How to prepare a guest list spreadsheet for import

Decide what one row represents

Start with the invitation unit. A row may represent one person, a couple or a household, depending on how you want guests to receive and answer their invitation. Write down who is actually invited rather than using a family label that leaves the number of people unclear. Do not infer a companion simply because two people share an address.

Check the import screen’s current instructions before arranging your columns. In HeyVite’s review, people on the same imported row share one invitation. Make sure that matches your intention. Someone needing an individual invitation should not be combined with another guest only to make the spreadsheet shorter.

Clean names and contact details deliberately

Use the name the guest should see on the invitation. Look for accidental spaces, copied line breaks and notes that belong in your planning file instead of the displayed name. Preserve meaningful punctuation and accents. A quick scan for similar-looking names is useful, but do not merge people solely because a spelling matches.

Confirm the intended email address or phone number with a reliable source. Keep phone numbers as text in your spreadsheet so an international prefix or leading zero is not lost. When sharing links manually, you still need to identify the right conversation; importing a phone number does not mean a WhatsApp or SMS invitation has been sent.

Review duplicates as people and invitations

Two rows with the same email may be a duplicate, or they may be different members of a household using one inbox. Two similar names may belong to different people. Compare the names, contact details and intended grouping before removing a record. Keep a backup of the source list so you can revisit a decision without reconstructing it.

If several hosts have contributed contacts, agree which version is authoritative. Mark unresolved entries for checking rather than guessing. HeyVite’s import flow provides a review step for the proposed invitations and issues requiring attention; use it to inspect the result instead of assuming that every source row is ready.

• Same person twice: keep the correct invitation and current contact.
• Different people, shared inbox: check the intended invitation grouping.
• Unclear household label: confirm the people who are included.
• Missing contact: choose how you will deliver that guest’s invitation.

Export the format the importer can read

A spreadsheet workbook and a CSV are different files. HeyVite accepts a text CSV or pasted spreadsheet data; its import dialog asks workbook users to export as CSV or paste the cells. Renaming a workbook file to end in .csv does not convert its contents. Choose the export option in the spreadsheet app instead.

After exporting, check the name and contact columns and make sure accented characters look correct. Avoid unrelated tabs or private planning notes. Use the current import instructions, not a header layout borrowed from another tool.

Inspect the preview before importing or sending

Read the proposed people and contacts. Check invitation and person counts, correct ambiguous groupings, and fix or exclude rows needing attention. If uncertain about the format, test a small set first: a couple, a single guest and a contact with punctuation or accents.

Once the list is imported, inspect the event’s guest records and delivery choices before sending. In HeyVite, importing adds guests; it does not send their invitations. That separation gives you a useful final checkpoint for the right names, people and destination before a message reaches someone’s inbox.