CSV Import
Upload contacts, map columns, name your own custom fields, and have route-ready walk lists in minutes.
Choose how you're adding contacts
From Contacts → Add Contacts, pick Upload File (CSV, XLSX, or XLS), Copy & Paste, Google Sheets, Add Manually, Pin Drop, or Import CRM. The column-mapping step below is the same for Upload File, Copy & Paste, and Google Sheets.
Map your columns
WalkLists auto-detects standard fields — name, address, phone, party, precinct, and more — and shows a confidence badge per column: green for an exact header match, yellow for a partial match worth a quick check, red for anything it couldn't guess at all. Review the yellow and red columns before continuing; everything left unmapped gets skipped.
Create a custom field for anything you track
If a column doesn't match a standard field — a turnout flag for a specific election, a donor tier, a volunteer note, anything specific to your file — open its dropdown and choose + Create custom field…. Give it a real name (e.g. “Voted 2024”) and a type (Yes/No, Number, Category, Free text, or Date), and it's created immediately. From that moment it's a first-class field: usable in filters, shown as a column on your Contacts grid, and available to marker rules on the field map — under the name you gave it, everywhere it appears.
You get up to 25 custom fields per organization. Made a typo, or want to rename one later? Go to Account → Custom Fields at any time — renaming only changes the label, never your contacts' data.
Handle duplicates
Pick what counts as a duplicate — same name + address (the default, most conservative match), or your own rule — and what happens when one's found: skip it, update the existing contact with any new fields, or create a duplicate anyway.
Review & import
WalkLists geocodes every address before finishing the import and shows you the results — matched address, accuracy, and any that failed. Use Include All, Exclude Failed, or High + Medium Only to decide which rows come in, then confirm.
Custom fields are metadata layered on top of your import — renaming or retyping one at Account → Custom Fields never touches the contacts you've already imported. There's nothing to re-upload.
Filtering and sorting by your custom fields
Once a custom field exists, it shows up in two places right away:
- Contacts grid — toggle it on as a column to see its value per contact.
- Contact Lists → Create List → Filter Contacts — expand + More filters and your custom fields appear in their own Custom Fields segment, separate from the built-in political fields.
By default, checking two custom fields filters to contacts matching all of them — the same AND behavior as every other filter. Flip the segment's toggle to Match Any and it switches to OR just for that segment: check “Voted 2024” and “Voted 2025” under Match Any to find everyone who voted in either election, instead of only the intersection. Native filters like City and State are never affected by this toggle — only your own custom fields can opt into OR.
| Custom field type | Use it for | Filter control |
|---|---|---|
| Yes/No | Did they vote in a specific election, are they a homeowner, opted in, etc. | Checkbox |
| Number | A score, a donation amount, a count | Range |
| Category | A fixed set of values — a tier, a source, a segment | Multi-select |
| Free text / Date | Notes, one-off identifiers, a specific date | Text / date match |