How to bulk update your team on Abacus

This feature is only available for customers on the Professional pricing plan. Please get in touch if you're interested in upgrading your plan.

Many customers manage their employees in external software, which can make updating your team by individual employees inconvenient. The Team Bulk Upload feature streamlines the process of keeping your team up-to-date in Abacus, allowing you to add, update, and deactivate users in one step.

Importing your updated team information

To update your users in bulk, go to your People page, and click ‘Import’ in the upper right corner.

You will be prompted to upload your CSV file. You can download a template CSV to get started with from this window. You can also create your own CSV to upload. If you do this, refer to the CSV formatting guidelines below to ensure a smooth upload.

CSV Format Guidelines

You can download a template CSV to get started with when you click Import. This CSV will include all of the pre-set columns, and a column for each Team Field that you have set up in your account. If you want to create your CSV separately, follow the instructions below:

• The file must be a valid CSV (i.e. a comma-separated file)
• The file must include a column entitled “Email” - Each cell must contain a valid email address
• You can pick and choose any of these columns to include, but make sure that they have the correct titles. 
  • Role
  • "Employee" - a user who will only be submitting expenses and/or is a manager
  • "Admin" - a user with final approval permission
  • "Non-Approval Admin" - a user with admin visibility but no approving permission
    • Note: if this field is left blank, it will default to "Employee"
  • Manager Email: this column will assign the manager (i.e. the first approver of the user’s expenses if enabled) to the user 
  • Note: values for Manager email must be a valid email address, and you can leave the value blank if you don't want to assign that user a manager
  • Employee ID: if you utilize the employee ID feature, you can include employee IDs here
  • Any active Team Fields (e.g. Department, Location, etc.). Each column must have a title row that contains the name of the Team Field.
    • Note: the Team Fields (names and values) must be set up in Abacus prior to the upload

You can include columns for other values, such as employee name, but Team Bulk Upload will not pull this information into Abacus.

Previewing Changes

Once the CSV uploads, you’ll be able to review your changes before you finalize them. The summary page will break down your changes into five different categories. You can select or de-select the checkbox based on which changes you would like to make.

Note: Deactivating users means that they’ll no longer have access to their Abacus account. By default, Abacus does not apply deactivation changes.

If you would like to see a more detailed list of your changes, click “Preview Changes” to view the individual users in each of these categories.

Confirming Changes

When you’re satisfied that your changes are correct, click 'Apply' from the summary page. You will then be prompted with a final check to ensure you want to confirm the changes. You won’t be able to undo the changes after you’ve confirmed the list.

When you’re certain of your changes, click 'Confirm My Changes.' Your people page is now updated. You can scroll through to look at your changes, invite the new users, or open up individual users to edit their information.