How to get your players into SportFormIQ, whether you're exporting from a registration platform or working from a spreadsheet your club maintains by hand. This guide goes deeper than the quick steps in Getting Started.
You need to have created a session first. If you haven't yet, start with Getting Started.
The minimum required to import a player is three fields:
Without all three, a row gets skipped. The first two are obvious. Date of birth matters because SportFormIQ never stores age group as a static field, every player's age band is derived from their DOB and the session's cutoff date, recalculated at query time. That means the same player record works across multiple sessions and seasons without any age-group bookkeeping.
Strongly recommended for full functionality:
Optional but useful:
If allergies or medical conditions are present in your roster file, SportFormIQ surfaces them as a red flag icon on the player header when coaches open the eval form. Coaches see the safety information before they rate the player. This is why it matters that medical fields land in the right columns during import, even if you never look at them again yourself.
The general pattern is the same for every platform: navigate to your event or program registration list, choose Export as CSV, and save the file somewhere you can find it from the device you'll upload from. Specifics vary slightly. The four major platforms SportFormIQ auto-detects are below.
GotSport is the most common platform for US youth soccer clubs and SportFormIQ's primary integration target.
GotSport exports date of birth as an Excel serial number (something like 42025) instead of a readable date. This is normal. SportFormIQ converts it automatically, you don't need to reformat anything before uploading.
TeamSnap exports a slightly different set of columns than GotSport. SportFormIQ's column mapper auto-detects the most common ones. If a parent contact field doesn't auto-map, you can point it to the right column manually at upload time.
If Otto Sport offers multiple export templates, pick the one that includes parent contact information and date of birth. The default export usually has both.
Most registration platforms produce standard CSV files that SportFormIQ can read. Export to CSV with parent contact and date of birth columns included. At upload time, the column mapper will ask you to confirm which CSV columns map to which SportFormIQ fields, see Section 04 below.
If your club doesn't use a registration platform, or you're working from a spreadsheet that lives outside one, you can build a CSV by hand. SportFormIQ doesn't care where the data comes from as long as the columns are clear.
You can use any column names you want, the column mapper handles non-standard headers at upload, but using the names below means SportFormIQ auto-detects everything and you can import without clicking anything on the mapping screen.
| Column header | What goes in it |
|---|---|
First Name | Player's first name. Required. |
Last Name | Player's last name. Required. |
Date of Birth | MM/DD/YYYY format works. Required. |
Jersey Number | Numeric. Used by coaches to identify players on the field. |
Team | Optional team or group name. |
Position | Primary position (e.g., midfielder). |
Parent Email | Primary parent or guardian email. |
Parent Phone | Primary parent or guardian mobile. |
Allergies | Free text. Triggers safety flag if populated. |
Medical Conditions | Free text. Triggers safety flag if populated. |
From Microsoft Excel:
From Google Sheets:
If you typed dates into Excel or Sheets as actual dates (with the cells formatted as a Date type), Excel might export them as serial numbers, that's fine, SportFormIQ reads serial numbers. If you typed them as text strings, MM/DD/YYYY is the safest format. YYYY-MM-DD also works. Mixed formats in the same column can cause problems, check that all rows look consistent before exporting.
The mapping screen shows SportFormIQ fields on the left and your CSV columns on the right. Each row tells you what's going to happen with that field:
Below the mapping table, SportFormIQ shows a preview of the first three rows with your mapping applied. Sanity-check that the names and dates land where you expect.
When everything looks right, tap Import Players. SportFormIQ processes the file and shows a summary screen:
Registrations roll in over weeks. You can re-upload the same (or an updated) CSV anytime, SportFormIQ won't create duplicates. Here's how matching works:
On a confirmed match, non-key fields update silently: team, jersey, position, parent contact, medical notes. Key fields (name, DOB) never change automatically. Evaluation data is never overwritten by a re-import. Walk-up players added on tryout day are never touched.
If a row's names match but the DOB differs by more than a few days, or the DOB matches but the names differ, SportFormIQ doesn't guess. It surfaces a partial-match review screen so you can decide whether to merge or treat them as separate players. This protects you from accidentally merging two different kids who happen to share part of their info.
You're missing a required mapping. Look for orange CONFIRM badges or unmapped required fields at the top of the column mapper, those have to be set before the import can run. Required fields are first name, last name, and date of birth.
Some spreadsheets store dates as text strings in unusual formats. If SportFormIQ can't parse what's in the column, you'll see errors per row in the post-import summary. Fix it by reformatting the column to MM/DD/YYYY in Excel or Google Sheets, then re-export and re-upload. Mixed formats in the same column are the usual culprit.
The CSV probably had blank cells for that column on that row. SportFormIQ accepts missing optional fields without complaint. You can add parent contact later from the player's edit screen, or re-import a corrected CSV, SportFormIQ will update the contact field without touching anything else.
This is rare and usually means the name+DOB combination on the re-import differs from your existing record by enough that SportFormIQ couldn't confidently match them. Check the partial-match review screen during the import, or look for typos in first/last name between the two files.
Try uploading anyway. SportFormIQ's column mapper handles non-standard column names, just confirm the orange badges at upload. If something fails entirely, email support@sportformiq.com with the platform name and a sample export. We'll add it to the auto-detection list.
Check the post-import summary for skipped rows. The most common reason is a missing date of birth in the source data, SportFormIQ skips any row without all three required fields. Open the source CSV in a spreadsheet, filter for blank DOB cells, fix them, and re-import.
Once your players are in, you're ready to invite coaches and run the tryout. Read Invite coaches next, then Running a Tryout when you're getting close to game day.