The required format for date fields in the Standard Bulk Upload tool is yyyy-mm-dd. This is an international standard date format designed to reduce ambiguity and confusion.
You may edit CSV files using a spreadsheet editor like Microsoft Excel. When you open a CSV file in Excel, it will automatically reformat what it recognises as a date into the default date format configured for your system. When you export/save the file as a CSV using Excel, the date format will be saved incorrectly (i.e. not in the format we expect - yyyy-mm-dd) and your CSV import in Sherpa won't work.
The good news is, there’s a simple solution to this problem! Use the instructions below to change the date format in your spreadsheet before importing into Sherpa.
Changing the date format in an Excel spreadsheet
- Select the ready_at_date column.
- Right-click on the column to open a shortcut menu as shown below. Select Format Cells from the shortcut menu.
- Under the Category list on the left, select Custom.
- In the Type field, replace the text with yyyy-mm-dd.
- Click OK to save your changes.
- Review your delivery details. When done, go to File > Save As and save it as a .csv file.
The CSV is now ready to be uploaded using our Standard Bulk Upload tool.