--- title: "Your first employee upload and groups" description: "A 25-minute walk from a spreadsheet to an audience: upload your people, check the profiles Pyn built, add a joiner by hand, then create the static and filter groups your first automation will target." sidebar: order: 1 area: directory feature: employees appPath: /directory/home lastVerified: 2026-10-22 version: "2026-10-16" audience: admin video: directory-tutorial-first-upload related: - directory/employees/upload-employees-from-a-spreadsheet - directory/employee-groups/create-a-filter-group - directory/employees/reference-employee-properties - flows/automations intercom: - id: "16755797" title: How to Upload Employee Data Manually (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16755797-how-to-upload-employee-data-manually-pyn-2 note: draws on - id: "12651638" title: Understand Groups in Pyn (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651638-understand-groups-in-pyn-pyn-2 note: draws on --- **Goal:** a Directory that matches your organisation well enough to run a flow against: every current employee with a work email, a start date, a time zone and a manager; upcoming joiners in place before their first day; and two groups ready to use as an audience. **Time:** about 25 minutes, most of it in the spreadsheet. **You will end up with:** - every employee in **Directory** > **Employees**, split into **Active**, **Upcoming** and **Inactive** by Pyn; - a profile per person showing their manager and the groups they are in; - a **Static** group of named people (for example your onboarding buddies) and a **Filter** group of everyone who is about to join; - the first automation pointed at one of them. ## Before you start - You are a workspace admin. - You do not have an HRIS connected. If you do, Pyn fills Directory from it and you can skip to chapter 4; [Integrations](https://support.pynhq.com/integrations/) covers each connector. - Have the list of employees to hand with, at minimum, each person's work email, full name, start date and their manager's email. [Video: Your first employee upload and groups: the Employee File panel, a profile, an upcoming joiner, a static group and a filter group.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/directory/employees/directory-tutorial-first-upload.mp4) ## 1. Build the spreadsheet Pyn reads a `.csv`, `.xls` or `.xlsx` file with a header row. Column names are the property keys in [Employee properties](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employees/reference-employee-properties/). 1. Open **Settings** at the foot of the left navigation, select **Integrations**, then **Available**, and select the **File Upload** tile. Pyn creates the integration and opens its panel, headed **Employee File**. 2. In the panel's banner, select **Download Sample File**. The file `pyn-employee-file-upload-sample.csv` has every column Pyn accepts, with example rows. 3. Fill one row per employee. `employeeId` is your own stable id for the person (a payroll number is ideal), `primaryEmail` is their work address, `displayName` their full name. Set `status` to `active`, `leave` or `inactive`; leave it blank and the person reads as inactive. 4. Put dates in `startDate`, `terminationDate` and `tenureDate` as `yyyy-MM-dd`. Put the manager's `employeeId` in `managerId`, and likewise `buddyId`, `hrbpId` and `mentorId`. 5. Give everyone a time zone, either `timeZone` as an IANA name such as `Australia/Sydney`, or `country` plus `postalCode` for the US, Canada and Australia, or `country` alone for a country with one zone. 6. Add the columns you want to group by: `department`, `location`, `division`, `team`, `businessUnit`, `jobTitle`. Delete the sample rows before you upload. ## 2. Upload it 1. Back in the **Employee File** panel, select **Upload** and choose your file. 2. Read the result. **Success! Uploaded N records** means every row passed. Otherwise the banner lists each problem as **Row #n:** with the column and the value it received; fix those rows and upload again. The whole file is rejected until every row passes. 3. Open **Directory** in the left navigation. The upload is applied in the background and the first profiles appear within a minute or two. > **Note:** Uploading again later is an update, not a duplicate: Pyn matches rows on `employeeId`, changes what differs, and marks anyone missing from the new file as removed from the source. ## 3. Check what Pyn built ![Select an employee to open their profile beside the list.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/directory/employees/directory-employees-profile.png) 1. On **Active**, count the rows against your file. Someone missing is on **Upcoming** (a future start date) or **Inactive** (a past termination date, or no `active` status). 2. Read the **Country** and **Time Zone** columns. A blank time zone means Pyn could not work one out from the row; add a `timeZone` or `postalCode` for that person and upload again. 3. Select a row to open the profile. On **Details**, check **Manager** and, if you supplied them, **Buddy**, **HRBP** and **Mentor**. A missing manager means the `managerId` did not match another row's `employeeId`. 4. Open the **Groups** tab. The person is already in the demographic groups for their department, location, division and employment type, and in the lifecycle group for their stage. ## 4. Add someone who is not in the file yet A signed offer arrives after the upload. Rather than edit the spreadsheet, add them from the **Upcoming** view. 1. Select **Upcoming** under **Employees**, then **Add employee**. 2. Fill **Full name**, **Start date**, **Country** and **Time zone** (it defaults to the workspace's zone). Add **Work email** if they have one, otherwise **Personal email**, and search for their **Manager**. 3. Select **Add employee**. The dialog confirms **has been added as an upcoming joiner**; select **Done**. ## 5. Create a static group A static group is a list you manage by hand: the people you have picked to be onboarding buddies, for example. 1. Select **All Groups** under **Employee Groups** on the left, then **Create**, then **Static**. 2. Type a **Group Name**, for example "Onboarding buddies". 3. Add members by searching, or select **Paste a list of employee email addresses**, paste them and select **Process Emails**. Addresses that match nobody are listed so you can fix them. 4. Select **Next**, read the list, then **Confirm**. On **Your static group has been created.** select **Done** to open the group. ## 6. Create a filter group A filter group is a saved audience that Pyn keeps up to date: everyone about to join, say, or every current engineer outside the leadership team. 1. Select **All Groups** again, then **Create**, then **Filter**. 2. Type a **Group Name**, for example "Upcoming joiners". 3. Under **Lifecycle**, remove **Current** with its **x** and choose **Joiner**. Leave **Included** and **Excluded** empty. 4. Select **Preview**, read the list, then **Confirm**. On **Your filter group has been created.** select **Done**. The group's panel shows **This filter group is still being evaluated** until Pyn has checked every employee, then lists its members. Every later upload re-evaluates it. ## 7. Point a flow at it 1. Open **Flows** in the left navigation and open an automation, or create one. 2. In its audience, add "Upcoming joiners" under **Included**. [Automations](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/) explains the trigger and the audience in full. ## Related - [Upload employees from a spreadsheet](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employees/upload-employees-from-a-spreadsheet/) for the monthly update, and [Export employees](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employees/export-employees/) to start that update from what Pyn has. - [Create a relationship group](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/create-a-relationship-group/) for everyone without a buddy, and [Create a demographic](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/demographics/create-a-demographic/) to group by a property such as Job Class. - [Employee properties](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employees/reference-employee-properties/) for every column, and how stage and time zone are worked out. - [Fix a missing manager, time zone or email](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employees/fix-missing-details/) when a profile is not what you expected. ## Related Intercom articles - [How to Upload Employee Data Manually (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16755797-how-to-upload-employee-data-manually-pyn-2) — draws on - [Understand Groups in Pyn (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651638-understand-groups-in-pyn-pyn-2) — draws on