Bulk import participants

Setting up more than a handful of participants one at a time is slow. Import brings many in at once from a single spreadsheet: their core details, contacts, NDIS plan and budgets, service agreement and supports, goals, risks, preferences and consent, all linked together and checked before anything is saved. Matching an email even lets you update participants you already have.

Update existing participants by email

The Email column on the Participants sheet is the match key. A new email creates a participant; an email that matches one you already have updates that participant instead of making a duplicate.

• Blank cells keep the stored value. On an update row, a required cell you leave empty (name, phone, NDIS number, address, and so on) keeps whatever is already on file rather than erroring. Fill only the cells you want to change.
• Archived participants are rejected. If the email matches an archived participant you’ll see ‘A participant with email “…” is archived; restore them in the app before importing updates.’ Restore them first, then re-run.
• NDIS numbers stay their own. An NDIS number already used by a different participant is still rejected as a clash, but a participant keeps their own number on an update.

The ten sheets

The Ref column on the Participants sheet is the id that ties one participant’s rows together across the file. It can be any short unique value, but use the participant’s email address, which is what the template does: their email is already on the row, it is unique, and it saves keeping a private numbering scheme in your head. Every other sheet has a Participant ref column that points back at it.

Participant ref accepts either of two things:

• A Ref from the Participants sheet, for someone being created (or updated) in the same file. This is the usual case, and if you have used emails as your refs then the value you type is an email.
• The email of a participant already in the app, for attaching a contact, plan, goal or risk to someone already set up, with no row for them on the Participants sheet at all.

An email is checked against the file first and the app second, so an email that names a new participant on the Participants sheet resolves to that new participant, not to an existing one. Between them, that is how OneForce Care knows which contact, plan, budget, agreement, goal or risk belongs to whom.

Sheet	Required	Linked by
Participants	Yes, at least one row	Ref (unique within the file; the other sheets point at it)
Contacts	No	Participant ref: a Ref, or an existing participant’s email
NDIS plans	No	Participant ref; at most one plan row per participant
Plan budgets	No	Participant ref; needs one NDIS plan row for that participant
Service agreements	No	Participant ref; one agreement row per participant
Agreement supports	No	Participant ref; needs a Service agreements row for that participant
Goals	No	Participant ref
Risks	No	Participant ref
Preferences	No	Participant ref
Consent	No	Participant ref; one consent row per participant

If a Participant ref doesn’t resolve, you get one of two messages: ‘Participant ref “…” does not match any row on the Participants tab.’ for a plain ref that isn’t on the Participants sheet, or ‘No existing participant has the email “…”.’ for an email that matches neither a Ref in the file nor a participant you already have. A typo in an email ref always shows the second message, so check the Participants sheet as well as your existing participants when you see it.

Participants

Column	Required	Notes
Ref	Yes	Any short unique id. Use the participant’s email, as the template does
First name	Yes
Middle name	No
Last name	Yes
Date of birth	No	DD/MM/YYYY
Gender	No	Male, Female or Prefer not to say
Pronouns	No	Select from list
Ethnicity	No	Select from list
Primary language	No	Select from list
Primary diagnosis	No	Free text
Email	Yes	The match key. A new email creates; a matching email updates that participant. Unique within the file
Phone	Yes	Australian format, e.g. 04XX XXX XXX or 0X XXXX XXXX
NDIS number	Yes	8 to 11 digits. Must be unique within your provider
Medicare number	No	10 or 11 digits
Centrelink number	No	9 digits followed by a letter, e.g. 123 456 789A
Address line	Yes
Suburb	No
State	Yes	NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT or ACT
Postcode	Yes	A valid Australian postcode, e.g. 2000

Every newly imported participant starts at status Created, exactly like one added through Add participant. Give them a row on the NDIS plans sheet and their status moves to Plan set; a Signed service agreement row (below) marks the agreement as executed and activates them.

Contacts

Column	Required	Notes
Participant ref	Yes	A Ref on the Participants sheet, or an existing participant’s email
Contact type	Yes	Nominee, Guardian, Family, Emergency contact, Plan manager, Support coordinator or Clinician
First name	Yes
Last name	Yes
Business name	No	For professional contacts (Plan manager, Support coordinator, Clinician)
Relationship	No	For personal contacts (Nominee, Guardian, Family, Emergency contact) only
Phone	Yes	Australian format
Email	Sometimes	Required for Plan manager, Support coordinator and Clinician contacts
Preferred contact method	No	Phone, Email, SMS, Website or None
Address line	No
Suburb	No
State	No	NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT or ACT
Postcode	No	Must be a valid Australian postcode if given
Acts as plan manager	No	Y when a Support coordinator contact also receives and pays invoices
Notes	No

Two role rules match the interactive Contacts tab: a Relationship belongs only on a personal contact, and Acts as plan manager applies only to a Support coordinator. A Support coordinator row with Acts as plan manager set to Y clears the participant’s Coordinator: unassigned alert and makes that coordinator available as the plan-manager contact on a service agreement.

NDIS plans

Column	Required	Notes
Participant ref	Yes	One plan row per participant: it imports as their current plan
Plan number	Yes	8 to 11 digits
Start date	Yes	DD/MM/YYYY
End date	Yes	DD/MM/YYYY, on or after Start date
Funding management	Yes	Self-managed, Plan-managed, NDIA-managed or Mixed
MMM code	Yes	MM1 (metro) to MM7 (very remote); drives the price-cap region
Notes	No

Plan budgets

Column	Required	Notes
Participant ref	Yes	Needs a row on the NDIS plans sheet for the same participant
Budget type	Yes	Core, Capacity building or Capital
Allocated amount	Yes	Dollars allocated to this pool, e.g. 25000. Must be 0 or more
Stated	No	Y when the funds are locked to that pool

Stated works exactly like the Stated toggle on the NDIS Plan tab, and so does the rule that Capacity building and Capital are always stated under NDIS rules. Those two pools import as stated whether you enter Y or leave the cell blank; only an explicit N is rejected, with “Capacity building budgets are always stated under NDIS rules. Set Stated to Y.” Core is the only pool where the choice is yours.

A budget row’s funding management always follows its own plan’s Funding management, the same as adding a budget from the NDIS Plan tab. Two rules apply:

• A budget row needs its participant to have exactly one NDIS plans row in the same import. Without it, or with more than one, the row is rejected: ‘Participant “…” needs exactly one row on the NDIS plans tab to attach budgets to.’
• Only one budget row per pool per participant: a second is rejected, e.g. “Only one core budget row per participant can be imported (the app keeps a single budget per pool).”

Service agreements

Column	Required	Notes
Participant ref	Yes	One service agreement row per participant
Start date	Yes	On or after the NDIS plan start when a plan row is present
End date	Yes	On or before the NDIS plan end when a plan row is present
Invoice recipient name	Sometimes	Required unless the participant’s plan is NDIA-managed
Invoice email	Sometimes	Required unless the participant’s plan is NDIA-managed
Status	No	Draft (default) or Signed. Signed marks it executed and activates them
NDIA report terms included	No	Y when the agreement covers paid NDIA report-writing time
Non-face-to-face terms included	No	Y when it covers paid non-face-to-face support time
Provider travel time included	No	Y when it covers paid provider travel time
Short notice cancellation terms included	No	Y when it allows short-notice cancellation charges
Cross-boundary higher-of included	No	Y when a support crossing a price band may bill at the higher band’s limit
Cancellation notice hours	No	Agreed short-notice window in hours; leave blank for the standard rule

The agreement window must sit inside the plan’s funded window when a plan row is present, so a start before the plan start or an end after the plan end is rejected and names the plan date. A Signed agreement needs a positive Agreed rate on every one of its supports, or you’ll see ‘Enter the agreed rate for … before importing this agreement as signed.’

Agreement supports

Column	Required	Notes
Participant ref	Yes	Needs a row on the Service agreements sheet for the same participant
Support item number	Yes	NDIS support code, e.g. 01_011_0107_1_1; checked against the catalogue on import
Agreed rate	Sometimes	Unit price in dollars. Required when the agreement is Signed; must be greater than 0
Monthly hours	No	Committed hours per month for planning. Maximum 744 (the hours in the longest month)

Goals, Risks, Preferences and Consent

These four sheets attach smaller records to a participant by Participant ref (Ref or email).

Sheet	Required columns	Optional columns	Notes
Goals	Participant ref, Goal	Progress, Target date, Notes	Progress defaults to Not started. Target date can’t be after the agreement end
Risks	Participant ref, Risk	Rating, Close date, Notes	Rating is Low, Medium, High or Critical. Close date can’t be after the agreement end
Preferences	Participant ref, Title	Description	A short like/dislike shown on the participant’s profile
Consent	Participant ref, Consent date	-	Records a signed manual consent. One consent row per participant

Reading the issue list

Most issues name the field and the rule, for example “Postcode is required.”, “State must be one of: NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT, ACT.”, “Allocated amount must be a number.” or “End date must be on or after Start date.” Format checks (email, phone, NDIS number, plan number, Medicare, Centrelink, postcode) show the same message you’d see filling in the field by hand, for example “Enter a valid email address.” or “Enter a valid Australian postcode.”

A few issues are file-level rather than row-level, and show against File instead of a row number:

• ‘The “Participants” sheet is missing.’ if the workbook has no sheet by that name.
• ‘The “…” sheet is missing the “…” column.’ if a required column’s header was renamed or deleted.
• ‘The “…” sheet has more than 500 data rows (limit 500 per import).’
• “Unsupported file type. Upload a .xlsx or .csv file.” if the extension isn’t .xlsx or .csv.