The Pre Import Checklist

Terminology: This universal guide uses neutral descriptions. The product renders its configured property and occupant labels; machine-readable CSV values remain unchanged.

Work through this once before you import a building. It takes about ten minutes and it is the difference between a clean onboarding and a week of apologising to people.

Part 1: Is the file itself ready?

Uploading no longer contacts anyone by itself, so this part of the checklist is about the data, not about timing. Everyone in the file is simply added as Pending Invite until you separately press Bulk Invite, so you can safely rehearse an upload on a real property well ahead of move-in.

The point of no return is Bulk Invite, not the upload. Read Bulk Invite and Send Reminder before you press that button on a real property; the checklist below on being ready to hear from people applies there, not here.

Part 2: Is the property set up?

• The property exists in URBI and you are on the right one. There is no way to move an import between properties afterwards.
• The property type is right (residential, commercial or education). It decides what the occupant types are called everywhere in the interface.
• Any locations already in URBI are the ones you expect. An import adds to what is there, it does not replace it.

Part 3: Is the file right?

• Saved as CSV, not XLSX.
• Exactly one header row, at the very top. Delete the report title rows that property management exports put above it.
• 2000 rows or fewer. Split a larger building into two files.
• Every row has a location number.
• Location numbers are written the way you want to see them in URBI, and consistently. 101 and 0101 create two different locations.
• One row per person, all rows for a location carrying the same location number.
• occupant_type is one of the six accepted values, in capitals.
• No two rows share the same email address on the same location.

Part 4: Are the emails right?

This is the part worth slowing down for, because an email address is the one field that reaches a real person.

• Every address belongs to the person on that row. A shared family address on two rows means only the first person can be invited.
• No placeholder addresses (noemail@, none@none.com, a manager's own address standing in for a person). They create real accounts for people who are not there.
• Addresses with obvious typos in the domain are corrected first. URBI checks that an address is well formed, not that it exists, so a typo becomes an invitation that silently goes nowhere.
• Anyone you are not ready to eventually contact at all is left out of this file. Since uploading itself is quiet, you can safely include someone you are not ready to invite yet and simply leave them as Pending Invite until Bulk Invite is right for them; adding a person later is easy, un-inviting one after Bulk Invite has run is not.

Part 5: The dry run

1. Upload the file and go as far as the Review step. Nothing is created and nothing is sent up to this point.
2. Read the Need Review panel in full. Those rows import as they are if you do not act on them.
3. Check the Unfixable count is zero, or that you have skipped those rows deliberately.
4. Compare the row count on the confirmation screen against the location count you expect. A number well over your location count usually means the file has extra header rows or blank rows in it.
5. Now press Import. This still creates nothing outside URBI, since nobody is emailed until you separately run Bulk Invite.

Part 6: Straight after the import

• Watch for the Location Import Report email and read it against the file you sent.
• Open the Locations list and spot check a few locations for the right status (Person, Rented, Vacant).
• Reopen Bulk Actions and check the pending count matches what you expect, before you press Bulk Invite.

Part 7: Straight after Bulk Invite

• Expect a few people to reply. The most common questions are "is this real" and "I did not get it", and the answer to the second is usually a spam folder.
• Check the notification bell for the run's result. If some welcomes failed to send, run Send Reminder, which detects a failed welcome and re-sends the welcome wording rather than the reminder wording.

The mistakes that actually happen

1. Importing into the wrong property. Check the property name at the top of the page before you upload.
2. Uploading a test file into a live property and pressing Bulk Invite on it. Uploading alone is now safe to rehearse; the mistake is inviting real people off test data.
3. Leaving the extra header rows in an export, so row one becomes a location called "Person Register as of".
4. Ignoring the Need Review panel, then finding the occupant types were wrong and half the property shows as Rented.
5. Pressing Bulk Invite before the client has told people, which turns a welcome email into a support call. Uploading itself no longer carries this risk, only Bulk Invite does.

Next

• What Happens When You Import
• Bulk Invite and Send Reminder
• Import Errors and What They Mean