Data Import & Migration

Custom Templates

Save your own column mapping as a named, reusable template, and manage the built-in and custom templates available to your organization.

Custom Templates

A template is a saved column mapping: a record of which column in a file goes to which BookYourPTO field. BookYourPTO ships 63 of them for 48 platforms, and your organization can save its own.

Custom templates are worth creating when your export doesn't match any built-in platform layout — a report your finance team builds by hand, an in-house system, or a platform export you've customized so heavily it no longer looks like the standard one.

Saving a mapping as a template

You create a custom template from inside the wizard, on the Map Columns step:

Set the mappings so every column goes where you want it.
Tick Save this mapping as a reusable template.
Give it a name that describes the file, not the moment — Payroll monthly headcount export beats March import.
Continue to Preview. The template is saved as you move on.

The template records the mapping and the data type it applies to. It belongs to your organization, and it's visible to any administrator or executive who runs an import.

Your templates outrank the built-in ones. Where BookYourPTO scores templates against a file, your organization's own templates are checked before the 63 built-in platform templates, so a mapping you've saved wins over a built-in template with similar headers.

Managing templates

Go to Settings → Data Import and click Manage templates. The page has two sections.

Your Custom Templates

Everything your organization has saved, showing the data type, how many columns it maps, and who created it.

Action	How
Rename	Click the pencil icon, type the new name, press Enter
Delete	Click the bin icon and confirm

Deleting a template has no effect on data you've already imported with it — it just removes the saved mapping.

Built-in Platform Templates

The full read-only library, searchable by platform. Each entry names the platform, the data type it covers, and how many columns it maps. Use it to check whether your platform is covered before you start — see Supported Platforms.

Templates and file layouts

A template maps header names, so it keeps working as long as your export's headers stay the same. Two things break a saved template:

Renamed headers. If your source system relabels Hire Date to Employment Start, that column stops matching. Column detection will usually still catch it by alias — check the mapping screen and re-save the template.
A different data type. A template saved for Employees does not apply to a Leave History file. Save one per data type.

One template per recurring file. If you onboard a batch of seasonal staff every year from the same payroll report, save that mapping once. Next year the columns are already accounted for, and you go straight from upload to preview.

Direct Connections

Import from BambooHR, Timetastic, Employment Hero (Humi), and Zoho People over their API — no CSV export needed — and re-import on demand.

Rollback & Import History

Reading an import's result page, the row-by-row error log, and how to undo a completed import within the 72-hour rollback window.