This guide is for course providers who want to add or change many course dates at once. It explains how to prepare a spreadsheet, map its columns to Cademy fields, import it, check the result, update dates that already exist, and import a block of dates.

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The Course Dates Import reads a CSV or Excel file and creates one course date for each row. It can also change dates that already exist, and it can group rows into a block.

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Before you start, check that the import fits what you need:

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Save the file as CSV or Excel. In an Excel file, Cademy reads the first sheet only. Put the column headings in the first row. Each row under it is one course date.

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If your file has letters with accents or symbols, such as é or £, save it as Excel. Depending on the program that saved it, a CSV file is read with these characters wrong, for example Zoë as Zoë. A course name that is read wrong is not found, so the row is not imported.

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Three fields are required in every row: Course, Starts at and Ends at. Every other field is optional.

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Cademy provides an example file that contains every column: course dates example file. Make a copy of it and replace the example rows with your own. Whichever file type you save your copy as, the note on accents above and the note on Excel dates below apply to it. In the example file, the headings of the three required columns end with “(required)”, and the heading of the Cademy Occurrence ID column has a note in brackets. Cademy does not match these four columns for you, so select them yourself when you map your columns, or rename the headings.

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You can give your columns any headings. If a heading is the same as the name of a Cademy field, for example Starts at, Cademy selects that column for the field when you map your columns. Capital letters do not matter. You map every other column yourself.

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Every row must say which course the date belongs to. You can identify the course in one of three ways. You choose which one when you map your columns:

If Cademy cannot find the course, the row is not imported. If two of your courses have the same name, use the Cademy Course ID or the Course Code, so that each date goes to the course you mean.

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If every row is for the same course, your file does not need a course column. You can pick the course once when you map your columns.

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Write the date and the time together in one cell, for example 5/11/26 09:00. Use the 24-hour clock: Cademy does not read AM or PM, so 2:30 PM is read as 02:30. The end must be later than the start.

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When you map your columns, you choose the format your file uses from a list, once for Starts at and once for Ends at. In the format names, D is the day, M is the month, YY is a two-digit year, YYYY is a four-digit year, HH:mm is the time, ss is the seconds, S is a fraction of a second and Z is a time zone offset.

The dates in the example file are written like 2027-01-08 10:00. For that style, choose YYYY-M-D HH:mm.

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In an Excel file, enter dates and times as text: format the cells as Text before you type them. If Excel stores a cell as a date, Cademy receives a number instead of the date you see and reads it as a date in January 1970. The row is imported with that date and is not listed as failed, as long as its end is later than its start. A Course Code that contains only digits must also be in a Text cell, otherwise the course is not found. In a CSV file every date is already text.

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Cademy reads the times in the course’s time zone. To use another time zone for a row, add a Timezone column with a time zone name such as Europe/London. If Cademy does not recognise the name, it uses the course’s time zone.

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Add a column for each detail you want to set. If you leave a field out, a new date gets the value in the last column of this table.

For Delivery, Visibility and the number fields, Cademy ignores a value it does not recognise, such as a price written as £25. The row is imported as if the cell were empty, and it is not listed as failed. For a price, this means that an offer with a name is created with the price 0. Check these columns before you import.

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Two more groups of columns are described later in this guide: Cademy Occurrence ID in “Update existing course dates”, and the columns that start with Block in “Import a block of dates”.

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The import has four steps: open the import, upload your file, map your columns to Cademy fields, and start the import.

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The window shows Upload a file to import. Its View example file link opens the example file.

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If Cademy finds no rows under the headings, it shows “There was an issue processing your file. Please try again.” and stays on this step.

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Mapping tells Cademy which column of your file fills which field. The table has one row for each Cademy field, in alphabetical order. Its columns are Cademy Field, Value Source, File Column and Sample Data. Fields that Cademy matched to one of your headings are already filled in.

The window shows We will attempt to import followed by the number of rows Cademy found in your file. If the file contains blocks, a line under it counts the blocks and the standalone dates, which are the dates that are not in a block.

To change something first, select Back. Nothing is imported until you select Import Data.

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Cademy processes the file in the background, so you can keep working. To see the result, go to Settings, then Imports, and look at Your Imports. The newest import is at the top.

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PROCESSED means that Cademy has finished working through the file. PROCESSED does not mean that every row succeeded, so always check the FAILED column.

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An import that stops before it finishes stays at PROCESSING. If an import stays at PROCESSING and no email arrives, look for its dates in Cademy before you upload the file again, and contact Cademy Support with the import’s type and the date and time shown in Your Imports. Do not import the file again with Update existing occurrences off, because rows that were already imported would be created a second time.

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ROW NUMBER counts the rows under your headings. Row 1 is the first date below your headings, which is row 2 of a spreadsheet with no empty rows. Each row is imported separately, so a failed row does not stop the others. The rows of a block are the exception: see “Import a block of dates”.

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The table explains reasons this import gives. The course name and the email address in them are examples.

When processing ends, Cademy sends an email to the person who started the import, as long as that person still has access to the account. Its subject starts with “Cademy:” and gives the number of occurrences imported. The email lists each failed row with its row number and its error.

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To import the failed rows, put the corrected rows in a new file and import that file. If you import the whole file again instead, leave Update existing occurrences on, so that a row which matches the date it created changes that date and does not create it again.

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With Update existing occurrences on, Cademy looks for an existing date for each row. It uses one of these three checks, the first that applies to the row:

Cademy makes one check for each row. If the row has an ID or a code and no date has it, Cademy does not go on to compare the course, start and end. It creates a new date. The Deduplication Logic box lists the same three checks as steps that follow one another; each row gets only one of them, as described here.

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When Cademy finds the date, the row changes it as follows:

To get a date’s ID, export your dates. The export contains an Occurrence ID column and an Occurrence Code column: see Export Data or Schedule an Export. Do not copy an ID from the Imported Occurrences list. That list shows IDs in capital letters, and the import matches an ID exactly, capital letters included. A row whose ID matches no date creates a new date. You set a date’s code yourself, in the Occurrence code field in the Other section of the date’s editor, or with the Occurrence Code column of an import.

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To import a block, add a Block Name column. Rows for the same course that have the same Block Name are imported together as one block, and each row becomes one date in the block. Capital letters, and spaces before or after the name, do not matter. Rows with no Block Name are imported as separate dates, so one file can contain both.

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The settings for the block as a whole come from the first row of the block in your file. Cademy ignores these columns in the block’s other rows.

The dates inside the block get their places and prices in one of two ways:

The block starts when its earliest date starts and ends when its latest date ends. The block’s visibility comes from Visibility in its first row.

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If Cademy cannot create one of the block’s dates, for example because its end is before its start or its spaces do not add up, no row of that block is imported. Each of its rows is listed under FAILED with a reason that names the block and the row at fault, such as: Block "January Evenings": row 7: End time must be after the start time. A row that fails earlier, because its course is not found or a required value cannot be read, fails on its own, and the rest of the block is imported without it.

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With Update existing occurrences on, an import can change a block you already have:

With the switch off, the rows create a new block, even if the course already has a block with that name.

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Which fields are required when importing course dates?
​Course, Starts at and Ends at are required in every row, including rows that update an existing date.

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Can the import update existing course dates?
Yes, when Update existing occurrences is on. Cademy finds the date by its Cademy Occurrence ID if the row has one, otherwise by its Occurrence Code if the row has one, otherwise by its course, start and end.

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What happens if Update existing occurrences is turned off?
Every row creates a new course date, even if the same date already exists.

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What file types can I use?
A CSV file or an Excel file. In an Excel file, Cademy reads the first sheet only.

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How can I see which rows failed to import?
Go to Settings, then Imports, find the import under Your Imports, and select the number in the FAILED column. The list shows the row number and the reason for each row.

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Why did my dates import with the wrong date or time?
Check four things. The date format you chose must match the file exactly, because Cademy does not warn you when it does not. In an Excel file, the cells must be text, not Excel dates, which are imported as dates in January 1970. Times must use the 24-hour clock, because Cademy does not read AM or PM. A row that needs a different time zone from the course’s needs a Timezone value. Correct the file or the format, then import again with the dates’ IDs or codes, so that the rows change the existing dates.

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Can a course date import reactivate or assign an archived Owner or Facilitator?
No. The Owner must be a user who has access to your account now, so a row that names an archived user is not imported. A System Admin must reactivate the user from Users & Facilitators first. For the steps, see Archive and Reactivate a User or Facilitator.

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Will I be notified when the import finishes?
Yes. Cademy emails the person who started the import when processing ends, as long as that person still has access to the account.

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Can I undo an import?
No. The import has no undo. The Imported Occurrences list shows every date the import created or changed, so you can open each one and correct or delete it.