SIMS: Manually Importing Data

This guide shows you how to export data from SIMS into one single file, which you can then easily import into Tes Parents' Meetings without any need to make any changes or alterations.

If your school does not use SIMS and you're looking for generic instructions on manually importing data, see this guide instead.

Note: Where at all possible, we recommend using the SIMS Extract Tool which automates the sync of data from SIMS. Even when SIMS is not hosted at your school, we work with many Local Authorities and Hosted SIMS providers to enable use of the Extract Tool.

A. Check your SIMS Permissions

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

  • School Administrator
  • Personnel Assistant
  • Third Party Reporting

B. Import and run the SIMS Report Definition

We provide a SIMS Report Definition that contains all of the required fields for importing students, parents, teachers, classes & groups into Tes Parents' Meetings.

  1. Click here to download a .zip file containing the SIMS Report Definition.
  2. Extract the the SIMS Report Definition from the .zip file to a folder on your computer.
  3. Import the SIMS Report Definition via the Reports > Import option in SIMS.

  1. In 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 choose Group on the left, and then locate Parents Evening System - Data by Groups on the right.

    If you are a Secondary School choose Class on the left, and then locate Parents Evening System - Data by Classes on the right.

    Double-click on the report name to run the report.

  1. You'll then be asked to specify which priorities of contacts you wish to include, these will be the parents that can login to Tes Parents' Meetings and add bookings.

  2. The default value is 3 which will sync Priority 1, Priority 2, plus anyone who has parental responsibility.

    To include only Priority 1 contacts, plus anyone who has parental responsibility replace the default value with 2.

  3. Click Ok and specify a location and name for the file, ensuring that you end the file name with ".csv" (without the quotes). For example, in the box type Parents Meetings System Export.csv

NOTE: If you have any student names with accented or non-English characters, please open the exported file in Excel then use File > Save As to save the file in CSV UTF-8 (Comma Delimited) format. This will ensure those characters are imported correctly in the next section.

C. Import the data into Tes Parents' Meetings

  1. Login to Tes Parents' Meetings 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.

    As your system will usually sync with SIMS to import your data, running a sync will override the manually imported data and it will be lost. If you have manually imported data and need to run a sync, or if losing data every time you run a sync will be an issue for you, please contact us.

    When you click on the type of data you wish to import you will be asked to upload a spreadsheet (in .csv format) and will see a list of the columns it must contain. Normally you would need to make sure the spreadsheet has a header row with these headings in it, in this case those headings have been added by the export from SIMS and so you will have no need to Map Columns etc.


  2. Click on Import Students.

    Click Choose File and browse to the file you exported from SIMS then click Next.

    The page that appears will say Map Columns at the top.

    Click Next again.

    The next page will say Validate and Confirm at the top.

    If appropriate, select the Replace data on system with imported data option and I'm happy to proceed.

    Click Next and you should see that the import was successful.

    Click  Done to be return to the Data Dashboard.


  3. Click on Import Parents and follow the same steps.

    Please note that if any students were exported from SIMS without parents, the page will inform you that there are rows which can't be imported due to a missing Parent ID. For every student without parents, this will be duplicated several times, so it's not unusual for it to say hundreds of lines cannot be imported. It is easy to identify students without parents once the data has been imported the first time, and then to correct the data in SIMS, export it and re-import to Tes Parents' Meetings. So we recommend proceeding even if there are warnings about rows which won't be imported. You can reach the Next button by scrolling to the bottom of any warnings.


  4. Click on Import Teachers and follow the same steps.


  5. Click on Import Classes and follow the same steps.

  6. Congratulations! Your data has been imported into Tes Parents' Meetings.

D. To Update Your Data in the Future

If you ever need to update students, parents, teachers or classes, simply re-run the appropriate report in SIMS and then re-import the file to Tes Parents' Meetings. If only your classes have changed, you only need to Import Classes. If, for example, a new student has joined, you need to first import the new file file via Import Students, followed by Import Parents, followed by Import Classes.