Bring in data

Claude can turn a list you already have into rows in Tasks, People, Goals or a module of your own. You give it the source, say which module the rows go to, and check a preview before anything is written. This guide covers Excel, CSV, email and notes.

Before you start

  • Know the module the rows go to, and its columns. Settings shows each module's fields.
  • Close any open row sheet in that module. If you are editing a row while Claude writes the file, your save is refused as a conflict.
  • Decide what to do with rows that already exist: add to them, or replace them.

Steps

1. Give Claude the source

SourceHow to give it
Excel filePut the file in your app's folder, or tell Claude where it is: "The file is in Downloads, called customer-contacts.xlsx." If Claude has trouble reading it, save it as CSV from Excel and try again.
CSV fileThe same as Excel.
EmailCopy the text of the email and paste it into the Code tab.
NotesPaste them, or point Claude to the file.
A table in a documentCopy the table and paste it.

2. Ask for a preview, not a write

"Read customer-contacts.xlsx and turn each row into a row for People. Map Contact person to Name, Title to Role and Company to Organisation. Show me the first five rows as a table, and tell me which columns you could not place. Do not write anything yet."

Sam had a handover sheet from the previous customer success manager with 40 contacts. The preview showed that the sheet had a Phone column that People does not have, and two contacts with no company.

3. Settle what does not fit

Answer each question Claude raises. Typical ones:

  • A column with no home. Leave it out, put it in Notes, or add a column first (Change a column).
  • Missing values. Leave them empty, or fill them later.
  • Duplicates. "If a person is already in People, update their row instead of adding a second one."

Sam said: "Put the phone number at the end of Notes. Leave the company empty for the two contacts without one."

4. Write the rows

"Write them to People now. Add them to the existing rows."

The People page reloads by itself within a few seconds once the file changes.

The rules Claude follows

Claude knows these rules, but they explain what you see:

RuleWhat it means for your data
Every row has an id made from its name"Maya Okafor" becomes maya-okafor. Two rows with the same name get -2 on the second.
Dates are YYYY-MM-DD"5 Oct" from an email becomes 2026-10-05. Check the year.
Status is one of backlog, in-progress, blocked, doneAnything else becomes backlog.
Type (category) is one of project, deliverable, task, request, followupAnything else is left empty.
Person in Tasks points to a People rowA task for "Maya" links only when Maya is in People. Add people first, tasks second.

From an email to tasks

For a long email thread, ask for the actions, not the text:

"Here is an email from Maya Okafor at Tallow & Co. List the things I have to do, each with a due date if the email gives one, as a preview for Tasks. Link each to Maya in People."

Keep the summary and the action. Your app is not a copy of your mailbox: the full message stays in your mailbox.

What to check

  • The row count matches the source: "How many rows did you write, and how many did you skip?"
  • Open three rows at random and compare them with the source.
  • Dates, statuses and the Person links show as you expect.
  • Nothing you already had has gone. If it has, see Review a change.

Common problems

ProblemWhat to do
"Changed on disk — reload" when you save a rowClaude wrote the file while you had a row open. Copy what you typed, reload the page, and enter it again.
Every Person cell is empty in TasksThe names did not match People rows. Ask: "Link each task to the right person in People by name, and list any you could not match."
Dates show the wrong yearAsk Claude to fix them: "Every due date in the rows you added should be in 2026."
Accents look wrong (ø instead of ø)The CSV was saved in another encoding. Ask: "Read the file as Windows-1252 and write the rows again."
Too many rows to checkImport 10 first, check them, then the rest.