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Populating the Goals Import Template

Bulk import individual and group goals in Culture Amp: download, complete, and share the template with Culture Amp Support.

Written by Jessie Walsh

Who can use this feature?

Available on:

  • All Culture Amp subscriptions with Performance that include Goals.

Overview

Need to import multiple goals at once? Account administrators and Goals administrators can use our goal import template to submit goals in bulk. Just fill out the file and send it to our Product Support Team and we’ll handle the upload for you.

Note: Only Individual delivery, Individual development, and Group goals can be imported. Collaboration goals are not supported.

Tip: To quickly assign the same individual or development goal to multiple employees, use the Bulk Goal Creation option instead; it's a self-service feature and requires no support assistance.

Before You Begin

To get familiar with how goals appear in Culture Amp, we recommend creating one goal manually in Culture Amp first. This gives you a visual reference for how each field in the template maps to the platform.

Step-by-step: How to Fill Out the Template

1. Download the Template

Start by downloading or copying the goal import template. Your file will include two sheets:

  • Instructions and Template Example: Contains sample data and field instructions.
    ​ Delete this sheet before submitting your file.

  • Enter Your Goals Here: This is where you’ll add your actual goals.

    • Column headers are already included, do not change them. Keep the same naming and casing.

    • Delete rows 2 (instructions) and 3 (dummy goal example) before uploading.

2. Fill Out the Columns

Field

Required?

What to include

owner_emails

✅ Always

One or more existing employee emails, separated by semicolons. The first email will be set as the goal creator. Example: user1@company.com; user2@company.com

title

✅ Always

A clear, descriptive title for the goal.

description

Optional

Add more context to the goal (if needed).

visibility

✅ Always

Choose one: private, specific-people, everyone, or group.

specific_people

Required if visibility = specific-people

Email(s) of employees who should see this goal. Separate multiple emails with semicolons.

due_date

✅ Always

Goal due date in YYYY-MM-DD format.

created_date

✅ Always

When the goal was created, in YYYY-MM-DD. Can be in the past.

status

✅ Always

Choose one: draft, on_track, completed. Completed goal does not mean progress would be 100%

type

✅ Always

Choose one: individual-delivery, individual-development or group-delivery

goal_progress

Required for on_track or completed goals without key results

Progress as a percentage (0–100). Leave blank or enter 0 if goal is draft or has key results.

archived

Optional

Choose TRUE or FALSE. If blank, it defaults to FALSE.

group_id

required for group goals only

Required for group and company-level (OrgUnit) goals only. Type "Ask a Person" in a support conversation to request these. The IDs are only accessible on our end.

Adding Alignment

Goal alignment is possible by populating the primary_goals or supporting_goals fields. Keep in mind:

  • You can align new goals to existing goals, but you cannot align existing goals together through this import.

  • To find goal IDs for individual-delivery goals in bulk, open the Goals Report Export, filter the view to the goals you need, and click Export goals. In the exported file, you’ll find the goal IDs in column C.

  • You can also locate a goal ID by opening the goal directly in your Culture Amp account, the ID appears at the end of the URL. For example, in the link below, the bolded section is the goal ID:https://cultureamp.cultureamp.com/app/goals/goal/fbe92d26-f840-42dd-92cd-f1a1bac8d2dc

  • For individual-development goals, any values entered in primary_goals or supporting_goals are ignored. Alignment via import only applies to individual-delivery goals.

Field

Required?

What to include

primary_goals

✅ If aligning to a higher-level goal

Goal ID

supporting_goals

✅ If aligning to a lower-level goal

Goal ID


Adding Key Results (KRs)

You can include key results by filling in the following columns. To add more, just duplicate the key result columns using 2, 3, etc. Example: key_result_2_title, key_result_2_type, and so on. There’s no limit, but most customers use fewer than 15.

Field

Required?

What to include

key_result_1_title

✅ When adding KRs

Title of the key result

key_result_1_type

✅ When adding KRs

Choose number or percentage

key_result_1_start

✅ When adding KRs

Starting value of the key result (e.g., 0)

key_result_1_current

✅ For on_track or completed goals

Current value of the key result (e.g., 10)

key_result_1_target

✅ When adding KRs

Target value of the key result (e.g., 100)

key_result_1_owner_emails

Optional

KR owner emails, separated by semicolons if there are multiple

key_result_1_status

✅ For on_track or completed goals

Choose on_track or completed

3. Submit Your File

Once you’ve filled out your goals:

  1. Delete the example sheet from the file.

  2. Double-check that all required fields are filled out.

  3. Contact our Product Support Team and request to bulk import your goals.

We’ll review your file and pass it along to our Technical Success Team for upload. Processing can take between 2-3 days.

Limitations

  • Goal types: Only individual goals and Group goals (including company-level OrgUnit goals) are supported. Collaboration goals cannot be imported.

  • Goal alignment: Alignment can only occur with new goals. Previously added goals cannot be aligned with each other through this import.

  • Bulk actions: The goal import process only creates new goals. Editing or deleting existing goals is not supported via import. You'll need to make those changes manually in the platform after the import is complete.

  • Hyperlinks: Imported goals do not support links, any URLs included in the file will be imported as plain text.

  • Goal limit: You can import up to 10,000 goals.

  • HTML: The goal importer does not decode or convert HTML entities, meaning tags or characters like   will appear literally as plain text.

Tips For a Smooth Import

  • ✔️ Make sure every email address belongs to an existing employee in your Culture Amp account.

  • ✔️ Use YYYY-MM-DD format for all dates (e.g., 2025-06-30).

  • ✔️ Don’t forget to include the specific_people column if your goal visibility is set to specific-people.

  • ✔️ If your goal is on_track or completed but doesn’t include key results, make sure you add a goal_progress percentage.

  • ✔️ If you’re planning to import group or company-level (OrgUnit) goals, contact our Product Support Team first so we can share a CSV of your group IDs to paste into the group_id column. Type "Ask a person" in a support conversation to start your request. Note you must be a Goals Administrator or Account administrator.

Troubelshooting/FAQs

What happens if I include a goal with missing required fields?

Our team will return the file and ask you to update the missing or incorrect fields before we can process the upload.

💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a support conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.

Related Articles
Creating and Aligning Individual Goals
Admin Guide to Setting Up Goals in Your Organization
Goals: Employee Getting Started Guide
Goals Report Export
Bringing Historical Survey Data into Culture Amp
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