Bulk Operations & Import | PurposeTech Docs

Overview

Bulk work in PurposeTech falls into a few places. Admins can select volunteers in the Volunteers table to export or tag them, and import new volunteers from a CSV. Coordinators can move several people in one go with the Move Tool and reserve a batch of places with Adopt-a-Site. Admins also have bulk tools for building and editing shifts.

Booking people onto shifts is done on the roster by coordinators and admins, one shift at a time, or through the Move Tool. The Volunteers table has no bulk "assign to shift", "cancel shifts" or "send email" action.

Bulk actions in the Volunteers table

Admins can tick the checkboxes beside volunteers in the Volunteers table. A bar appears above the table showing how many are selected. It offers:

Action	What it does
Select all N matching volunteers	Extends the selection past the page you can see to every volunteer matching the current search and filters. Available up to 5,000 volunteers, and not while the Potential Duplicates, Number of User Shifts or Number of User Areas filters are in use
Export selected	Downloads the selected volunteers as a CSV. You are asked to re-verify your identity first
Add tag	Adds a tag to everyone selected. Pick an existing tag or type a new name to create one
Remove tag	Removes a tag from the selection. The list shows tags the selected volunteers have

After a bulk tag, a message reports how many volunteers were tagged and how many already had the tag. Tags are admin-only labels, so volunteers never see them.

Use tags to group people for later work: "Returning 2026", "Corporate team", "Needs training". The Volunteers table can filter on a tag, and the CSV export includes it.

Bulk export

Download CSV exports the volunteers matching your search and filters, or only the selected ones with Export selected. The file has these columns: Email, First Name, Last Name, Phone Number, Role, Areas, Sites (coordinator), Sites (contact) and Tags. Because the file holds personal details, PurposeTech asks you to re-verify before it downloads.

See Reports & Data Exports for all reporting and export formats.

CSV import

Use CSV import to add people you already hold, such as a corporate group, a partner organisation's list or volunteers from another system.

Import creates volunteer records. It does not book shifts and it does not send emails.

The import flow

In the Volunteers table, click Import CSV
Click Download Template to get a file with the right headers
Fill it in. Every column must be present, but only email needs a value
Upload CSV File. PurposeTech checks each row and lists them in a preview
Tick the rows you want. Rows with errors, and rows whose email already exists, cannot be ticked
Click Import N new users. A message reports how many volunteers were created, and any that failed are listed

The template columns are:

Column	Notes
`email`	Required, must be a valid address
`first_name`, `last_name`	Up to 50 characters each
`mobile_phone`	7 to 15 digits. Spaces, dashes, brackets and a leading plus are fine
`adopter_organisation`	The group or company the person belongs to
`mailing_address_line_1`, `mailing_address_line_2`, `mailing_suburb`, `mailing_city`, `mailing_postal_code`, `mailing_country`	Postal address

The preview

CSV Import – Preview

Import Volunteers

Download CSV template

Required: email. Optional: first name, last name, phone, address, organisation.

Drop your CSV file here, or click to browse

CSV files up to 10MB

The preview shows how many rows are valid, invalid and already in the system. Rows are marked by colour:

Red – the row failed a check. The reason appears under the field
Orange – the email already exists in your system. The row shows when that record was created and cannot be selected
Blue text inside an orange row – the CSV value differs from what is already on the record. This is for your information; import does not change existing records
No colour – ready to import

The existing-email check handles up to 500 addresses at a time, so split a longer list into files of 500 rows or fewer.

After import

Each new person is created as a Volunteer, linked to the current campaign, with no shifts and no email sent. From here:

A coordinator or admin can book them onto a shift. On the roster, Add volunteer finds the existing record when you search for them
The volunteer can request a sign-in link at your campaign site with their email address and book their own shifts
You can tag the imported group in bulk, so you can find them again

Import tips

Clean the file first – remove duplicates and fix typos before uploading
Start small – try 10 rows before loading the full list
Review the orange rows – they are already in the system, and import skips them
Fill in adopter_organisation for group imports, so the organisation shows against the person on rosters and in roster downloads

Other bulk tools

Where	Who	What it does
Roster – Move Tool	Site coordinators and above	Move several volunteers between shifts and sites, or take them off a roster, then review and confirm everything in one step. See Roster Management
Roster – Adopt-a-Site	Area coordinators and above	Tick many open places and hold them for one group contact in a single submission. See Roster Management
Overview – ticked rows	Admins	Tick regions, areas or sites to publish them, set them to draft, set a site status, generate shifts for them or delete them
Overview – Add Campaign Data	Admins	Build sites in a grid. Type rows, paste them from Excel, or upload CSV or XLSX, then review and save in one go
Shifts page	Admins	Generate shifts across many sites with the Shift Generator, edit several shifts at once (website visibility and shift types) and delete empty shifts
Email templates – Segment send	Owners	Send a reminder or custom email to a segment (a role plus a minimum number of shifts) or to a list of addresses. See Volunteer Management

Next steps

Volunteer Management – the volunteer record and the Volunteers table
Roster Management – moving and reserving on the roster
Reports & Data Exports – reporting views and downloads
Feedback & Safety – feedback, private notes and the blocklist