Add or update multiple people using CSV

You can bulk add or update people in People using a CSV file. There are two CSV templates that you use to add or update people in Perk:

Account admins, company admins, and people managers can perform this task.

People data

The People data template allows you to add people to Perk in bulk. You can determine basic information such as name, email address, company, as well as their role. You can use the same template to update multiple values for existing people.

This template applies to all account setups, regardless of whether you use Perk to book trips, manage events, or process expenses and invoices.

Column Description
First name Given name or first name of the person.
Last name Family name or last name of the person.
Username Automatically created when uploaded the first time. Only specify this value when user already exists.
Email Email address of the person used to sign into Perk.
Company Only use this field if your Perk setup includes multiple companies. See Add, edit, or delete companies. Used to assign a user to a given company within your Perk account. The company must already exist in Perk and the provided name must match the exact name of the existing company.
Unique ID Unique ID of the user. Often, this is also the creditor account for the employee. Max. characters allowed: 255 characters
Language

Indicates the user's preferred language:

  • English: en for UK English, en-US for US English
  • German: de
  • French: fr
  • Italian: it
  • Dutch: nl

This also determines the date format and unit of measurement for the person’s profile.
Currency Code of the currency used by the person. ISO 4217 three-letter code (e.g. EUR, USD)
Line manager Email address of the line manager. The line manager must already exist in Perk; otherwise, the import process fails.
Gender

Indicates gender of the person, which may be required for travel:

  • Male: M
  • Female: F
  • Non-binary: X or x

Note: If you want to use the non-binary gender option in your account, contact your account manager.
Date of birth Date of birth for the person in the YYYY-MM-DD format
Country of residence Code of the country where the person resides. ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (i.e. ES for Spain)
Roles

Role of the person. If multiple roles apply, separate by semi-colon (;).

  • admin (all)
  • finance i.e. analyst (travel)
  • auditor (spend)
  • financial_reviewer (spend)
  • travel_manager (travel)
  • travel_admin (expenses)
  • traveler (i.e. employee)
  • guest (travel)
  • no_access (travel)
  • hr i.e. people manager (all)
  • card_admin (cards)
  • invoice_processor (invoices)
Assigned people Email addresses of the people who the person can perform travel manager and analyst tasks on behalf of. Separate each person by entering each email address in straight quotes. For example, “john@example.com””alex@example.com”"jo@example.com" 
Assigned companies Name of the company or companies where the person can perform a travel manager or analyst role. The value must match exactly. Separate each company with straight quotes. For example, "Perk SL""Perk Ltd""Perk SLU”

Spend data

The spend data template allows you to add additional information to existing Perk people, which is used to manage expense and invoice processing. For example, determine who can submit or approve expenses on the person’s behalf.

The person must have already been created in Perk to use this template. If you try to add people using the spend data template only, Perk displays an error.

Column Description
Email Email address of the Perk person. If the person doesn’t exist in Perk, the import process fails.
Expense delegate: submit (assistant) Email address of the person who can submit expenses on the person’s behalf.
Expense delegate: approve Email address of the person who can approve expenses on the person’s behalf.
Expense auto approval limit Amount under which expenses are automatically approved by the person.
Spend approval escalation limit Amount over which expenses and invoices also require approval by the person’s line manager. Only applicable where Perk is configured to use line manager approval.
Employee policy ID of the employee policy associated with the person.

Tip: Use the bulk action on the People page to update the default cost object, travel policy or travel approval process for a person.

Formatting the CSV file

When using the CSV templates, you must keep the header row. Otherwise, the import operation fails.

Bear in mind these criteria when editing the CSV file:

  • Attributes are separated by a comma.
  • Rows (in other words, people) are separated by a semi-colon.
  • All values must be provided as text strings. The value must not contain any special characters.
  • Name fields (i.e. first name and last name) may contain umlaut and diacritics. Other fields must not contain these characters.
  • Roles must be one of the values specified values; otherwise, it is ignored.

If you need to add multiple people to Perk, it recommended that you split your CSV files into smaller files, if possible. The maximum allowed number of rows is 400. Smaller CSV files with less than 50 rows are processed immediately. Larger files of up to 400 rows are processed in the background. Perk sends you an email when the import has finished.

The CSV format is validated during the import process and any header row errors are displayed in the upload window. If the file contains invalid values for a given attribute, Perk returns an error report that you can download with instructions on how to troubleshoot any issues.

Tip: Some integration methods (CSV, ERP, HRIS) may not allow you to add all required information for expense and invoice processing. In these cases, you can use the CSV to update users with any missing information.

Adding people via CSV

To add people to Perk via CSV, you need to create them in Perk using the people data template.

If you plan to use Perk for expense and invoice processing, you can update their existing profile by using the spend data template. You must use the same email address you entered when adding them using the people data template.

To add people in bulk:

  1. Go to People.
  2. Click Manage data and then select Import data.
  3. Select People data.
  4. Upload a people data CSV file and click Import data.

To add spend information to existing employees:

  1. Once the people have been added to Perk, click Manage data and then select Import data.
  2. Select Spend data.
  3. Upload a spend data CSV file and click Import data.

Was this article helpful?