Most primary LACES areas--Students, Staff, Classes, Tutors, etc.--allow new records to be imported. This allows for bulk data entry of records with fields that are visible on the Intake pages. Under the Additional, menu, select "Imports" to see all the imports that have been run for the selected agency. The "Import Data" button will take you to where you can see a list of the available imports. Once an import is selected, you will find a link to download an import template, a description of the fields, and additional notes on matching and updating.
Student-Associated Data
Numerous imports are provided to allow data to be added to the Student record. This includes Assessments, Hours/Attendance, Diploma/Credentials, etc. These imports require that an "exact match" must first be made to one or more Students. Unless otherwise noted, records will be added to all Students that meet exact-match criteria.
Note that matching occurs within the scope of the import. For example, if the import is performed at the SEA level, then duplicate students in multiple Agencies may be matched. If an import is performed within an Agency, then only Students within the agency will be considered for matching.
Adding vs. Updating
Most imports are designed primarily for adding new records. Each import has a detection methods to prevent duplicate data from being added; however, changes in fields that are used to determine if a record is unique could result in duplicates being imported. Be sure to review the "Updating" instructions for the import.
Some imports will update existing records for columns not used to determine uniqueness and some imports support no update functionality. Please see "Updating" instructions for the particular import of interest.
Business Rules
All imports follow business rules defined in LACES for the Client instance. If a record cannot be imported due to a business rule violation, the error will be listed on the import row.