The Entity Importer allows schools to import data from spreadsheets into Arbor, either for initial setup or to add new data. Users need General Admin permissions to access the importer, which involves downloading a template, filling it out according to specific formatting rules, and uploading it. The article details the steps for importing various data types, including staff and student information, and emphasises the importance of checking for existing data to avoid duplicates.
Please note the following can vary for a GroupCall API migrator, we are working on adding the GroupCall Migrator specifications to this guide. If you need to raise any data discrepancies post migration please contact Arbor support or your dedicated partner and we will be advised of the next steps.
Our Entity importer can be used to import spreadsheets of data into Arbor by:
- Schools who aren't migrating their data over from another MIS provider and need to set up their data from scratch.
- Schools currently using Arbor who want to import additional data in bulk.
Permissions
You'll need the General Admin: Import Data permission to complete the process below. If you don't have this permission, ask your admin team to assign it to you.
How to use the importer
Go to School > Data > Import > Entity Import. Here you can see all the datasets you can import.
We recommend working through the list from top to bottom in order. However if you don't want to import certain data you can skip a section, unless the next step requires data from a previous step.
Clicking the name of one of the entity importers takes you to the Entity Importer page, where you can see any previous imports. You can click on these to view more information for successful imports, or to remove un unsuccessful import.
Click back in your browser to return to the import page if needed.
Using the importer for most of the imports
Before you get started - Check your existing data
You'll need to check for any existing data on your site. This is because any imported data will be added as new data. This may cause duplicates if you upload the data multiple times.
After importing, we recommend checking for duplicate data using the Data Quality Dashboard.
Step 1 - Download and open the template
Click the green button to download the spreadsheet. It includes columns where you can place the information.
Step 2 - Fill in the template
Click the green button to download the spreadsheet. It includes columns where you can place the information.
Different columns require data to be in different formats. These include:
- select from a drop-down menu of options (so you can't paste in the information)
- numerical format only (for example, 01/01/2001) and letters are not allowed
- mandatory fields which must be filled out
You can see a full list of the requirements for each file in the Entity Importer rules section below.
Step 3 - Import the template
Click Browse to select your XLS file from your computer, then click Upload.
- On the next page, you can either delete the import, or click Import if you have checked the data and are happy to import it.
- If there are issues with the data, you can fix them from here by clicking on the field highlighted in red.
You'll then see the completed import. You can click it to access the imported data.
Roll Call Attendance
The Roll Call Attendance importer is most useful for schools who have gone through Manual Migration, as attendance is usually migrated from previous MIS systems. This importer follows a slightly different process than the rest of the importers.
For this import, the file must be in CSV format. You can have additional columns (for example attendance notes), but these will not be imported.
The order of the columns is not important as you will be asked to match each column to the Arbor data fields when you upload the file.
When imported, you will receive a notification.
You can click on the file to:
- Delete the import if you imported an incorrect file where no data could be matched. Top Tip: If data was matched to a student, this won't delete what was imported, just the record of the import.
- Reimport your file
- download a log of the upload as a .txt file.
Entity Importer rules
Different columns require data to be in different formats. These include:
- select from a drop-down menu of options (so you can't paste in the information)
- numerical format only (for example 01/01/2001) and letters are not allowed
- mandatory fields which must be filled out
Staff data
Pay Scale template
- Pay Scale Name: mandatory
- Pay Range: must use drop down
Please note that to use the Pay scale field, you need to have first set these up in your site by either:
- importing the Pay Scale template (detailed in the above section)
- setting them up manually in Arbor following these instructions: Managing and Updating Pay Scales
Data items:
- Pay Scale: must use drop down
- Gross Salary: mandatory
Staff template
- Title: must use drop down
- Legal first name: mandatory
- Legal surname: mandatory
- National insurance: mandatory
- Preferred first name
- Preferred surname
- Sex: must use drop down
- Date of birth: must use numerical format
- Ethnicity: must use drop down
- Religion: must use drop down
- Staff number
- School ID card
- Timetable abbreviation
- Business role: must use drop down
- Mobile number
- Home number
- Email address
- Address line 1
- Address line 2
- Town
- Postcode
- Country: must use drop down
Staff absence
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- National insurance: mandatory
- Start date and time: mandatory, must use numerical format (for example 01/01/2022 10:00)
- End date and time: must use numerical format (for example 01/01/2022 10:00)
- Actual working hours
- Staff absence category: mandatory. must use drop down
- Sickness category: must use drop down
- Sickness subcategory: must relate to the sickness category
- Narrative
Staff check
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- National insurance: mandatory
- Check type: must use drop down
- Check level: must use drop down
- Number
- Check date: must use numerical format
Staff contract
Please note that to use the Pay scale and Pay scale spinal point fields, you need to have first set these up in your site by either:
- importing the Pay Scale and Pay Scale Spinal Point templates (detailed in the above section)
- setting them up manually in Arbor following these instructions: Managing and Updating Pay Scales
For certain things in the list below you can have multiple instances. In this case, you'll need to import the first, then add the rest manually. You can see how to add these in manually here:
Data items:
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- National insurance: mandatory
- Staff employment type: must use drop down
- Start date: must use numerical format
- End date: must use numerical format
- Staff leaving reason: must use drop down
- Staff destination: must use drop down
- Superannuation scheme: must use drop down
- Contract reference
- Payroll number
- Staff origin: must use drop down
- Last pay review date: must use numerical format
- Contract post job title
- Contract post position: must use drop down
- Contract post start date: must use numerical format
- Contract post end date: must use numerical format
- Pay scale: must use drop down
- Pay scale spinal point: must use drop down
- Custom FTE salary amount
- Actual hours per week
- FTE hours per week
- Actual weeks per year
- FTE weeks per year
- Linked allowance: must use drop down
- Allowance effective date: must use numerical format
- Allowance end date: must use numerical format
- Gross allowance amount
- Additional payment reason: must use drop down
- Additional payment amount
- Additional payment date: must use numerical format
Staff next of kin
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- National insurance number for staff member: mandatory
- Next of kin title: must use drop down
- Next of kin legal first name: mandatory
- Next of kin legal surname: mandatory
- Next of kin sex: must use drop down
- Next of kin mobile number
- Next of kin home number
- Next of kin work number
- Next of kin email address
- Next of kin address line 1
- Next of kin address line 2
- Next of kin town
- Next of kin country: must use drop down
- Next of kin postcode
- Next of kin relationship: must use drop down
Staff qualification
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- National insurance number: mandatory
- Qualification name
- Qualification type: must use drop down
- Qualification class: must use drop down
- 1st subject: must use drop down
- 2nd subject: must use drop down
- Date awarded: must use numerical format
Staff vehicle
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- National insurance number: mandatory
- Vehicle type: mandatory. must use drop down
- Car make: must use drop down
- Model
- Colour
- Car registration number
- Parking allocation provided: must use drop down
Student data
Student dietary requirements
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Dietary requirement type: must use drop down
- Note
Student Disability Access Funding (DAF)
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Start date: must use numerical format
- End date: must use numerical format
- Note
Student Early Years Pupil Premium Recipient
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Start date: must use numerical format
- End date: must use numerical format
- Economic reasons: must use drop down
- Other reasons: must use drop down
Student suspension
Please note that once you import suspensions, the statutory roll call sessions won't be automatically filled with a planned absence and an E attendance code. You need to go to Students > Behaviour > Suspensions to edit it to choose which sessions are missed using these instructions: Editing the Suspension
Data items:
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Decision date time: must use numerical format
- From date time: mandatory. must use numerical format
- Until date time: mandatory. must use numerical format
- Daily start time: must use numerical format
- Daily end time: must use numerical format
- Narrative
- Exclusion reason 1: mandatory. must use drop down
- Exclusion reason 2: must use drop down
- Exclusion reason 3: must use drop down
Student Guardian Relationship
- Student legal first name
- Student legal surname
- Student UPN: mandatory
- Guardian title: must use drop down
- Guardian first name: mandatory
- Guardian last name: mandatory
- Guardian sex: must use drop down
- Guardian relationship type: must use drop down
- Is primary guardian: must use drop down
- Is legal guardian: must use drop down
- Emergency contact priority: must use drop down
- Is key worker: must use drop down
- Email address
- Mobile number
- Home number
- Work number
Student Hours At Setting
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Hours at Setting: must use numerical format
- Funded Hours: must use numerical format
- Extended Hours: must use numerical format
- 30 hour code
Student Medical Conditions
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Medical condition type: must use drop down
- Severity: must use drop down
- Start date: must use numerical format
- End date: must use numerical format
- Symptoms
- Treatment
Student Pastoral Notes
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Summary
- Content
- Start date: must use numerical format
Student Permanent Exclusion
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Decision date time: must use numerical format
- From date: mandatory. must use numerical format
- Narrative
- Exclusion reason 1: mandatory. must use drop down
- Exclusion reason 2: must use drop down
- Exclusion reason 3: must use drop down
Top Up Funding
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Start date: must use numerical format
- End date: must use numerical format
- Note
Student Young Carer
- Legal first name
- Legal surname
- UPN: mandatory
- Start date: must use numerical format
- End date: must use numerical format
- Information provided by: mandatory. must use drop down
Roll Call Attendance
Please note that we will only import data for students where:
- we can match the UPN to a student profile on your site - make sure all students have a UPN
- there is a valid roll call, date and attendance code
The fields are:
- Student identifier (UPN): mandatory
- Date: mandatory. must use format either YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY (2011-12-17 or 12/17/2011)
- Roll call: mandatory. must use either AM or PM format
- Attendance code: mandatory. only Arbor attendance codes are accepted
- Minutes late: Integers only
FAQ
Will the importer override any information?
No, the information will be added. This is why we recommend checking the existing data to prevent duplicates.
Can I import a School Entity Import into MAT MIS or vice versa?
MAT Entity imports can only be imported into MAT MIS.
School Entity imports can only be imported into School MIS.
Can we use the same template to import data to multiple school sites?
No, each spreadsheet can only be uploaded to the School site it was downloaded from.
Does it matter which order we upload?
We recommend working through the list from top to bottom in order. However if you don't want to import certain data you can skip a section.
There are certain items, such as Contracts and Pay Scales where it is vital that the steps are completed in order. For example, users must import or create Pay Scales before they can import Spinal Points, before they can import Staff Contracts.
When do we need to download the template again?
If you've changed the data in your Arbor site relating to the area you're uploading into, we recommend downloading a new template.
For example, each time you import or create new pay scales, the Pay Scale dropdown in the Pay Scale Spinal Point and Staff Contracts templates are updated. This means you would need to download and fill in a fresh template if you recently imported or created new Pay Scales.
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