SIMS: Manually Importing Data

This guide shows you how to export data from SIMS and import into SchoolCloud. If your school does not use SIMS and you're looking for instructions on manually importing data, see the Manually Importing Data guide.

Check SIMS Permissions

In order to run the reports in SIMS, your SIMS user must have the following three permissions:

• School Administrator
• Personnel Assistant
• Third Party Reporter

Import Report Definition

We provide a SIMS Report Definition that contains all of the required fields for importing students, parents, teachers, classes & groups into SchoolCloud.
Download the file by clicking the link in the first step below.

1. Click here to download the SIMS Report Definition which is a zipped file containing the SIMS Report Definition.
2. Extract the ZIP file containing the SIMS Report Definition somewhere on your computer.
3. Import the SIMS Report Definition via the Reports > Import option in SIMS.

   

Run the SIMS Report

1. At the top of SIMS, click on Reports > Run Report.

   

   From the Focus option on the left hand side of the Open Report window, choose the appropriate report to run:
   If you are a Primary School, then choose Group on the left, and then locate Parents Evening System - Data by Groups on the right. If you are a Secondary School, then choose Class on the left, and then locate Parents Evening System - Data by Classes on the right.Double-click on the report name above to run the report.

2. You'll be asked to specify which priority of contacts you wish to include, and therefore be able to login to Parents Evening System and add bookings.

   

   The default is Priority 1, plus Priority 2, plus anyone who has parental responsibility.
   To include just Priority 1 contacts, plus anyone who has parental responsibility, type 2 in the box, replacing the default value of 3.

3. Click Ok and specify a location and name of the file, ensure you end the file name in ".csv" without the quotes.
   
   For example, in the box type Parents Evening System Export.csv

Import into SchoolCloud

1. Login to your SchoolCloud system as an administrator and click on Data on the left-hand side.
   
   You should see options to Import Students, Import Parents, Import Teachers, and Import Classes.
   
   

   If you do not see this section you will need to turn on manual imports via Settings > Data Import Source > Allow Data to be Manually Imported.

   

2. Click on Import Students. Browse for the file you saved under Step 4 and click Next.
   
   It will say Map Columns at the top, just click Next again. It will now say Validate and Confirm at the top. 
   
   Select the "Replace data on system with imported data" option and "I'm happy to proceed", assuming the student numbers look correct.
   
   Click Next and you should see the import is successful. Close the box by clicking off it.
3. Click on Import Parents. Follow the instructions outlined in Step 2.
   
   Please note if any students were exported from SIMS without parents, it'll tell you there are rows which can't be imported due to a missing Parent ID.
   
   For every student without parents, this will be duplicated many times, so it's not unusual for it to say hundreds of lines cannot be imported.
   
   It's easy to identify students without parents once the data has been imported the first time, then you can correct the data in SIMS, export the data again and then re-import. So we still recommend proceeding even if there are warnings about rows which won't be imported.
4. Click on Import Teachers. Follow the instructions outlined in Step 2.
5. Click on Import Classes. Follow the instructions outlined in Step 2.
6. Congratulations, the data has been imported into SchoolCloud.

Updating the Data in the Future

If you ever need to update students, parents, teachers or classes, then simply re-run the appropriate report in SIMS (see Step 3 & 4) and then re-import the file to SchoolCloud. If only classes have changed, you'd only need to import this to Import Classes. If say a new student has joined, you'd need to first import the file to Import Students, followed by Import Parents, followed by Import Classes.