Music Library Import Overview

This help document will walk you through the process of bulk importing your Music Library data into CutTime. For a general overview of the Music Library feature, check out the Music Library Overview article.

To import your Music Library into CutTime, you will first need to populate an import template containing the formatting accepted by our system.

Step 1: Access the import template

Click the link below to access our import template. This is a read-only link, so you will either need to make a copy into your own Google Drive (recommended) by clicking File>Make a copy or download and edit the sheet in excel or another spreadsheet editor (not recommended) by clicking File>Download.

Please note that our support team highly recommends that you complete this process in Google Sheets - Excel and other spreadsheet editors can apply automatic formatting that may not be compatible with our importer.

Step 2: Populate your data

Copy and paste (values only - see note below) your data from your current spreadsheet into the CutTime import template. The column headers in the import template should not be edited.

Please note: The import template is pre-formatted to help you ensure your data matches the formatting that our importer will accept. This formatting will be broken if you paste your data into the template normally (CTRL+V/Command+V). To ensure the template's formatting is not overwritten, please Paste Values Only (CTRL+Shift+V/Command+Shift+V in Google Sheets, right click>paste special>text in Excel) when pasting data into the template.

Step 3: Save as a CSV

When you have finished populating your import template, you are ready to save and upload it to our import helper for verification. The file will need to be in CSV format for our importer.

• In Google Sheets, click File>Download>Comma Separated Values (.csv)
• In Excel, click File>Save As and change the format from Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) to CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv)

Step 4: Upload and import

Once you have your CSV file saved and ready to import, navigate to your Music Library page and click the "Import Music Pieces" button. Click "Choose File", select the CSV file you just saved, and click "Preview" to open the import helper. The import helper will generate a table displaying the data from the file that you just uploaded. From this screen you can make any final edits necessary before completing the import.

Valid records will appear in the table without any highlighting. These records can be imported as-is, but you can also edit them as necessary (see below for help editing a piece).

Invalid records will be highlighted red in the table. These records cannot be imported and must be either edited or skipped before the import can be completed (see below for help editing a piece). The field(s) that are not accepted will appear with a help tip in the edit form so you can see why it is invalid and make the necessary adjustments.

Skipped records will be highlighted dark gray. Skipped records will not be imported, so if an invalid record is skipped, it would not prevent other valid records from being imported. Both valid and invalid records can be skipped. If you mistakenly skip a record, you can click the edit form again to "Unskip".

To edit a piece:

1. At the top of your preview, you will see a red box displaying the number of records with an error. Click "Address next error" to open the edit form
2. After you open the edit form, you can make adjustments to any of the fields that were originally imported. Note that the edit form will display "Originally" so you can always reference the data that was imported with the file
3. When you're finished editing, click "Queue row for import" to save the piece's new record with the data you just edited. Even after you save a record, you can still open the edit form again and see the Original value if necessary.
4. If you'd like to exclude a piece from the import, you can click "Skip row" instead. Skipped records can also be unskipped. See above for more information about skipped records.

When you have verified all of your library records, click the green "Save and import" button on the top right of your screen to finalize the import. If the button is greyed out, that means you have at least one invalid record that must be either edited or skipped before the import can be finalized - check for any rows that are highlighted red.

Once you click the green "Save and import" button, you're done! Any records that were not skipped will now appear in your Music Library page.

After you import

After you click Save and Import, CutTime will begin processing your file. Please note that this process can take a long time depending on the size of your file! Files with more than 1,000 rows can take up to 15 minutes to process fully, and the time will increase as the file size increases.

If your import does fail to upload, you will receive an email letting you know. Additionally, this email will contain a link to bring you back to your fully verified file so you can try again.

If you retry your import and it fails a second time, reach out to support@gocuttime.com for further assistance.

Suggestions and Best Practices

Some tips from our support team as you compile and clean your inventory data:

• Save your original data first! ALWAYS keep a backup of your original inventory file before you start editing. It can be easy to make mistakes when editing data in a spreadsheet editor, and sometimes you won't notice the mistake until you've already worked on it for an hour and it's too late to fix it. Having a backup of the file might not undo an hour's worth of work, but it will ensure that you have a clean source file if you do need to go back and start over or reference your original data.
• Make sure that your naming conventions are consistent. Some common examples seen by our support team include variations on the names of Categories and Instrumentations/Voicings (Concert Band vs CB, Mixed Choir vs SATB, etc.) Using filter and sort functions in your spreadsheet editor can help you locate these inconsistencies and resolve them before importing.
• Check for duplicate records. It's common to mistakenly have two or more rows in your spreadsheet for the same piece. Using sorting and filtering functionality in Google Sheets or Excel can help you identify pieces that might be listed twice so you can make sure you've got clean data upon importing.

If you have questions during the inventory cleanup and reformatting process, you can reach out to support@gocuttime.com for help - we are happy to answer your questions and help you with challenges that come up.