You can issue a badge to many people at once by uploading a spreadsheet saved as a CSV file. It’s a quick way to recognise skills across an entire cohort, such as a training group, a graduating class, or a team.
If your list is in Excel or Google Sheets, save or download it as a CSV file first. Want to add people as members rather than issue them a badge? See Adding Members.
Before you begin issuing
It’s worth giving recipients a heads-up before you bulk issue. A quick message in advance makes the rollout smoother:
Recipients who are expecting a badge are more likely to click through and claim it.
It reduces the chance the email is mistaken for spam or ignored.
It cuts down on “what’s this?” follow-up questions and confusion.
It lets you set context (e.g. “we’re sending you a badge for completing the X workshop”).
Important note: Make sure you have the necessary permissions to contact recipients in line with Navigatr’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Bulk issuing badges from a CSV file
Log in to your Navigatr account
Go to the Admin Dashboard and navigate to Content > Badges.
Select the badge you want to issue.
If you haven't created and published your badge yet, see our guide to creating a badge
Select bulk issue via CSV
Click Issue and choose Via CSV File. If you manage a community, click Issue as and choose which provider to issue from first.
Prepare your CSV file
Download the pre-formatted CSV template provided on the Bulk Issuing page for best results.
Every row must include the following required columns:
The recipient's first name.
The recipient's email address.
For an organisation badge, the organisation's name.
The template also includes these optional columns you can fill in for each recipient:
Last Name: the recipient's last name.
Organisation: the recipient's organisation.
Issue Date: the date the badge is issued.
Expiry Date: the date the badge expires.
Evidence Text: a short note describing the evidence for the badge award.
Evidence URL: a link to supporting evidence for the badge award.
Grade: the recipient's grade, if the badge has grades.
Credits Earned: the credits the recipient earned, if the badge awards credits.
Save the file as a CSV (
.csv). If you are working in Excel or Google Sheets, save or download it in CSV format. Check that every recipient's details are correct.
Upload your CSV file
Click Browse and choose your saved CSV. Nothing leaves your computer yet: the page reads the file in your browser, and no data is uploaded until the final confirmation.
If you used our template, we recognise your column names and take you straight to Review for submission, where you can check the recipient count and a sample of your data.
If you built your own CSV and the column names are not recognised, a Match columns step appears first. Tell us which column in your file corresponds to First Name and Email, plus Organisation for an organisation badge and any optional fields you have included, then click Review.
If we find a problem in the file, you see a CSV Data Errors table instead of the review, listing the line number, column, value and problem for each one. Common causes are a missing first name or email address, an invalid email address, a date that cannot be read, or an evidence URL that is not a valid link.
Nothing has been submitted and no badges have been issued: correct the file, then select it again. This is different from the failed rows described in How big can my CSV be? below, which are rows that fail after issuing has already started.
Confirm and issue
Once the data is reviewed, click Start Issuing.
What happens next depends on the size of your file. See How big can my CSV be? below for the limits and timings.
Check badge claims
After issuing, open the Recipients tab on the badge to track who has claimed it. For more, see Managing Badge Recipients.
Prefer to watch? This video walks through the steps.
How big can my CSV be?
Bulk issuing is capped at 5,000 recipients per file. How quickly things happen depends on the size of the upload:
10 or fewer recipients: issued straight away while you wait. We still send you a notification and an email when it's done.
11 to 100 recipients: queued as a single batch. We send you a notification and an email when issuing is finished.
101 to 5,000 recipients: split into chunks of 100 and queued in the background. Each chunk is its own job, so you'll get a notification and an email as each one finishes, labelled “1 of 10”, “2 of 10” and so on. If rows fail, each chunk has its own failed CSV.
If any rows fail to issue (for example, because of an invalid email), we’ll let you know. Select the “Bulk issue incomplete” notification and choose Download Failed CSV. Fix the rows in that file and upload it again.
Tip: For further assistance, contact [email protected].