Bring families into Kids from a spreadsheet

Kids leaders can bring the families you already have into Kids in one go: each child, their parents, their alert and who may pick them up. Open Settings › Kids › Import families. Your whole church's list (adults, teams, households) comes in through importing your church instead.

The spreadsheet

One row per child, with their parent on the same row. A family with three children is three rows with the same parent's phone. The columns can be:

• the child's first and last name (or their whole name in one), birthday, and grade
• the parent's first and last name, phone and email, and a second parent's
• an alert for the name tag, 40 characters at most ("PEANUTS · EpiPen in bag")
• approved pickups: names, separated by semicolons or "and", with a phone if you have it. Someone already in your church is matched by name and phone together; a pickup whose phone is someone else's is left out, and the check says so
• the family's language (English or Español), for the receipt

Choose Download an example file to start from one that's laid out already.

Bring them in

1. Choose Choose a CSV or Excel file. CSV and Excel both work, up to 2,000 rows.
2. Match the columns. Most are matched by their names. For columns it doesn't know, PraisePad reads the column names and the shape of the first rows once with AI; alert and pickup columns, and names, are never sent. Change anything in amber.
3. Check the families. Each family shows with its children, ages and alerts, parents and pickups. Rows that can't be a child (no first name, or born 18 or more years ago) are left out, and so is a value that couldn't be read, each with its row number.
4. Choose Bring in. Families go in ten at a time, with a meter; a closed connection stops it, and Try these again picks up the rest.

Duplicates

Rows with the same phone, email or parent's name become one family. A family whose phone is already on someone in your church is left out, and the check names who has it: add their children's alerts and pickups on each child's Kids page instead.

Nobody is emailed and nobody needs an account. Each family goes in the activity log.