Save your files as CSV or Excel (.xlsx). These are the only formats the import wizards accept.

Put your column headers in the first row, with one record per row after that.

Remove blank rows at the top and any totals/summary rows at the bottom — Gracely reads every data row as a record.

At least one name field: Full Name, or First Name / Last Name / Middle Name.

Email is highly recommended — it lets members log in and lets Gracely link future giving to the right person.

Amount (required)

Date (required)

Donor Name or Email (at least one, so gifts can be matched to people)

Optional but useful: Fund Name, Payment Method, Check Number / Note, Batch Date, Tax Deductible, Frequency

Use a clear date format such as MM/DD/YYYY (for example, 01/15/2024). Rows with a date Gracely can't read are skipped and listed in the import summary.

Amounts should be plain numbers (for example, 100.00). Currency symbols are fine, but avoid mixing text into the amount column. Rows with an unreadable amount are skipped.

Remove duplicates — repeated rows become repeated records.

Standardize names — consistent spelling helps donor matching (for example, always "Bob Smith," not sometimes "Robert Smith").

Split or combine name columns to match how you'll map them (one Full Name column, or separate First/Last).

One fund per giving row — Gracely reads a single fund name per gift. If your old system exported split gifts on one line, separate them into individual rows.

Trim extra columns you don't need — you can also just leave them unchecked during mapping.

If an export is very large or times out, split it into smaller files (for example, one year of giving at a time) and import them one after another.

Do the columns line up with their headers?

Are dates and amounts formatted consistently?

Is there a name (and ideally an email) on every row?