Ιmporting time-off balances from CSV

As an HR Admin, you can perform bulk adjustments and assignments of policies to employees when they do not have any policies assigned at all, as well as update their balances for each of the assigned time-off policies. 

To start, navigate to the Time-off calendar page and click Import time-off balances under the Actions menu. 

A full-page modal will open from where you can import balances through a four-step wizard.

1. Upload CSV

Upload your CSV file and indicate whether the first row of the file is a header and includes field names (recommended). The file size limit for the CSV is 1 MB.

• Download this example import template you can use as a reference: Balances Import Template (CSV)
• Check our formatting guidelines

💡How to use the import template?

1. Download the template and open the file in Excel
2. Fill in the existing fields:
   • Work email
   • The time-off type that each employee is allowed to use for time off
   • The time-off policy that needs to be assigned or is already assigned to an employee for each time-off type
   • Balance: the number of days or hours that will be allocated to the employee;❗For policies that allocate unlimited time off, enter any number (don't leave it empty). The balance will be set as unlimited, regardless of the number you enter.
3. A sample data set is provided in the second row so that you can better understand what should be included in each column.
4. When your file is complete, save it as a CSV and upload it in Workable. To save as a CSV:
   • Click File in the main menu
   • Click Save As
   • Select "CSV" from the "Save as type" drop-down menu
   • Click Save

2. Map time-off types

Here you will map the time-off types that are mentioned in the file to the ones that are created within Workable.

At this step, at least one time-off type needs to be mapped before you can proceed to the next step. Multiple values from the CSV file can be mapped to the same time-off type of Workable, enabling you to simplify or clean up your data during the transition from another application.

If the same names of time-off types have been used in the past, Workable will automatically pre-fill the mapping and inform the user with the blue banner shown above.

In case a time-off type from the file is not mapped to a Workable one, then all entries of the CSV file that refer to this time-off type will be ignored during the import process.

3. Map time-off policies

For each time-off type that has been mapped to a Workable one (in the previous step), you will be required to map the time-off policies as well.

Mapping is grouped per time-off type including both Workable values and source file values in parentheses.

As in the previous step, you must map at least one time-off policy of the CSV file to a Workable one to start the import process.

Multiple values from the CSV file can be mapped to the same time-off policy of Workable, enabling you to simplify or clean up your data during the transition from another application.

If the same names of time-off policies have been used in the past, Workable will automatically pre-fill the mapping and inform you with the blue banner shown above.

In case a time-off policy from the file is not mapped to a Workable one, then all entries of the CSV file that refer to this time-off policy will be ignored during the import process.

4. Import & balance adjustment

Once you have completed the 3 steps of the import wizard, balance adjustment is initialized by pressing the Next button. You will be notified of the time-off balance adjustment and can't close the window until it's done.

The balance adjustment process is twofold:

• If an employee has already assigned a time-off type and a policy for this type, then the balance will be updated if there is an exact match between the CSV file and the assignment that is in place in Workable.
• If an employee has not been assigned any time-off types and policies by the HR admin, the assignment and balance update will be done simultaneously. 

After the process is finished, the results are shown on the screen. If there are any errors that occurred during the process, a CSV file will be available for download, where you will be able to see the lines that caused an error and the error that needs to be fixed before retrying.

Formatting guidelines

When importing balances using a CSV file, you must stick to the specific formats that Workable can recognize. When reviewing your CSV file, ensure that each field follows the rules below:

FAQs

⚒️ What are some common CSV import errors and their solutions?

Below are the most common errors you may face when importing balances via CSV and how to fix them.

Error	Solution
Employee has a future start date	Employees with future start dates can't have time-off types and policies assigned until their start date. You can set them manually.
No employees on your account with this work email	You should correct the email or create a new employee with that email.
Employee has been offboarded	You should remove their entries from the import file.
Employee must be assigned a work schedule	You should visit the employee profile and assign a work schedule to the employee.
Value is required for column x	This means the field is required, so you should provide a value or remove the entry from the file.
Employee already assigned to another policy for <time-off type>	If an employee is assigned a different policy, you should fix it in the import file or the employee profile so they match.
Employee assigned to an entity ineligible to <time-off policy>	You should assign employees to policies compatible with their entity/location; either update the time-off policy to be compatible with the employee's entity or change the policy in the import file to a compatible one.
Conflicting policies are provided for <time-off type>	If an employee has multiple entries with different policies for the same time off type, you should remove one entry or change them to match.
Invalid numeric format for balance	You should update the balance in an acceptable numeric format as described here.
Balance should be between -999999.99 and 999999.99	You should update the balance in an acceptable numeric format as described here.