Import contacts
Bring your existing client list into FrontDesk from a CSV or Excel spreadsheet in a few steps.
Overview
The import tool lets you upload a CSV or Excel file (.xlsx / .xls) containing your clients and map each column to a FrontDesk field. After confirming the mapping, FrontDesk inserts any new clients and updates existing ones — so it is safe to re-import an updated list without creating duplicate records.
Preparing your file
Your file must have a header row as the first row. The remaining rows are each treated as one client. The following fields are supported:
| Column header | Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Name |
Full name | Required | Any non-empty value. Rows without a name are skipped. |
Phone |
Phone number | Optional | Non-numeric characters are stripped automatically. Used to detect duplicates. |
Email |
Email address | Optional | Stored as-is; not validated. |
Notes |
Internal notes | Optional | Any free-form text visible only to you. |
Column headers are detected automatically and are case-insensitive. Common synonyms work too: Full Name, Mobile, Cell, E-mail, Comments, and others. If auto-detection misses a column you can set it manually in the mapping step.
Name,Phone,Email,Notes Jane Smith,5551234567,[email protected],Prefers morning slots Carlos Rivera,5559876543,, Priya Patel,,[email protected],New client referral
Step-by-step instructions
In the portal sidebar, click Clients.
The button is at the top-right of the page, next to Add Client.
Drag your CSV or Excel file onto the drop zone, or click it to open a file browser. The file is read locally to show you a preview — nothing is imported yet.
FrontDesk will auto-detect your columns. Check that each dropdown points to the correct column in your file. If a column was not detected, select it from the dropdown manually.
FrontDesk processes every row. A progress indicator is shown while the upload is running.
A summary shows how many clients were added, updated, and skipped. Any skipped rows are listed with the reason so you can correct and re-import them.
Tips and limits
If a row's phone number matches an existing client, that client is updated instead of duplicated. You can re-import the same file multiple times without creating extra records.
Both .xlsx and .xls files are supported directly. If you run into issues, use File → Save As → CSV UTF-8 in Excel to export a plain CSV first.
Files larger than 10 MB are rejected. For very large contact lists, split the file into smaller batches and import each one separately.