Importing Clients via CSV

By creavio Team April 10, 2026 1 views

Importing Clients via CSV

Switching platforms should not mean retyping every client's name and email. creavio lets you import your entire client list from a CSV file in under five minutes.

Preparing Your CSV File

Your CSV needs column headers in the first row. creavio recognizes these fields:

  • first_name (required)
  • last_name (required)
  • email (required)
  • phone
  • company
  • address
  • city
  • state
  • zip
  • notes
  • tags — comma-separated if multiple (e.g., "wedding,2025,referral")
  • source — where the lead came from (e.g., "Instagram", "Referral", "Website")

Column names are case-insensitive. creavio also tries to match common variations like "First Name", "firstname", or "first". If it cannot match a column, you can map it manually during import.

Exporting from Other Platforms

From HoneyBook: Go to Clients > Export. You will get a CSV with names, emails, and project info. Remove project-specific columns before importing into creavio or let them import as notes.

From Dubsado: Contacts > Export All Contacts. The export includes custom fields — creavio will let you map or skip those during import.

From ShootProof: Clients > Export. Straightforward CSV with basic contact info.

From a spreadsheet: If you track clients in Google Sheets or Excel, save as CSV (File > Download > CSV in Google Sheets, or File > Save As > CSV in Excel).

From your email: Gmail and Outlook both let you export contacts as CSV. In Gmail: Google Contacts > Export > CSV. In Outlook: File > Import/Export > Export to CSV.

Running the Import

  1. Go to Clients in your dashboard
  2. Click the Import button (top right)
  3. Drag and drop your CSV file or click to browse
  4. creavio will show a column mapping screen — match each CSV column to a creavio field
  5. Review the preview showing the first 5 rows of data
  6. Click Import

A progress indicator shows how many records have been processed. For large files (1,000+ contacts), the import runs in the background and you will receive a notification when it finishes.

Handling Duplicates

creavio checks for duplicate email addresses during import. If a match is found, you can choose to:

  • Skip — keep the existing record, ignore the import row
  • Update — merge the imported data into the existing record (empty fields get filled, existing fields stay)
  • Replace — overwrite the existing record with the imported data

The default is Skip, which is the safest option for most imports.

After Import: Clean Up

Once your clients are in creavio:

  • Use tags and segments to organize them (e.g., "Past Client", "Lead", "Wedding 2026")
  • Set up your client pipeline and move active leads into the right stages
  • Review any records that were skipped during import — they will appear in a summary after the import completes

Limits and Tips

File size limit: 10MB per CSV file. If your file is larger, split it into batches.

Encoding: Use UTF-8 encoding for international characters. Most modern spreadsheet apps export UTF-8 by default.

Empty rows: creavio skips rows where all three required fields (first name, last name, email) are blank. No need to clean those out manually.