Import Contacts from CSV or XLSX

Upload thousands of contacts in seconds. WorkOnward Reach’s AI reads your column headers and sample data to automatically map fields — no manual column-matching needed.

Supported formats

• CSV (.csv) — Comma-separated values
• XLSX (.xlsx) — Microsoft Excel workbooks

Your file needs at least one column containing email addresses. Additional columns (name, company, role, phone, etc.) are recommended for richer contact profiles.

Step by step

1. Start the import

1. Navigate to Contacts in the sidebar
2. Click Import Contacts
3. Drag and drop your file, or click Browse to select it

2. Analyze and map columns

WorkOnward Reach analyzes your file and shows you a mapping table:

For each column, you can:

• Accept the suggestion — Click through if the AI got it right
• Change the mapping — Select a different field from the dropdown
• Create a new custom field — For data that doesn’t match existing fields
• Skip the column — Choose “Ignore” to exclude it from import

3. Configure options

• Add to list — Assign all imported contacts to an existing list or create a new one during import
• Apply tags — Tag all imported contacts (e.g., “conference-leads-2026”)
• Duplicate handling — Contacts with matching emails are updated with new data, not duplicated

4. Validate

Click Validate to check your data before importing. WorkOnward Reach checks for:

• Invalid email formats — Catches typos and malformed addresses
• Phone number formats — Validates phone numbers if present
• Duplicate emails — Identifies duplicates within your file and against your existing contacts
• Missing required fields — Flags rows missing an email address

Review the validation summary and fix any issues.

5. Start the import

Click Start Import to begin processing. You’ll see real-time progress:

• Number of contacts processed
• Contacts created vs. updated
• Any rows that were skipped

After the import

Your contacts are immediately available in WorkOnward Reach:

• View them in the Contacts list
• Filter by the list or tags you assigned during import
• Use them in your next campaign

Tips

• Clean your data first — Remove rows with obviously bad emails to keep your bounce rate low
• Include as many fields as possible — More data means better personalization in your campaigns
• Use consistent formatting — Standardize company names and titles before importing
• Start with a test batch — Import 50-100 contacts first to verify your mapping is correct

Next step: Set up custom fields to track data unique to your business