How to bulk import students from Excel or CSV for legacy ERP migration

1. Set the admission-number format first

Open Inkwelly Settings, then School, then Admission Number Format. Pick the prefix, year, and counter width that match the admission numbers already in your old ERP file — for example KSM/2026/0247. Save before you go anywhere near the Import page. If the format clashes with the numbers in your CSV, every student gets rejected as a duplicate or invalid number, and the file gets turned away before a single student is added. This single five-minute setup is the most common reason a first migration upload fails, so finish it before you open the Import page.

2. Open Students, Data, Import

Open Inkwelly. From the sidebar, click Students, then Data, then Import. The page title reads Import; the line below says Bulk upload student profile, academic, parent, and address data via CSV. Make sure you are on the Student Profiles tab — it sits first in the four-tab strip for a reason. The other three tabs (Addresses, Parents, Academics) attach their entries to students who already exist in Inkwelly, using the admission number to find them. So Profiles must be loaded before any of the other three. If you upload them out of order, Inkwelly cannot find a student to attach those addresses, parents, or academic records to, and they quietly fall through.

3. Download the Template CSV and line up your old ERP columns

Click Download Template CSV at the top of the Student Profiles tab. Open the template in Excel or Google Sheets. Open your Campus Care, MyClassboard, FedenaERP, or GeniusKids export beside it. Rename and reorder the columns in your old export so they match the Inkwelly template exactly — both the column names and the column order need to match. Convert Campus Care's XLS to CSV via File then Save As then CSV UTF-8. Save as plain CSV (the UTF-8 option), otherwise Hindi names and apostrophes turn into question marks at upload. The UDISE+ field-level format is a useful reference here when you are not sure how to map a column.

4. Upload the file with Dry Run Mode ticked

Tick Dry Run Mode on the Profiles tab. The submit button label changes from Start Import to Validate Data. Drag your CSV into the drop zone, or click to upload. Inkwelly reads the file line by line, checks every field, pretends to add each student, and saves nothing yet. The check finishes in under 30 seconds for a 1,200-student file. This is your safety net — the first time you upload during a migration, always tick Dry Run. Without it, a faulty file can either fail halfway through or quietly add 800 students with bad data, and cleaning that up takes hours.

5. Read the result block and download the Detailed Error Report CSV

Look at the result block under the drop zone: Total Rows, Success, Failed, Time. If Failed is more than zero, click Download Detailed Error Report CSV. The report lists the line number, the field that caused the trouble, and the exact reason — invalid date, duplicate admission number, missing class, malformed phone, photo link not reachable. Open the report alongside your source file. Fix those entries in the source file. Save it again as plain CSV (UTF-8). Run Dry Run again. Keep going until Failed = 0 of N. This loop is the migration. On a 1,200-student file, two or three passes is normal.

6. Untick Dry Run and click Start Import

Untick Dry Run Mode on the cleaned file. Keep Download Photos ticked (on by default) if your file has a photo link column with public photo addresses — Inkwelly fetches each photo, files it under the right class and admission number in the school media library, and attaches it to the student profile. The submit button now reads Start Import. Click it. While the job runs, the button label changes to Importing…. When it finishes, a green message reads Successfully imported {count} students, and the result block shows the same Total Rows, Success, Failed, Time numbers — except this time the students are real.

7. Repeat for Addresses, Parents, and Academics in that order

Move to the Addresses tab. Download its Template CSV, line up your old export, tick Dry Run, upload, fix, untick Dry Run, click Start Import. Then do Parents. Then do Academics. All three of these tabs attach to the students you just created on the Profiles tab — they find each student by admission number — so all three need Profiles to exist first. Follow the tab order shown across the Inkwelly Import page, left to right: Profiles, Addresses, Parents, Academics. Skip the order and you end up with addresses, parents, and academic records that have no student to attach to, and Inkwelly quietly drops them.