Bring your herd across from a spreadsheet or another app

You can bring your whole herd in from a spreadsheet instead of typing each animal. Save your animals as a CSV file, then go to Settings → Import, upload it, check the preview, and import.

Good to know. Spreadsheet import (CSV / Excel) is free on every plan, including Free. Bring the whole herd in without adding animals one at a time.

Steps#

1. Settings → Import. Open the import page.
2. Pick your CSV file. Choose the file you saved from your spreadsheet or old app (max 5 MB, 1,000 rows).
3. Tell it how to read your file. Set the three required choices: Date format, Height unit (Centimetres (cm) or Inches), and Number format. Get these right, because they cannot be guessed from the numbers.
4. Validate and preview. Press Validate and preview. AlpacaKeep shows you what it found before anything is saved. Look it over.
5. Import. When the preview looks right, run the import.

How AlpacaKeep matches animals#

To avoid creating the same animal twice, AlpacaKeep tries to match each row to an animal you already have. It checks in this order:

1. Microchip first.
2. If there is no microchip match, the tag number.
3. If neither matches, the name plus date of birth.

A match updates the existing animal. No match creates a new one.

If it looks wrong: undo#

Good to know. After the import finishes, the result screen has an Undo this import button. It rolls back only the animals the import created. It does not undo changes it made to animals you already had. It also leaves alone any imported animal that is now the parent of another animal, so your pedigrees stay safe.