Employee Management

Import employees in bulk

Add up to 500 employees at a time from a CSV or Excel file: download the template, map your columns, review problems and import.

  • HR Admin
3 min read
On this page (6 sections)
  1. Overview
  2. Prepare your file
  3. Upload and map columns
  4. Review and import
  5. After the import
  6. Frequently asked questions

Overview

Go to
  1. Employees
  2. General Details
  3. Bulk Upload

The import runs in four steps: Upload File → Map Columns → Review → Import. Rows with problems are set aside with a clear reason, and every valid row still imports.

Prepare your file

  • Click Download Template for an Excel file with every supported column, two sample rows and an Instructions sheet. Delete the sample rows before importing.
  • Use .csv, .xls or .xlsx with up to 500 employees per file.
  • Write dates as YYYY-MM-DD (for example 2026-04-01). Ambiguous dates such as 04/05/2026 are read as month/day.
  • Format long numbers — bank account, mobile, Employee ID — as Text in Excel so they don’t turn into values like 5.01E+13, which are rejected.
  • Branch, department, job category and team names must match records in Mocha HRMS (capitalisation doesn’t matter). You can fix mismatches during review.
Column groupColumns
RequiredFirst Name, Last Name, Email
PersonalMobile, Employee ID, Date of Birth, Gender, Nationality, Marital Status
EmploymentBranch, Department, Designation, Job Category, Team, Joining Date, Employment Type, Location
ReportingReporting Manager ID, Reporting Manager Email
Pay & taxPay Type, Pay Rate, PAN Number
BankBank Name, Bank Account Number, IFSC Code, Account Type
Emergency contactEmergency Contact Name, Emergency Contact Relation, Emergency Contact Phone
Columns you don’t map are kept on the employee as Additional Data.

Upload and map columns

  1. Click “Click to upload a CSV or Excel file” and choose your file. You’ll see how many columns and data rows were found.

  2. Click Next: Map Columns.

  3. Check each Employee Field is matched to the right Your File Column. Columns are matched by name automatically; choose -- No Match -- for fields your file doesn’t have.

  4. Make sure First Name, Last Name and Email are matched, then click Next: Review.

Review and import

  1. Check the counts: Rows In File, Will Import, Rejected and Skipped By You.

  2. In Ready to import, untick any rows you want to skip, and pick values for branches, departments or other lookups that didn’t match.

  3. Review Cannot be imported — each row shows why. Click Download rejected rows to fix them later.

  4. Click Import {n} Employees and confirm.

  5. Keep the tab open while rows are processed. When it finishes, check the import log and click Download rows not imported if any failed.

Rejected becauseFix
First name, last name or email missing or invalidFill in the missing value.
Email already used by an employeeRemove the row — the employee already exists.
“Duplicate of row n”The same email or Employee ID appears twice in the file.
Invalid Joining Date or Date of BirthUse YYYY-MM-DD.
Value looks like scientific notationFormat the column as Text and re-enter the number.

Some problems don’t block the row — the value is just left blank and listed under “Importing, but some values will be left blank”. Examples: an unknown branch or department, an employment type outside Full-time, Part-time, Contract or Intern, or a non-numeric pay rate. A PAN that doesn’t match the ABCDE1234F format is saved but flagged.

After the import

  • Imported employees are Active and get an auto-generated Employee ID and their branch’s default schedule and shift.
  • They are not invited to the portal. Invite them from the list when you’re ready — see Employee portal access.
  • Assign salary structures before their first pay run — see Assign salary structures.

Frequently asked questions

Up to 500 per file. For more, split your data into several files.

They’re skipped and every valid row still imports. Download the rejected rows, fix them and import just those rows again.

Related articles

Import employees in bulk | Mocha HRMS Help Center