How do I bulk upload contacts?

The Bulk upload feature allows you to add a whole list of adult club contacts in one go, straight from a spreadsheet. It is the quickest way to bring your offline community into Clubforce: people who have not yet bought online or created an account, such as older members, life members, or your wider supporter list.

When you upload, Clubforce does the tidying up for you. It creates an account for anyone new, it never creates a second account for someone who is already in your system, and it adds everyone to a recipient list so they are ready to be emailed.

You will find this feature under Bulk Upload in your club Back Office.

Getting started

Log in to your club Back Office and open Bulk Upload from the side menu. If this option is not accessible for you, your account may not have permission for it yet; contact your club owner and they can enable it for you.

Step 1: Choose what you are importing

On the Bulk upload page, under Select data type, you have three choices:

• Contacts for a list of people to add to your recipient lists and contact later
• Registrations for membership registration data (free plans only)
• Lotto for lotto entries for upcoming draws

To add general contacts, choose Contacts.

Once you choose Contacts, the Upload file section appears below. Please note this is for adults only; juveniles need a linked parent or guardian and must be added through Registrations.

Step 2: Confirm consent

The yellow panel is where you confirm your club has the right to store and contact these people. Tick the options that these contacts have agreed to:

• General club communications lets you use the Clubforce communication tool to contact them
• Lotto results emails signs them up to receive your lotto results email

There is also an optional tick box, Send a confirmation email to each uploaded member, if you would like everyone in your file to receive a confirmation email.

If your contacts have not opted in to any of these, click Proceed without consent instead. You can always update a contact’s preferences later. Only tick these where you genuinely have permission.

Step 3: Prepare your file

Your contacts need to be in a CSV file (a simple spreadsheet). Click Download sample file to get a template set up in the correct format, with three columns: First name, Last name and Email.

When filling in your file, keep these rules in mind:

• Do not change the file from .csv
• Do not add commas to any entries
• Do not use dummy or fake email addresses
• Do not use the same email address for different adult members

Your file must be less than 10MB.

Step 4: Upload your file

On the right of the Upload file section, click the Click or drag here to upload file box, or drag your saved file straight onto it. Your file browser will open so you can select your CSV.

Step 5: Add your contacts to a list

Once your file is uploaded, the Add contacts to lists pop-up appears. A list is simply a group of recipients you can email all at once.

You can:

• Tick one or more of your existing lists to add the contacts to them
• Create new list and give it a name, for example “Imported contacts” or “2026 supporters”

When you are happy with your selection, click Confirm.

Step 6: Check the results

You will land on the Contacts Data screen. This shows your file name and a summary of the scan, for example “0 errors and 0 warnings found from 24 rows scanned”.

Under Row Details you can see the total number of records in your file and the total number of new accounts created (new accounts are contacts who did not already have a Clubforce account).

If Clubforce finds any problems, the summary will tell you how many errors or warnings there are and the reason for each, for example a missing name or an email that is not formatted correctly. Correct these in your spreadsheet, then click New upload to try again. Your file needs to be error-free to be added.

What happens next?

• New contacts get a Clubforce account created for them (shown as “Total new accounts”).
• Existing contacts are matched to their current account, so no duplicate is ever created.
• If you ticked the confirmation email option, each uploaded member receives a confirmation email.
• The consent you confirmed is applied, so your contacts are set up to receive the communications you selected.

Your contacts will then appear in the list you chose, ready for you to include the next time you send a club email.

Good to know

• Bulk upload is for adult contacts only. Juveniles must be added through Registrations with a linked parent or guardian.
• Bulk upload never creates a duplicate account. If an email is already in your system, that person is simply matched to their existing account.
• New contacts confirm their email address before they can receive club emails. This helps protect your club’s email reputation.
• Keep your file as a .csv, with no commas, real email addresses, and a unique email for each adult, all under 10MB.
• Any errors or warnings are shown after your file is scanned, so you can fix them and upload again.