is a single-entrant entry led by River Kim.

The import wizard

The wizard steps through four stages: Import Entries, Preview Import, importing, and Import Complete.

Categories

Categories are matched against existing categories on your program by name (case-insensitive, whitespace-trimmed). You don't pre-create them through the importer.

• A row can list several categories separated by ;, and the entry competes in each one.
• An empty Categories cell is allowed: the entry imports uncategorized, and you can assign categories later with the bulk actions on the Entries table.
• Names that match are attached and unknown names produce a warning. If a row lists categories and none of them match, the row is rejected, because an entry with no category has no judging path and no prize eligibility.

Custom questions from extra columns

Any column that isn't recognized as a built-in field (entry name, team names, team emails, description, categories) is treated as a custom question. In the preview step you decide whether each unknown column becomes a new question on your entry form or is skipped.

When the program has no form responses yet, AwardKit creates the matching questions before importing rows, so the responses land on real questions and show up in future entries, exports, and the public entry page.

Once entries exist, the preview shows this notice instead: New custom fields cannot be added to the entry form because entries already exist. Custom column data will still be imported but won't appear on entry detail views. The extra columns still come through on each row's data, but the form itself isn't changed.

Duplicate handling

Two duplicate checks run against the (entry name, lead email) pair:

• Already in the system: the same entry name and lead email already exists in this program. The row is skipped and counted as a duplicate of an existing entry in the results.
• Duplicated within your CSV: the same pair appears twice in the same file. Only the first row imports; later rows are counted as duplicates within the file so you can spot the issue in your spreadsheet.

This separation is intentional: knowing whether a duplicate is in your file or in the system tells you whether to fix the CSV or just live with the dedup.

Errors and warnings

The wizard distinguishes two outcomes per row:

• Errors stop the row from importing. Examples: missing required column, missing or invalid member email, missing member name, list-length mismatch between Team Names and Team Emails, duplicate emails within one team, no matching category, validation failure on the entry name length.
• Warnings allow the row to import but flag something the organizer should know, such as a category name that didn't match.

Errors are listed in the results step with the original spreadsheet row number, so the row label matches what you see in Excel or Google Sheets (header is row 1, the first data row is row 2).

What happens after import

When the import finishes, AwardKit:

• Upserts an entrant record for every team member (lead and members alike) so they're all discoverable in the entrants list
• Resolves categories by name, scoped to the program
• Triggers auto-assign for each new entry so judges immediately see the new entries in their queue
• Sends no payment links or notification emails to the imported entrants. If you need them to confirm or update their entry, send them the entry link; they get back in with an email code.

Tips

• Start from the sample CSV if you've never used the importer before.
• Try a small file first. Run 3-5 rows through the wizard to confirm your column mappings before uploading the full batch.
• Match category names exactly (case doesn't matter, but spelling does). Set up your categories before importing.
• Use a Case study video URL column for embedded video previews. URL questions auto-render YouTube, Loom, and X embeds in the entry detail panel.
• Keep emails normalized in your spreadsheet. Imports are deduped on lowercase, trimmed emails, but trailing whitespace in source data is a common cause of "missing" matches.
• Spreadsheet tip: in Excel/Google Sheets, build the team columns by typing each member on a separate row, then use TEXTJOIN(";", TRUE, range) to combine them into one cell per entry.