Use this checklist before importing a CSV file into Roster Athletics. Work through each section in order — issues in earlier sections (such as file formatting) can cause failures that make later sections impossible to check. For full details on any item, refer to the Add Athletes from a CSV File guide.
1. File Setup
| ☐ | File is saved in UTF-8 CSV format. In Excel: File → Save As → choose "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)". Standard CSV or Excel formats may cause character errors with accented letters. |
| ☐ | No commas, semicolons, or quotation marks appear in any cell. These characters break the CSV structure. Remove or replace them before saving. |
| ☐ | All cells below the last entry are completely empty. Stray characters or blank-looking rows at the bottom of the file can cause import errors. |
| ☐ | Column headers are present in the first row and have not been modified. |
2. Column Headers
Column header names are case-sensitive and must match exactly as documented.
| ☐ | Each header name uses the correct capitalization/capitalisation (e.g. FirstName, not firstname or Firstname). |
| ☐ | Headers containing "Id" — such as EntryId, StartListId, RelayId, and TilastopajaId — use a capital I, not a lowercase l. These look identical in many fonts. |
3. Athlete Data
| ☐ | Names use sentence case: first letter capitalized/ascapitalised, the rest lowercase (e.g. John Joseph McDonald).Exception: names that are traditionally capitalized/capitalised differently, such as those with prefixes like "deVos". |
| ☐ | Each athlete's Gender is set to exactly Male or Female. No other values are accepted. |
| ☐ | DateOfBirth is in the format YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. 1995-08-23).Use Excel's cell formatting to enforce this. If only the birth year is known, leave DateOfBirth blank and use YearOfBirth instead. Do not enter a placeholder date such as 1995-01-01. |
| ☐ | CountryCode is a valid three-letter code in uppercase (e.g. USA, FRA, GBR).Full list available at admin.rosterathletics.com/admin/country-codes (requires platform access). |
| ☐ | Each entry has a unique EntryId. No two rows share the same value. |
| ☐ | If using FullName instead of separate name columns, the value is formatted as first name followed by last name (not the reverse).FullName is an alternative to FirstName + LastName. Do not populate both. |
| ☐ | ClubName and TeamName are either a real club/team name or completely empty.Do not enter "Unattached", "None", or similar placeholders. Leave the field blank if the athlete has no club or team affiliation. |
4. Events and Age Groups
| ☐ | EventCode contains either a valid full event name in English (e.g. 100m Hurdles) or a valid short code (e.g. 100H).See the List of Events user guide for the full list. |
| ☐ | EventStage is one of the accepted values: Qualification, Preliminary, Heat, SemiFinal, or Final. |
| ☐ | AgeGroup is filled in for every entry. Use Auto to assign automatically based on date or year of birth, or enter a specific age group code.An empty AgeGroup field will cause an import error. |
5. Relay Events (if applicable)
| ☐ | Each relay team has a definition row with RelayTeamName, EntryId, StartListId, Gender, EventCode, EventStage, and AgeGroup filled in. |
| ☐ | Each relay athlete row has RelayId set to the EntryId of their team's definition row. |
| ☐ | Relay athlete rows appear after the team definition row in the file, not before. |
| ☐ | All athletes on the same relay team share the same StartListId as their team's definition row.Teams competing in the same relay event must also share the same StartListId. Different values will create separate events. |
| ☐ | For mixed-team relays (male and female athletes on the same team), Gender on the team row is set to Mixed, and each athlete row uses Male or Female as appropriate. |
6. StartListId (if applicable)
| ☐ | StartListId is included for all entries in mixed start lists, events with multiple age groups, or relay events. |
| ☐ | If the file contains individual events only (no mixed lists, no relays, no multiple age groups per event), StartListId can be left blank. |
7. Event Schedule (if applicable)
| ☐ | If EventStart is left blank and an existing schedule is already set in the platform, the existing schedule will be overwritten with default values after import.To preserve the existing schedule, either fill in the EventStart column (format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS) or update the schedule manually in the web admin platform after import. |
Tip: If you are using a PZLA or HyTek export, use the CSV file produced directly by those systems rather than reformatting it manually. If a HyTek file fails to import, check that it uses semicolon-delimited entries.
Note: After importing, resolve all yellow (partial match) and red (conflict) status markers before clicking Import to save. The Import button will remain inactive until all conflicts are resolved.