Importing & Exporting Data
Your data belongs to you. Bring it in from Breeze, Planning Center or a spreadsheet, whether you are leaving that system or keeping it, and take it out again whenever you want.
Import your data
Admin → Settings → Import & export. This is the only place Passport imports from. The setup wizard's Bring your data step brings you here and back again.
The Import panel lists three sources. You do not have to bring everything at once. Bring your people across first and come back for attendance history later.
Importing is part of Companion, Plus and Pro. GoReach does not include it. See Plans.
| Source | What comes across | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Breeze | People (with families and milestone dates), tags, events, and event attendance history. For tags, you choose which Breeze tag folders become Passport groups and which stay tags | Breeze connected under Admin → Settings → Breeze & Planning Center |
| Planning Center | People with their households, groups and their rosters, calendar events, Check-Ins history, and Services (service types, plans and your song library) | Planning Center connected under Admin → Settings → Breeze & Planning Center |
| Spreadsheet (CSV) | People | A spreadsheet with name, email and phone columns, from any system or from our template |
Breeze and Planning Center use your saved connection
You enter your Breeze or Planning Center credentials once, under Admin → Settings → Breeze & Planning Center. The importer reads that connection and never asks for the key again:
- Connected: select Import from Breeze or Import from Planning Center. Passport checks the connection and goes straight to choosing what to bring across.
- Not connected yet: the source shows Connect Breeze (or Connect Planning Center) instead, which takes you to the connection. Save it there, then come back.
Connecting never starts sending anything back to Breeze or Planning Center. That is a separate switch on the same page, off until you turn it on, so you can import and leave. What travels in each direction is set out in Using Passport alongside Breeze or Planning Center.
Attendance needs people: import people in the same run, or before.
Imports run in the background. You can close the page, keep working, and come back. The Import panel tells you whether one is still running and what the last one added.
Preview before you commit
Passport always offers a preview first. Nothing is saved: it reads your data, reports what it found, and shows you the first 100 records of each kind exactly as it read them.
Read the preview properly. This is the moment to catch a problem. Check the names and the phone numbers in particular. A column that has landed in the wrong place is obvious here and expensive later, because undoing an import that has already run means finding the records by hand.
When it looks right, select Looks good — import now.
:::tip Run it twice safely Passport matches people it has already seen rather than duplicating them, so re-running an import after fixing something in your old system does not give you two of everybody. :::
:::note Imported people are not treated as new guests Nobody you import is sent a "thanks for visiting" text or put in the Guests hub. Imported records join guest follow-up only once the person turns up in person, plans a visit, or fills in a connection card. :::
Export your data
- In Passport, go to Admin → Settings → Import & export.
- In the Export panel, choose the data set to download:
| Button | What it contains | Plans |
|---|---|---|
| Export Visitors (CSV) | Your people: name, contact details, visit date and how they registered | Every plan |
| Export Attendance (CSV) | Service attendance records: who attended, which service, and when | Pro |
| Export Journey Progress (CSV) | Each person's progress through groups joined, classes completed and ministries | Pro |
- Your browser downloads the file straight away.
Exports are for admins.
There is no limit on how often you can export, and exports always reflect your current data.
What to do with a CSV export
CSV files can be opened in any spreadsheet application, including Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and Apple Numbers.
Common uses:
- Backup — Keep a local copy of your member records separate from Passport
- Mail merge — Import addresses into a mailing tool for printed communications
- Reporting — Analyze attendance trends or growth data in a spreadsheet
- Migration — Transfer records to another church management system
Next steps
- Keep using Breeze or Planning Center — See Using Passport alongside Breeze or Planning Center for what syncs in each direction.
- Church Profile — Update the church information that appears in your member records. See Church Profile.
- Users & Roles — Manage who has access to Passport and what they can do. See Users & Roles.