Got your numbers in a spreadsheet? You can bring them into SimpleKPI in one go, and there's no template to fill in first. Drop in the file you already have and the importer reads it, works out which columns are your KPIs, dates and values, and asks you to check anything it isn't sure about. It's the same smart importer you may have met in Getting Started, and it's the fastest way to backfill history or load a batch of results at once.

What you can upload

The importer accepts .xlsx, .xls and .csv files up to 25 MB, and it's built for real-world spreadsheets, not just tidy ones. Title banners above the headers, data that starts a few rows down, workbooks where the numbers live on a later sheet, dates running down the rows or across the columns, KPIs as separate columns or listed in a single column: it reads the whole file and works out the layout itself. Junk columns and total rows are skipped automatically, and if a column like Store or Region repeats across your dates, it's picked up as a breakdown so the split is kept.

Import from the KPI Sheet

  1. Open the KPI Sheet and select More Options at the top right, then Upload data. Importing is a desktop action, so the option is hidden on small screens.
  2. Drop your spreadsheet onto the upload area, or browse to pick it. Any layout is fine.
  3. The importer analyses the file for a few seconds, then shows the Almost there review screen with how many KPIs and data points it found in your sheet.
  4. Open View KPIs to check the list: rename any KPI, change its format, frequency or direction, and untick anything you don't want. If your workbook has several sheets, use the sheet picker to switch to the right one.
  5. When it all looks right, select Import. Nothing is saved until this point.
  6. The Import Complete screen sums up what landed. From there you can view your KPIs or have SimpleKPI build an example dashboard from the new data.

If a KPI in your file already exists in your account, the importer matches it by name and adds the data to that KPI rather than creating a duplicate, so importing an updated copy of the same sheet simply refreshes the values for those dates.

When something needs a second look

The review screen includes an Issues section that flags anything suspicious: KPI names that look like numbers, an unusually long KPI list, or no data values found. If the mapping is off, you don't have to fix it cell by cell: tell the importer which columns hold your KPI names, dates or breakdown, or type a note in plain English (like "the indicators are in column B"), then select Re-analyze with this and it re-reads the sheet with your guidance. Repeat as often as you like, or Start over with a different file. Nothing touches your account until you confirm the import.

Tips: files exported from SimpleKPI are recognised automatically, so an export, edit and re-import round trip just works. And because KPIs are matched by name, re-importing updates values instead of duplicating them. A safe way to correct a batch of numbers is to fix the file and upload it again.