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If your rescue has years of history in spreadsheets, you don’t have to start from scratch. RescueConsole’s spreadsheet importer lets you bring in animals, people, donations, and events with full control over how each column maps to fields in the platform — including any custom fields you’ve added. You can import on your very first day, and you can re-import or top up your data at any time.
Every list in RescueConsole can also be exported as a CSV at any time — animals, people, donations, events, and more, with all visible fields including custom ones. Your data is always yours to take with you.

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What you can import

If you’re migrating from RescueGroups.org or ShelterLuv, use the dedicated integrations under Settings → Integrations rather than the spreadsheet importer. Those integrations bring across medical records, photos, applications, journal entries, and more with field-level mapping — far more than a CSV can carry.

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Prepare your CSV

The importer is flexible about column names and order — you map each column yourself — but a few things will make the process smoother:
  • One row per record. Each animal, person, or donation gets its own row.
  • Consistent values in status and type columns. If your spreadsheet uses “Available”, “In Foster”, and “Adopted”, you’ll map each of those to a RescueConsole status during import. Spelling consistency within the file saves mapping time.
  • Dates in a standard format. ISO format (2024-03-15) or common formats like 03/15/2024 are recognized automatically.
  • Photos as filenames or URLs. If your photos are in a folder, name each photo with the same identifier (such as an animal ID) that appears in your spreadsheet. If they’re hosted online, a column of direct image URLs works too.
  • One file per record type. Run a separate import for animals, then people, then donations — the importer handles one type at a time.

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Import process

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Duplicate detection for people records

The importer checks each incoming person against your existing records by email address. If a match is found, the importer links the incoming data to the existing person rather than creating a duplicate — but it does not automatically merge or overwrite fields that already have values. Review your people list after import and use the manual merge tool for any remaining duplicates the importer couldn’t resolve automatically.
RescueConsole identifies potential duplicate person records by matching on email address. When a match is found during import:
  • Fields that are empty on the existing record are filled from the incoming row.
  • Fields that already have a value on the existing record are left as-is.
  • The incoming roles (adopter, foster, volunteer, donor) are added to the existing record if they aren’t already present.
After import, go to People and look for the duplicate indicator flag on any records the system flagged for manual review.

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Custom fields

Any custom fields you’ve created on animals, people, donations, or events appear in the column mapping step alongside the standard fields. Map a column to a custom field the same way you’d map any other column. If you need custom fields that don’t exist yet, create them under Settings → Custom fields before running your import — you can add them and then come back to the importer.

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After your import

Once your records are in, a few steps help you get the most out of them:
  • Set animal statuses — if your spreadsheet used different status names, confirm that everything mapped to the right RescueConsole status, especially the care state that drives dashboard counts.
  • Review people roles — check that adopters, fosters, volunteers, and donors each have the right roles on their records. Roles control which tab shows their history.
  • Link animals to people — adoption and foster relationships can be established from the animal record after import if they weren’t carried in the spreadsheet.
  • Connect RescueGroups.org or ShelterLuv — if you’re also running an integration, connect it after your initial import so the integration sync picks up from where the spreadsheet left off.