Prepare your Excel, CSV, JSON, TSV, or TXT file for use with the Spreadsheet importer. 

Take a look at our article Use the Spreadsheet importer for details on importing your spreadsheet into ClickUp. 

Feature availability and limits vary by plan and user role. Learn more

Supported file formats

To use the Spreadsheet importer, you must save the spreadsheet as one of the following file formats:

• Excel: .xls, .xlsx
• Comma-separated values (CSV): .csv
• JSON: .json
• Tab-separated values (TSV): .tsv
• Text: .txt

There is a 10,000-row limit for imported spreadsheets. For files larger than that, we recommend breaking the file into batches with a maximum of 10,000 rows each. 

Supported task fields and Custom Fields

You can import data into many task fields and existing and new Custom Fields. The only required field is Task Name.

Spreadsheet formatting

When preparing the fields in your spreadsheet, remember that each row represents a task. Each column represents a property of that task, either a task field, such as Priority, or a Custom Field.

Use the following formatting rules to set up your spreadsheet's headers, columns, rows, subtasks, date, and time data. 

Once your spreadsheet is correctly formatted, you'll upload it to the Spreadsheets importer and map these columns to task fields, including task, subtask, and nested subtask IDs and names. 

Spreadsheet header row

Include a header row. Each column header must be unique.

Column and row order

Your rows can be in any order, with only one task per row. 

Every row will become a task in ClickUp. Any of the task's properties can be added as a column in the row. For example, status, priority, assignee, subtask, time, or date.

Delimiters

Separate multiple items in one cell by any delimiter, such as commas or pipes, without spaces between the items and the delimiter. Columns that take multiple items include subtasks, assignees, and checklists. 

By default, the Spreadsheet Importer's delimiter type is set to comma. If your spreadsheet uses other delimiters, you can select them in Step 2 of the import process.

Format subtasks and nested subtasks

If you need to import subtasks or nested subtasks, add a subtasks column to your spreadsheet. You can name it Subtask IDs, for example, and separate the subtasks with a delimiter. The default is commas and no spaces.

The subtask column shows which imported tasks will become a subtask or nested subtask of one of the other imported tasks.

Here's how to format your tasks, subtasks, and nested subtasks within your spreadsheet:

• Row one is a task named Launch marketing campaign.
  • Row one's Subtask IDs column shows ID 2 (Design landing page) and ID 3 (Set up analytics).
    • This means that Design landing page and Set up analytics are subtasks of Launch marketing campaign.
• Row two is a subtask named Design landing page.
  • Row two's Subtask IDs column shows ID 4 (Write Hero copy) and ID 5 (Create mockups).
    • This means that Write Hero copy and Create mockups are nested subtasks of Design landing page.
• Rows three, five, and six show no Subtask IDs.
  • This means that Set up analytics, Create mockups, and A/B test headlines have no subtasks or nested subtasks.
• Row four is a nested subtask named Write Hero copy.
  • Row four's Subtask IDs column shows ID 6 (A/B test headlines).
    • This means that A/B test headlines is a nested subtask of Write Hero Copy.

When imported into a List view in your ClickUp Workspace, the tasks, subtasks, and nested subtasks will look like this:

Format dates

If you need to import dates, add a dates column to your spreadsheet. 

When importing your data, you'll choose a date format in the Spreadsheet Importer that matches the format in your spreadsheet. 

You can use the following date formats in your spreadsheet:

These date formats are also accepted, regardless of which date format is chosen in the Spreadsheet Importer:

Format times

You can specify a time by including it along with any of the above date formats. You can also include a column in your spreadsheet for any of the time fields accepted by the Spreadsheet Importer, for example, time estimate, time tracked, or a Custom Field. 

These time formats are accepted:

Time data is interpreted as 24-hour time by default (00:00–23:59). To use 12-hour time, add am or pm as shown above.

You can use Epoch/Unix/Posix date and time stamps:

You can also use the ISO 8601 format: