Our membership management software is centered around your membership database. Therefore, in order to get started with our product, it's important to upload it in the correct fashion. This article will use examples to show you the perfect parameters for importing your members into Congressus!
Congressus Support can import your members list for you. You can contact support through chat or e-mail (support@congressus.nl) on Monday through Friday from 09:00-17:00.
Fields in your Member administration
A member's profile on Congressus contains a number of generic fields with information such as the member's name and address. Aside from these generic fields, our customer support is able to add specific custom fields suited for your association.
When importing your members, we urge you to at least supply the following information:
The date when the membership started
Surname
E-mail Address
Each of the generic fields that can be imported will be summarized below:
Membership
Member ID
This field contains the unique ID for each member. Some associations use Student Numbers here, others just generate a number based on the year the membership started. If your members don't have a Member ID, you can choose a format through Settings > General. This format will be used to automatically generate Member ID's for new members.
Member From
When adding a member, we would like to know when their membership started.
We accept two formats:
A full date
A year, which means we will generate a date using september first of the given year
Attention: This field is mandatory. If no date is given, we will use the import date.
Additional membership history
It's possible to import additional information about the member's history in the association. Maybe they started as a member but are now an alumnus, or maybe they became an honorary member at some point. It's possible to preserve this information when importing your database into Congressus.
In this case, it's possible to add a secondary and tertiary membership status, as long as you add the date on which each status was conferred.
Personal Details
Sex
The options for this field are:
- Male / Female / Other
- m / f / o
Blanks are allowed.
If a 3rd gender option is enabled in: Settings > General, then we add this as well when we are doing the import.
Name
A member's name consists of multiple parts. Make sure each of the following parts has its own column.
Titel | Title (Dr., Prof., etc.)
Voorletters | Initials (When imported, these will be converted to capital letters, divided by periods.)
Nicknaam/bijnaam | Nickname
Roepnaam | The name the member goes by (For example: A person named Frederick might go by Fred.)
Voorna(a)m(en) | First name(s)
Tussenvoegsel achternaam | Surname prepositions (van der, van, etc.)
Achternaam | Surname
Tussenvoegsel aangetrouwde naam | Surname prepositions for the byname (van der, van, etc.)
Aangetrouwde naam | Byname (surname attained through marriage)
Graad | Degree (Msc., Ing., etc.)
Email address
This is an important field, because most of the communications with a member through Congressus will take place through email. We check the validity of email addresses on import.
Address
This field consists of multiple parts
Adres | Address (Street name, number, additions)
Postcode | Postal code
Woonplaats | City
Land | Country (Optional, defaults to the Netherlands)
Mobile Phone Number
Make sure the number starts with the country code (+31) or a zero. You can use Excel's Number Formatting for this, choosing the option for Phone Numbers. On import we check the number for validity.
Home Phone Number
Make sure the number starts with the country code (+31) or a zero. You can use Excel's Number Formatting for this, choosing the option for Phone Numbers. On import we check the number for validity.
Date of Birth
To be supplied in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD'. Can be left blank.
Financial details
The following details are relevant when using our Financial modules.
IBAN
We validate the number on import. If it does not check out, this field will be left blank.
BIC
Will be automatically supplied for Dutch IBANs. Please fill this in when handling foreign IBANs.
Date of SEPA-authorisation
Has the member signed a SEPA-authorisation form for direct debit? It's possible to import the date of signature here. (Only possible when the IBAN is valid).
SEPA-authorisation reference
If a SEPA-authorisation has been signed, you can import the reference number here. Will be automatically generated if not supplied.
Groups
It's possible to import Group memberships into Congressus. You can do this by adding a column named 'Groups' and supplying the information in the following format:
Foldername/Groupname
Foldername/Groupname[First year of membership]
Foldername/Groupname[First year of membership#Final year of membership]
Foldername/Groupname[Startdate]
Foldername/Groupname[Startdate#Enddate]
Example: This string will add three group memberships to one member. "Commissies/Almanakredactie 2014-2015[2014],Commissies/IT-commissie 2015-2016[2015#2016],Besturen/Bestuur 2016-2017[2016-09-10#2017-09-09]"
Custom Fields
In addition to the previous fields you can request for custom fields to be added to your members' profiles. These custom fields can have the following types:
Single line of text (max 255 characters)
Text Box
Email Address
URL
Date
Date and time
Address (Address, postal code, city, country)
Phone number (Country code and phone number)
Number
Amount (of Money)
Checkbox*
Yes / No*
Dropdown list of options
List of options (multiple selections possible)
Field of study* (From a list supplied by the DUO (Dutch Higher Education Agency)
File*
The fields denoted by an asterisk* will be available for use in filters as well.
Example file
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