Importing Employee Data History

Introduction

The field history importer lets you add historical values to any employee data field without changing anyone's current value. This is most useful when you are bringing past data into PerformYard, such as an employee's salary history, so that managers and reports have that context available. Every entry you import lands in the field's history at the date you specify. Current values are never changed by an import.

To import field history, navigate to the Employees page under Company Settings, open the Options menu, and select Import Field History.

Preparing your file

The page shows the expected format and includes a Download CSV template link. Your file must be a CSV of 5,000 rows or fewer and 5MB or smaller, with one row per change and these four columns:

  • Email: The employee's PerformYard email address
  • Field: The PerformYard field name exactly, including capitalization, such as Salary
  • Field Value: The value as of the effective date
  • Effective Date: The date the value took effect, formatted MM/DD/YYYY. Must be in the past and before the date of the employee's current value for that field

Column names must match exactly, including capitalization, but they can appear in any order. Columns with other names are ignored, so you can leave extra columns in the file.

Field Values follow the same rules as the field's type:

  • Number and currency fields require a number
  • Single-select fields require an exact match to an available option
  • Multi-select fields require exact matches separated by a semicolon
  • Person and People fields require the email address of an active PerformYard user
  • Date fields require MM/DD/YYYY

A few rules to keep in mind as you build the file:

  • Each employee must already have a current value for the field. The import adds history behind that value, which is why every Effective Date must be earlier than the current value's date.
  • Each row must record an actual change. A row whose value matches what was already in effect on that date is reported as an error.
  • Two rows can't share the same Email, Field, and Effective Date, and a row can't land on the same date as an existing history entry for that employee and field.
  • The Email, Manager, and Activation Status fields can't be imported with this tool.

Uploading your file

Click Choose a .CSV file and select your file. PerformYard checks it automatically.

If any row has an error, nothing is imported. Every error is listed in a results table with its row number so you can fix them all in one pass, then choose the file again to re-check it. If the file is valid, a confirmation states how many entries will be added across how many employees, and the Upload button becomes available.

Click Upload to import the entries. Stay on the page while the import runs; a progress indicator tracks it, and you'll see a confirmation when it completes. Note that only one field history import can run at a time for your company.

Once the import finishes, you can confirm the results by clicking a field name on any employee's Details page to view that field's history.