If your guest list has long been sitting in a spreadsheet, you do not have to type it in again. With the import it moves into your event in one go, as a CSV or an Excel file. And when you need it the other way round, for the seating plan or the caterer, you can download it again at any time, in the format and with exactly the columns you need right now. Both are free.

Open Gäste (guests) and click „Importieren" (import) in the filter bar. In the dialog „Gäste importieren" (import guests) you first download the template gaeste-beispiel.csv via „Beispiel-CSV herunterladen" (download sample CSV). Open it in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, enter your guests and save it again. You can save it as CSV or simply leave your Excel file as it is, the import accepts both.

The preview shows at most ten rows, the rest appears below as „Und N weitere..." (and N more). All valid rows are imported, of course.

If there are already guests in your list, you get a note right above the import button: how many guests you already have, how many of them have replied and how many names from your file are already in the list (including how many of those with a reply). So you can see beforehand whether you are about to get duplicates.

The import brings two things along: if there is a „ja" in the column „Plus-1 erlaubt", the toggle „Plus One erlauben" is switched on right away for the imported guest, and whatever is in „Interne Notizen" lands in the notes. If you leave the columns out or empty, the toggle stays off and the notes stay empty, and you can change both at any time for individual guests via „Bearbeiten" (edit).

The export brings the column Status and all of your guests' answers along, so you can see when reading it who has already accepted and what someone wishes for. The import, however, cannot read those columns. Every guest who comes in through a file starts as Ausstehend (pending), even if the file says „Zugesagt" (accepted). If your file has a status column, the import dialog tells you so once more explicitly.

What that means for you: as soon as the first replies are in, maintain your list in the app and no longer in Excel. Never delete your guests in the app in order to recreate them from a file afterwards. The replies are attached to the guests in your list and do not come back through the file. For adding guests, the import is still safe at any time: it only adds, it never takes anything away.

Click „Exportieren" (export) in the filter bar. The dialog „Gästeliste exportieren" (export guest list) opens and you decide what should be in the file. As long as you have not added a guest yet, the button is greyed out.

Above the column list there are five templates as a quick pick:

A template only sets the selection, after that you can still change everything. Only columns that really exist for your event are offered. If your sign-up form does not ask for a music request at all, for example, that column does not show up, and the DJ template then simply takes the columns that are there.

Below that is your column list. You tick what should come along, and at the top right „12 von 31 Spalten" (12 of 31 columns) shows you where you stand. You decide the order yourself: drag a column up or down by the handle on the left. That also works with the keyboard: put the focus on the handle, press the space bar, sort with the arrow keys and drop with the space bar again. Whatever you have not ticked sits further down under „Nicht dabei" (not included) and is always just one click away. At least one column has to remain, without a column there would be no file.

Under „Reihenfolge der Gäste" (order of guests) you decide in which order the rows appear in the file:

With the two alphabetical orders, a sign-up no longer necessarily stays together. The column „Gehört zu" (belongs to) then tells you who belongs with whom, as long as it is in your selection. With „Nachname A bis Z", children and companions without an entry of their own appear under their guest's last name, even a child with a last name of their own. By the way, the sorting by name works even if the first name or last name is not a column in your file at all.

For the PDF there is also the checkbox „Zugesagt, Ausstehend und Abgesagt trennen" (separate accepted, pending and declined). Then Zugesagt (accepted), Vielleicht (maybe), Ausstehend (pending) and Abgesagt (declined) appear as separate sections one below the other, in that order, each with a heading and a count, for example „Zugesagt · 48 Personen" (accepted · 48 people). Within the sections your order applies, and sections without a guest are left out. That works even without the Status column.

Your browser remembers your last choice per event, including the order and the checkbox. So the next time you export, everything is set up again just as you last had it.

One click on „Exportieren", and the file lands in your downloads folder.

Available are first name, last name, e-mail, phone, group and household, plus the status of the reply, when it was given and who entered it: the guest themselves, the main guest during their sign-up, or you. If the two of you plan together (Einstellungen → Gemeinsam planen, Settings → plan together), replies entered in the dashboard show „von euch“ (by you two). For a birthday, the column shows „im Dashboard“ (in the dashboard) when the reply was entered by someone who no longer plans with you. If that cannot be said for sure, the field stays empty.

If you have already added tables in the seating plan, the columns Tisch (table) and Platz (seat) are added. Both stay empty for everyone who does not have a table yet or has declined. „Platz" also stays empty when someone sits at a table without a fixed seat, for example a child who automatically sits with their guest.

Then come the answers from your sign-up form, every question in a column of its own, for example diet, allergies, music request, accommodation, shuttle and the personal message. You will find the questions your form asks and everything your guests have already answered. On top of that there are your internal notes, hints such as „Offene Anmeldung" (open sign-up) or „Möglicher Doppeleintrag" (possible duplicate), whether and when someone was invited (invitation sent by e-mail, marked as invited, reminder sent), the invitation code and the personal invitation link. If you have sent a Save the Date, you also see when it went out.

Every person has a row of their own. In the order „Anmeldungen zusammen" (sign-ups together), each guest is followed by their companion and their children. The column Kategorie (category) tells you whether it is a guest, a companion or a child, and under Gehört zu (belongs to) stands the name of the guest this person is coming with. Children and companions without an entry of their own take over group, household and status from that guest, and children without a last name of their own take over that guest's last name too. Without a name they are simply called „Begleitung" (companion) or „Kind 2" (child 2). Filter the Status column by „Zugesagt" and you have everyone in front of you who is coming.

CSV is prepared for Excel: umlauts are preserved, the columns are separated by semicolons, and all times are in German time. If an entry starts with a plus, minus, equals sign or @, for example a phone number with +49, there is an apostrophe in front of it. That way Excel reads it as text and not as a formula. If you upload the file again later, the import removes this apostrophe by itself.

Excel you get as a finished workbook with the sheet „Gästeliste". The header row is bold and stays put while scrolling, a filter is already on the columns, and the column widths follow the content. Dates are real date values and the age is a real number, so you can sort and calculate with them right away. You do not need an apostrophe like in the CSV file here, in the workbook everything is stored as a plain value.

PDF is meant for printing and passing on: A4 landscape, with the title of your event, the date of the export, the number of people and page numbers. The header row repeats on every page, long texts wrap inside the cell. To keep it readable, no more than eight columns fit side by side. Once you have ticked eight, the rest are greyed out. If you need more, take Excel. Invitation code and invitation link do not exist in the PDF at all, precisely because this file is often passed on.

The PDF can handle umlauts and the usual accents. A few characters, however, the font in it does not know, for example the ł in „Łukasz", Cyrillic names or emojis. The PDF writes such spots in a simplified way („Lukasz", „Ivan"), and a note about it appears at the bottom of the page. In CSV and Excel everything stays exactly as your guests entered it.

Before you pass the file on: If you send the list as CSV or Excel to your caterer, the DJ or anyone else, take the columns „Einladungscode" (invitation code) and „Einladungslink" (invitation link) out of the selection first. With those, somebody could otherwise reply to your invitation in someone else's name. If they are ticked, the dialog reminds you of that once more.

I do not see the buttons „Importieren" and „Exportieren".
On your phone they are hidden, only „Gast hinzufügen" (add guest) remains there. For import and export, sit down at your computer or tablet for a moment.

My file is rejected.
Accepted are .csv and .xlsx files, otherwise „Bitte lade eine CSV- oder eine Excel-Datei hoch." (please upload a CSV or an Excel file) appears. The file also needs a header row plus at least one row with a guest and the column „Vorname". Older .xls files and Numbers files can quickly be saved as .xlsx or CSV in your program via „Export" or „Save as".

Can I update existing guests via the import?
No, the import always creates new guests. Changes to existing guests are made via „Bearbeiten" (edit).

Does a second import overwrite my replies?
No. The import does not touch existing guests, it only adds new ones. Your acceptances and declines stay, but you get the guests from the file added to the list. Duplicate entries you clean up afterwards via „Zusammenführen…" (merge) or „Löschen" (delete).

I exported my list, edited it in Excel and imported it again. Where are the acceptances?
The replies are in your file, but the import does not take them over: it does not read status and answers when uploading. If your original guests are still in the list, their answers are still attached to them unchanged and you can remove the newly imported duplicate entries via „Zusammenführen…" or „Löschen". If you deleted the guests beforehand, their answers are gone. In that case write to us via the chat, we will look together at what can still be saved.

Can I also export the file for re-importing with fewer columns?
Yes. What matters is that the master data is in there, so at least the first name and whatever else you want to carry over: last name, e-mail, phone, group, household, plus-one allowed and internal notes. If the column Vorname is missing, the import tells you when uploading.