SOURCE:    Vacation Tracker
TITLE:     How Do I Import Users Initial Brought Forward Balances?
URL:       https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-import-users-initial-brought-forward-balances/
LANG:      en
PUBLISHED: 2025-08-22
UPDATED:   2026-02-13
READING:   2 min
SUMMARY:   If you’re jumping into Vacation Tracker mid–leave year, no worries

# How Do I Import Users Initial Brought Forward Balances?

# How Do I Import Users Initial Brought Forward Balances?

Starting Vacation Tracker mid-year? You'll likely want to load in the days each User carried over from their previous PTO system. That's the Initial Brought Forward balance — set it once, then accruals and rollover handle themselves from there.

## What "Initial Brought Forward" Means

From the Vacation Tracker import page itself: "Initial Brought Forward is the leave balance a User has carried over (rolled over) from last year, in which Vacation Tracker wasn't a part of your organization. Note that you can only edit the Initial Brought Forward leave balance, while the available leave you can bring forward in the following years will be calculated by Vacation Tracker."

In other words: it's a one-time entry of what each User had banked the day before you started using Vacation Tracker. From there, Vacation Tracker handles all subsequent rollovers automatically based on each Leave Policy's brought-forward settings.

## Before You Start

Only Admins can run this import. Make sure all your Users are added and active, and that all your Leave Types are configured before you upload — the import looks them up by exact name.

## Steps

- Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io (https://app.vacationtracker.io/signin) as an Admin.

- In the left menu, expand Workspace Settings and click Bulk Uploads.

- On the Bulk Uploads page, click View on the Initial Brought Forward card.

- Click Download Template to grab a file with the correct headers.

- Open the template, fill in one row per User per Leave Type, and save.

- Back on the Initial Brought Forward page, click Start Import.

- Walk through the wizard: drop or select your file → Select header row → Match Columns → Validate data → Confirm.

![Initial Brought Forward import page with the Download Template button, Start Import button, and the explanation of what initial brought forward means](https://cms.vacationtracker.io/uploads/helpdesk_artikal_how_do_i_import_users_initial_brought_forward_balances_first_image_place_1e61574cb6.png)

## Required Fields

All three fields are mandatory:

FieldNotes

EmailThe User's email — must match Vacation Tracker.

Leave TypeExact name of the Leave Type (e.g., Vacation, Sick Leave, Unpaid Leave) for which you're carrying over the balance.

DaysThe amount the User has carried over from the previous year for that Leave Type.

One row per User per Leave Type. If someone is brought forward for both Vacation and Sick Days, they get two rows.

## The 4-Step Wizard

- Initial Brought Forward — drop your file or click Select file. Accepts .xlsx, .xls, .csv.

- Select header row — confirm the first row of your file is the header.

- Match Columns — map your file's headers to Vacation Tracker fields. With our template, columns match automatically.

- Validate data — fix any rows the wizard flags in red, then click Confirm.

Initial only

This sets the starting brought-forward balance. Once you've used Vacation Tracker through a full leave year, future rollovers happen automatically based on each Leave Policy's brought-forward settings.

Adjustments after the import

If you need to correct a balance after this import, edit it directly on the User's profile under the Quotas tab — no need to re-run an import for one fix.

Brought Forward expiry still applies

If the Leave Policy has a Brought Forward expiry date set (e.g. May 31), imported brought-forward days are subject to it just like rolled-over days. They will expire if not used by that date.

### What's Next?

Brought Forward & Rollover (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-a-brought-forward-rollover-policy/)
Brought Forward Expiry Date (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/can-i-set-an-expiry-date-for-brought-forward-transferred-days/)
Import TOIL (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-import-time-off-in-lieu-balances/)

Need help?

Contact our Support team via email (mailto:hello@vacationtracker.io) or chat (#), Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.