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Moving your club off a spreadsheet, one column at a time

A practical, honest look at what carries over cleanly when you leave a shared spreadsheet — and where a real migration takes a little hands-on work.

The Golbi team1 min read

Almost every group we talk to started in a spreadsheet, and there is nothing wrong with that. The trouble shows up later: a second tab for payments, a third for waivers, a fourth nobody remembers the rules for, and no single answer to a question as basic as who is actually on the roster.

What carries over cleanly

People and households import well. If you can export a clean list with names, contact details, and which family each person belongs to, that lands in Golbi with very little cleanup.

Where the work is real

Combined fields — a single cell holding two parents, or a status column that means three different things — take judgment to split apart. We would rather set that expectation up front than promise a one-click import we cannot keep. For messy exports, hands-on mapping is a paid service, and it exists precisely so the low plans can stay self-serve.

Start with the import templates, climb only as far as your data's messiness requires, and keep the spreadsheet around read-only until you trust the new home.

Run your club without the busywork.

Set up the basics now and bring your team in when you're ready.