Import a spreadsheet into a list

If the data you want in Onplana already exists in a spreadsheet, you do not have to retype it. There are two ways in, and both read a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file and show you exactly what they would do before they do it:

• Turn the file into a new list. Every column in your file becomes a column in the list, with a type worked out from the values.
• Add its rows to a list you already have, matching your columns to the ones that are there.

Nothing is written until you confirm

The first two steps read your file and show you the result. No list, row, column or choice is created until you press the button on the review step.

Create a new list from your file

1. In the project’s Lists area, choose + New list, then Start from a spreadsheet instead at the bottom of the window.

2. Drop your file on the box, or browse for it. Excel (.xlsx) and CSV, up to 10 MB.

3. Name it and check the columns. The list name arrives filled in from the file name, so usually there is nothing to change. Below it, one row per column in your spreadsheet:

   • a sample value from your file, so you can see what you are looking at,
   • the name the column will have in the list, which you can edit,
   • its type, which we guessed from the values.

   Untick a column to leave it out of the list entirely.

4. Choose Review import, then Create the list. The list is created and opens with your rows in it.

Add rows to a list you already have

1. Open the list, then choose More actions (the ... button beside Export) and Import from CSV or Excel.

2. Drop your file on the box, or browse for it.

3. Map your columns. Each column in your spreadsheet gets a destination:

   • a column that already exists in the list, matched by name where we can,
   • a new column, where you also pick its type, or
   • skip this column, and nothing from it is imported.

   A sample value from your file sits beside each row, so you can see what you are actually mapping.

4. Choose Review import. You will see how many rows will be added, any rows we could not read and why, which columns would be created, and any new dropdown choices your file would add.

5. Press Import. The rows land in the list and a green banner appears above it.

What happens to rows we cannot read

A row is left out when one of its values does not fit the column it is going to: a word in a number column, something that is not a date in a date column, an address that is not an email address.

Those rows are listed on the review step by the row number you see in your spreadsheet, with the reason, so you can find and fix them. Everything else is imported. Fix the file and import it again to bring in what was left out.

Relation columns

A column that links to another list cannot be filled by import, because a spreadsheet value has no way of saying which row in the other list it means. Map those by hand after the import.

Undoing an import

The two ways in are undone differently, because they leave you in different places.

A file you added to an existing list. Straight afterwards, the banner above the list offers Undo import. It removes the rows that import added, and only those. Two things bound it, both on purpose:

• It lasts a day. After that, undo is no longer offered, because an import from last week is not something you undo by accident, and a button that removes four hundred rows should not sit there indefinitely.
• A row you have edited is kept. If you have changed a row since it was imported, it is no longer just a copy of a spreadsheet line, so undo leaves it alone and tells you how many it kept.

A list you created from a file. Delete the list. Emptying it would leave you with an empty list rather than with the nothing you had before, so deleting is the undo that means what you want. It goes to the recycle bin like anything else, so you can bring it back if you change your mind.

Things worth knowing

Formulas come in as their last calculated value, not as the formula. If a cell has never been calculated, it arrives empty.

Numbers are read in either convention: 48,200 is forty-eight thousand and 3,5 is three and a half. Where a value has both separators, the rightmost one is the decimal point, so 1.234,56 and 1,234.56 are the same number. Check the review step if your file mixes styles.

Dates written with slashes are read as month/day/year, and the review step warns you when your file has them. 2026-11-30 is never ambiguous, so use that if you can.

Dropdown choices your file contains but your column does not are added to the column, and the review step names them before anything is written. If your spreadsheet has a typo in one, you will see it there.

Workflows do not run for imported rows. A workflow that fires when a row is added would otherwise fire once per row, so a single import could send hundreds of emails. The review step says so before you commit.

Blank rows are skipped, so a trailing empty line at the end of a CSV costs nothing.

Limits

Formats	Excel (.xlsx), CSV
File size	10 MB
Rows per import	5,000. Split a larger file and import the parts
Columns per list	200, whether they arrive from a file or by hand
Undo window	24 hours, for an import into an existing list

Rows also count toward your project’s list-row limit, which depends on your plan. The review step shows what the import would leave you using, and refuses an import that would go past it.

Who can import

Anyone who can add rows to the list, and for a new list, anyone who can create one. If you can see a list but not change it, the import option does not appear.

Import is available on every plan.