Skip to main content
Mapping is where you say what each column in your file means. The screen shows your actual file, not an abstract form, and you work through it one column at a time. Nothing is created or changed while you are in here: no member, contact, payment or badge exists until you press Start import. Built for the spreadsheet you already have, with the headers it already has. Replaces renaming columns in Excel until the import stops complaining. The Map columns screen showing the uploaded file as a sheet, with each column header carrying its destination and a status chip, a progress line reading 6 of 6 columns mapped, and the required field chip beside Discard and Start import

​
How the screen opens

On Settings → Customization → Import, pick a step and choose your file. Every step on the page maps columns, so the action button reads “Map columns”. Press it and the wizard opens over the whole page. (A spreadsheet is converted first, and the wizard opens by itself when that is done.) The header shows the title “Map columns” with the import type underneath it (“Users”, “Contacts”, “Product Payments”, “Event Attendance” and so on). To the right of the title sits the save state: “Saving…” while a change is being stored, then “Draft saved”. Your choices are saved as you make them. That draft is a mapping, not an import. Close the screen with the “Close” X in the header or the Escape key. Clicking the dimmed page behind it does nothing, on purpose.

​
The sheet

Under the toolbar, the screen is your file: the header row across the top, the first 20 rows underneath, numbered down the left. The header row and the numbers stay in place while you scroll, and the sheet scrolls sideways for a wide file. Above the sheet on the left is the progress line, counting mapped columns against the total (“7 of 12 columns mapped”), over a thin bar. On the right are the file name and the number of rows Orgo read (“200 rows sampled”). The sampled figure is the larger one: Orgo reads up to 200 rows of your file to work out its suggestions and to collect the distinct values in each column, and it draws the first 20 of them for you to look at. Three extra bands can appear between that line and the sheet:
  • A warning about wider rows, such as “3 sampled rows have more columns than the header row”. A value that contains the separator is not in quotes, so everything after it has shifted one column across. Re-save the file as CSV UTF-8 now, while abandoning the draft is cheap: the import refuses a file like this.
  • An offer to reuse your last mapping: “Apply your previous mapping from 14 Oct?” with Apply and Dismiss. It appears when your organisation’s most recent completed import of the same type used only column names this file also has. It is never applied on its own, because the file is new even when the headers match. Form imports never offer it.
  • The check, described below.

​
What a column header shows

Each column header is a button, and it stacks three things.
  1. The name from your file, exactly as you wrote it. Long names are cut short on screen, with the full text on hover.
  2. A summary of where the column is going.
  3. Its status chips.
The summary line has one wording per state: And one chip per status: A second chip, “Suggested”, sits beside the status chip while the column is still on the wizard’s own guess. It disappears the moment you change anything about that column, so the chips left showing “Suggested” are exactly the decisions you have not reviewed yet.

​
The column settings panel

The column settings panel open beside the sheet, showing how many sample rows have a value, the sample values, the destination choice between a system field, an existing field, a new field and skip, and the field name and type Click a column header and its settings open in a panel beside the sheet. Click the same header again, or the panel’s “Close” X, to shut it. The panel has a drag handle on its left edge (“Resize panel”) if you want it wider, and the arrow keys nudge it once it has focus.
1

Read the column facts at the top

A line such as “18 of 200 sample rows have a value” tells you how full the column is, followed by up to five of the distinct values it holds and a “+N” tag for the rest. A column that is nearly empty, or full of values you did not expect, is worth catching here rather than after the import.
2

Choose a destination

“Destination” is a block of four buttons: “System field”, “Existing field”, “New field” and “Skip”. Import types that do not carry profile fields, such as events or products, offer only “System field” and “Skip”.
3

If it is a system field, pick the field

A select labelled “System field” opens with the placeholder “Choose a field”. Fields are listed under group headings: “Payer”, “Product”, “Price tier”, “Event”, “Attendee”, “Member”, “Role”, “Company”, “Badge” on the types that link to other records, and “Identity”, “Contact”, “Membership”, “Profession” and “Roles” on a Users file. Contacts and the two modify types list their fields flat. A field another column has already taken is greyed out and its name carries the suffix “(already used)”. Under the select, a line of help says what Orgo does with the field, with an Example value.
4

If it is a date, set the date format

Columns that land on a date field (or on a custom field of type Date) get a “Date format” menu with five spellings. See Preparing your file for what the pre-selected value means, and why an amber “Ambiguous, please choose” deserves an answer.
5

If it is an existing field, search for it

“Existing custom field” is a search box with the placeholder “Search your profile fields”; it opens the whole list on focus. Each suggestion shows the field name with its type beside it, and once you pick one the help text under the box reads “Type” and the type name. An empty search says “No matching field”. A field with a lock icon is encrypted and cannot be chosen, see the troubleshooting below.
6

If it is a new field, name it and type it

“Field name” is pre-filled with the header from your file, and “Field type” offers “Text”, “Long text”, “Number”, “Date”, “Yes / No”, “Dropdown”, “Single choice” and “Multiple choice”. The field is created when you press Start import, not before.
7

If it is skipped, that is the whole panel

A single line reads “This column is left out of the import.”
8

For a choice field, set the delimiter and match the values

A “Multiple choice” column gets “Values in a cell are separated by”, three buttons reading ”,” “Comma”, ”;” “Semicolon” and ”|” “Pipe”, with a “Split preview” underneath showing how three of your own cells break apart under the choice you made. Every choice column then gets “Match values to options”: a table of “Value in file” against “Option label” for a new field, or “Option” for an existing one, where you decide that “M”, “Male” and “male” are all one option. That table is covered in full on Custom Fields in an import.

​
Why a type was suggested

Every column arrives with a guess already made, marked “Suggested”. Orgo works it out in this order. First, where the column should go. If the header matches one of the system fields for this import type, or one of the usual alternative names for it (DOB, zip, branch), it points there. If it matches a profile field your organization already has, it points at that field with the type that field already uses; an encrypted field is never suggested, the column is skipped instead. Otherwise, on a type that can hold custom fields (members and contacts, plus form questions), it proposes a new field, and only then does it need to guess a type. On every other type an unrecognised column starts out as Skipped. The type guess looks at the values in the sampled rows and takes the first rule that fits:
  1. A delimited list. If a comma, semicolon or pipe appears in at least a third of the filled cells, and the pieces it produces repeat across rows rather than being all different, the column is read as “Multiple choice” with that character as the delimiter. The repetition test is what stops a column of free text full of commas from being mistaken for a list.
  2. Yes or no. Every filled cell is one of true, false, 1, 0, yes or no, in any casing, so the column becomes “Yes / No”.
  3. Numbers. Every filled cell is a number, so the column becomes “Number”.
  4. Dates. Every filled cell is a real date written as YYYY-MM-DD, so the column becomes “Date”. Other spellings are not guessed into a date field here: the column starts as text, and you can change it.
  5. A short set of repeating values. At least 20 filled cells sharing no more than 15 distinct values, so the column becomes “Single choice” and the distinct values become its options.
  6. Anything else becomes “Text”.
The order matters. A column of yes; no is a list before it is a yes or no question, and a column of only 1 and 0 is a yes or no question before it is a number.
A suggestion is a starting point, nothing more. The “Suggested” chip is there so you can tell at a glance which columns are still running on a guess, and changing anything about the column clears it.

​
What the sample rows show

The 20 rows are not raw text; they are a preview of what the import would store under the mapping as it stands right now. Change a column and its cells redraw.
  • A multiple choice column splits each cell on its delimiter and shows one small tag per piece. The tag reads the option label the piece resolves to, and hovering shows the raw text from your file.
  • A single choice column shows the resolved option label, and underneath it, in smaller muted text, the raw text from your file, but only when the two differ. A cell reading S that resolves to an option called Small shows “Small” over “S”. A cell that already reads “Small” shows one line.
  • A skipped column keeps its raw values on screen but the whole column is dimmed, so it reads as present but inactive.
  • An empty cell shows a faint dash. Empty means empty: the import writes nothing for it, so a blank cell cannot be used to clear a value.
  • A reference column (a payer, a role) can be tagged New when the row would create the record it names, or Unmatched when it would find nothing and fail.
Every other column, including system fields, text, numbers and dates, shows its raw values unchanged.

​
The check before you start

A couple of seconds after you stop changing the mapping, Orgo runs the whole file through it as a dry run. Nothing is written. A line reads “Checking 1,200 rows…” with a bar while it works, “Waiting behind another import” if your organisation has an import running, and “Mapping changed, checking again…” when you edit mid-way. When it finishes you get five tiles: Press a tile to list the rows behind it under the sheet, each with Orgo’s reason in plain words (for example “Payer not found for the supplied identifier”); press it again to close the list. On Local Centers, Units, Roles, Badge Types and Badges a note says “Create counts are an upper bound for this type”: two rows naming the same new chapter count as two creates in the check but make one chapter in the run. If the check cannot finish, “The check could not finish” appears with the reasons, such as a header row that lacks a required column. Fix the file or the mapping and it checks again. A second strip, shown on types that look up existing records (payments, attendance, role assignments, company memberships, badge awards and events), counts the first 20 rows by reference: found, new and unmatched. It is covered in Linking records. The check above is the verdict on the whole file; the strip tells you which column is responsible.

​
Before Start import can be pressed

Two things have to be true, and both are reported in the footer beside the button. Every required group is satisfied. Each requirement is one chip. Its label is the group, then the ways of satisfying it: fields that must go together are joined by ” + ”, and the alternatives are joined by ” or ”. A satisfied chip is green with a check mark and reads plainly, for example “Payer: Payer email or Payer name”. An unsatisfied chip is grey with an exclamation mark and has the word needed appended, for example “Payer: Payer email or Payer name needed”. A simple type shows a single chip: a Users import needs only an email address, so its chip reads “Required: Email”. A type that links to other records shows one chip per reference plus a “Required fields” chip for the columns on the row itself. Every chip has to be green. No system field is used twice. If two columns claim the same one, a red chip appears in the footer reading “Each system field can be filled by one column only” followed by the fields in question, and in the panel the select turns red with “Another column already fills this field”. Pick a different field for one of them, or skip it. Start import also stays disabled until the check above has finished for the mapping as it stands (a change restarts it), while the preview is still loading, while a start is already under way, and while a change cannot be saved. In that last case the header replaces “Draft saved” with the reason: “Mapping is not valid” when the choice itself is refused, or “Could not save the mapping” when the request did not get through. What does not block the button: columns you left skipped, columns still reading “Needs attention” because you opened “Existing field” and never picked one (those are simply not imported), and rows the check says will fail. If there are such rows, pressing Start import first asks “Some rows will fail”: “5 rows will fail and be left out. Import the rest?” with Import the rest or Cancel. On a Users or Contacts file the footer also holds “Members that already exist”, a choice between Skip them (the default) and Update the mapped fields. It decides what happens to a row whose person is already on file: left alone, or updated the way a Modify import would. Changing it restarts the check, and it is saved with the rest of the mapping.

​
Unmapped columns are dropped

This is the one that surprises people, so it is worth saying flatly: a column you leave skipped is thrown away. Its values are not stored anywhere, and no field is created for it. If a column matters, give it a destination. If it does not, skipping it is exactly right and costs nothing. The one place to be careful is a column you assumed would “just come across” because it did on an older import: in this screen, only the columns you point somewhere are read.

​
Leaving and coming back

Closing the screen does not throw anything away. The mapping is saved as you go, and the import sits waiting. Back on Settings → Customization → Import, the step you were working on now shows the chip “Mapping columns” and two buttons: “Continue mapping”, which reopens the screen exactly where you left it, and “Discard”, which throws the whole thing away after asking. The confirmation is explicit about what is lost: “The uploaded file and this mapping will be deleted. Nothing has been imported yet.” There is one draft per step. Uploading a new file for the same step means dealing with the draft first. A mapping is not reused on its own: each import starts from its suggestions, and the only help is the Apply your previous mapping offer described above, which you accept or dismiss.

​
Troubleshooting

Read the footer chips first. Any chip that is still grey names what is missing, and every chip has to be green before the button wakes up. If they are all green, check that the strip under the progress line has finished counting (the button waits for it), then look at the header where “Draft saved” normally sits: a message there means your last change could not be stored, and the button stays disabled until it can be. The usual cause is a column set to “System field” with no field chosen, or two columns fighting over the same field.
You chose a kind of destination but not the destination itself: “System field” or “Existing field” with nothing picked underneath. The other cause is a clash, where two columns claim the same system field and both are flagged. Open the column and either finish the choice or set it to “Skip”.
The progress line (“7 of 12 columns mapped”) counts only columns with a real destination. Skipped columns and columns still reading “Needs attention” are not counted, so a file you have completely decided can sit well under 100% and still be ready to import. Trust the footer chips, not the bar.
Messages that come back when you press Start import use the internal column names, not the friendly labels on screen: payer_email rather than “Payer email”, and the normalized version of your own header (lower case, spaces turned into underscores) rather than the header as you typed it. They are also written in English whatever language the rest of the page is in. Match the name to the field by its shape: payer_email is “Payer · Payer email”, shirt_size is your column “Shirt Size”.
That field is encrypted, and an import cannot write into it. Encrypted fields hold things like identity numbers, and the import writes values by a route that would store them unprotected, so it is refused rather than allowed to leak. Clicking the locked row does nothing at all, which is why the column stays on “Needs attention”. Map the column to something else or skip it, and enter those values through the profile instead. A column whose header matches an encrypted field is suggested as Skipped for the same reason.