Reviewing, editing, and confirming an import

Once your import finishes reading your files, it reaches review, and this is where the real work happens. Nothing is created on Creatures until you confirm here, and you can fix everything first. You arrive automatically when the import is ready, or you open it from the Import hub at /dashboard/import/review.

What the review table shows

Each row is a draft: one animal (or, in the records mode below, one record) that Creatures pulled from your files and mapped onto Creatures' own fields, ready for you to check. Every draft is in one of two states:

• Will import: the row is set to be created when you confirm. This is the default for a clean row.
• Skipped: you set the row aside so it will not be created. Use it for anything you do not want.

A tally across the header counts how many rows need review, meaning they have a blocking issue you must resolve before they can import. Frame the whole screen this way: you are confirming Creatures read each animal correctly, fixing what it did not, and skipping anything you do not want.

The fields you can edit on each row

Open a row's drawer to edit it. These are the fields you will actually touch, with what each value means:

• Name (2 to 64 characters, needed to create): the animal's call name. If you leave it blank, at confirm it is auto filled "Animal 1", "Animal 2", and so on, so a row never silently fails for a missing name. Still, fill in real names.
• Registered name (optional): the official name on registry paperwork, separate from the call name. This field appears on the row only when Creatures read a registered name from your file, and it sits right beside the call name so you can confirm the two are correct.
• Species (required): pick from Creatures' species list. If Creatures could not match the species word in your file, the row is marked "need review" until you choose one. Changing the species clears the breed, because breeds differ by species.
• Breed (optional): the breed within the species. The breed label fills in automatically once you pick. If your breed word was not recognized, you choose it here.
• Sex: one of male, female, or unknown. If it is blank or unrecognized at confirm, it defaults to unknown rather than blocking the row. Set it correctly when you know it.
• Date of birth (optional, written as YYYY-MM-DD): a past date within the last 200 years, no future dates. You can instead enter an age in whole years (0 to 60) and Creatures works with that.
• Color (optional): a color from the breed's palette, or free text. An unrecognized color is a non blocking flag, so the row still imports as is.
• Registrations (optional): one or more sets of registry, registration number, and registered name. Pick the registry from the known list so the number links to "all animals from registry X" later instead of becoming plain text. When you confirm, a registration or pedigree number Creatures read from one of your uploaded documents is saved as a real registration record on the animal, backed by that document, not just a loose text field. If the animal already has that exact registration, the import backs it up with your new document instead of adding a duplicate. For the standalone version, see Care, growth, and identity records.
• Tag number (optional): an ear tag, collar ID, or other short identifier. It is also used for matching in the records mode below. Microchips, EIDs, tattoos, brands, and DNA profiles come in as their own identifiers, reviewed in the Identification table covered later.
• Sire and dam (optional): the parents, plus grandparents and deeper ancestors when your file has them. Creatures works out what each ancestor should link to and shows you a small resolution control for every one, walked through in Resolving each ancestor on the pedigree below. A parent it cannot find becomes a lineage only reference profile: a public, ownership free ancestor record that lets the pedigree connect without claiming you own that animal. See How to create a reference animal profile.
• Photos: the first photo becomes the main picture and the rest form the gallery. Add them per row by uploading (up to 8 MB each, JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF) or by pasting an image URL.
• Records on the animal (optional): health and care history Creatures found (vaccine, medication, examination, reproductive, note, breeding, injury, or other) that will be created together with the animal, including registration and pedigree records. See Care, growth, and identity records.
• Optional flags and custom fields: mark a row deceased (with a date of death), sterilized, or make private, and add free form custom fields for anything Creatures has no native slot for.

Reading the "need review" count

Rows with a blocking problem (no species chosen, a parent that still needs you to resolve it, or a flagged duplicate) are marked "need review" and cannot import until you fix them. Non blocking flags, such as an unrecognized color, let the row import as is. Treat the "need review" count as your to do list before confirming.

Resolving each ancestor on the pedigree

When your file includes a pedigree, Creatures does more than copy the ancestor names across. For every slot on the chart (sire, dam, and their sires and dams in turn) it works out what that ancestor should connect to and shows you a small resolution control, so the lineage links to the animals you really have instead of creating loose duplicates.

Each ancestor lands in one of these states, and you can select change on any of them to pick a different one:

• Already on Creatures: the ancestor matches an animal you own or an existing reference profile, and the pedigree links straight to it. Nothing new is created.
• Will link to another chart row: the same animal appears elsewhere in this import, so both rows resolve to one animal rather than two.
• Will create new reference: Creatures found no match, so it creates a lineage only reference profile for that ancestor when you confirm. See How to create a reference animal profile.
• Needs your confirmation: there are close matches but none is certain. Creatures shows the candidates with a photo, breed, and why each was suggested, and you either Link this animal to the right one or Create new reference for a fresh ancestor. This one never resolves on its own, because linking to the wrong animal would join two pedigrees incorrectly.

The result is a pedigree that connects to the animals you actually have, with clean reference profiles filling the gaps. For how that lineage then reads on each animal, see Pedigree, family, and lineage.

Identification: microchips, tags, and their privacy

If your files carry identifiers, a microchip, EID, tattoo, ear tag, brand, or DNA profile, Creatures pulls them onto the right animal and lists them in an Identification table inside the row so you can check each one before it is saved.

Every row of that table has four columns:

• Type: what the identifier is (microchip, EID, tattoo, ear tag, brand, or DNA profile). Change it if Creatures guessed wrong.
• Value: the number or code itself, editable inline.
• Privacy: Public or Private, set per identifier. Public identifiers show on the animal's profile; private ones stay visible only to you and your team. A microchip is often something you would rather keep private, so this is a deliberate choice on each one.
• Validation: a quick Ready, or a note when a value does not look right (for example a microchip of the wrong length), so you can correct it before it is saved.

Because identifier privacy is a per-identifier choice, there is also a one-click way to lock them all down at once, covered next.

Fixing many rows at once

Above the table, Bulk apply to visible rows opens a panel that applies a single change to every row currently shown (already-imported rows are never touched). Narrow the rows with the filters first, then apply:

• Species and Breed: set them across a batch that arrived without them (changing species clears each row's breed, since breeds differ by species).
• Registry: stamp the same registry onto the first registration of every row that has one.
• Make all private: the identifier privacy shortcut. One click flips every identifier on the visible rows to Private at once, so you do not have to open each row to hide a microchip or tag. Rows without identifiers are simply skipped.

This is the fast way to correct a whole import that came in with the wrong species, a missing breed, or identifiers you would rather keep private, without editing rows one at a time.

Catching duplicates, so you do not add an animal twice

While you review in "Add new animals" mode, if a draft looks like an animal already on Creatures (the same name and the same birth date), the row shows a duplicate marker and is held until you decide. The marker names the match and tells you what it is, a full animal or a lineage-only reference profile, and, when the match is not your own, who manages it (for example "managed by Jordan Lee"), so you can tell a real duplicate of your animal from a same-named one that belongs to someone else. Your choice is simple: import it anyway (you really do have a separate animal), or skip it.

Adding records to existing animals (the bulk way)

If you chose "Add records to existing animals" back on the upload screen, this is the bulk way to attach records to animals you already have, with Creatures matching each record to the right animal across all of your animals at once. (To add a single record to one animal from one document instead, that is a different tool: see Importing records.)

Here is how each record is matched, from most to least certain:

• Attached automatically when it matches by a strong, unique identifier: a registration number, a tag number, or a microchip. These cannot be confused between animals, so Creatures links them for you.
• Flagged for your confirmation when it matches only by name, species, and birth date. Creatures never attaches these on its own, because two animals can share a name. You pick the right animal from the suggested candidates, or skip the record.
• Reported as unmatched when nothing matches. You can skip it, or choose to create a new animal for it instead.
• Flagged as out of scope when you limited matching to a group or a set of animals and a record matches something outside that scope. You confirm or skip it.

The takeaway: identifiers attach silently, names always ask first, and nothing wrong attaches without you saying so.

When an import disagrees with an animal you already have

Whenever an import touches an animal you already own, whether you are appending records or a pedigree links back to one of your animals, a document might assert a different color, date of birth, or sex than what is on that animal. Creatures never quietly overwrites your animal in that case:

• If the imported fact matches what you already have, Creatures backs your existing value up with the source document, so your record gains supporting evidence without changing.
• If the imported fact differs, Creatures keeps your current value exactly as it is and records the disagreement as an imported fact that needs review, instead of editing your animal. After you confirm, the summary tells you how many imported details differed, and they wait for you in Import Conflicts on your dashboard. You review each one there with the document in hand and decide for yourself whether to update the animal, walked through in Reviewing import conflicts below.

It is the same principle that runs through the whole importer: nothing about an animal you own changes without your say-so.

Choosing where the animals land

Before you can confirm, an "Add to:" selector makes you pick a destination explicitly:

• My personal profile: the animals are owned by you personally.
• An organization you manage: the animals belong to that business or farm account instead. Any organization you manage appears in the list.

This selector lives here on the review screen, not on the upload screen, so you choose after seeing exactly what you are importing. You must make a choice on the first pass before the import will run. If you are weighing shared or organization owned animals, How to add co-owners to an animal profile explains that side.

Dropping the batch into a group

You can add the whole batch to an existing animal group (a herd, flock, or pen) during the import. Type to search your groups and pick one. This is a batch level choice, so all of the new animals join that one group, not a per row setting. See Create and manage animal groups. If you want the animals split across several groups, sort them after the import or run separate imports.

Confirming, and what actually gets created

When you confirm, Creatures creates these from your approved rows: the new animal profiles (each owned by you, in the destination and group you chose), their photos, their records (including registration and pedigree records backed by the documents they came from), their identifiers, their pedigree links (including any reference profiles for parents it could not find), and any suggested groups you accepted. In the records mode, it instead attaches the records to the matched animals and reports how many attached, were skipped as duplicates, or stayed unmatched. The screen shows you the counts (created, reused, failed, and skipped).

Anything you marked "skipped" stays as a draft, so you can come back and import it later. That means you can finish a big import in passes rather than all at once. The end result is that your animals are now on Creatures exactly as you reviewed them.

Reviewing import conflicts

The disagreement rule above holds each differing detail aside instead of overwriting your animal, and those held details collect in one queue: Import Conflicts on your dashboard, at /dashboard/import-conflicts. Its tab in the dashboard sidebar carries a count badge of how many are waiting, and when an import produces conflicts the confirmation message links you straight here.

How you land here

When you confirm an import, the success message tallies what happened. If any imported detail differed from an animal you already have, it adds a line like "3 imported details differed from existing records. Review 3 in the dashboard," along with a Review conflicts button that opens this queue for that import. You can also open it any time from the Import Conflicts tab. When there is nothing to resolve, the screen simply reads All imports are clear.

How conflicts are grouped

Every conflict is filed under the animal it concerns, so you settle one animal at a time. Each animal card carries a Needs review marker and a Profile link to open the animal, and it splits that animal's conflicts into two sections:

• Registry records: an imported registration record that differs from the one currently active on that animal for the same registry. You see the current registration number or name beside the imported one.
• Profile details: an imported color, date of birth, or sex that differs from what is on the animal's profile. You see the current value beside the imported one.

Where a source document sits behind a conflict, a link to that file appears under the two values, so you can check the paperwork before you choose.

Your choices on each conflict

Nothing changes until you act, and each conflict offers the choices that make sense for it:

• Accept imported: apply the imported value. For a profile detail, Creatures updates that one field on the animal, but only if you have not already changed it yourself since the import. If the animal's value moved in the meantime, Creatures tells you it changed and leaves it alone rather than overwriting your newer edit. For a registry record, it makes the imported record the active one and supersedes the record it replaces, keeping the old one in the animal's history rather than deleting it.
• Keep existing: reject the imported value and leave the animal exactly as it is. The conflict closes with no change.
• Dismiss (profile details only): hide the conflict from your queue without touching the animal, for a difference you have looked at and do not need to act on. Registry records show only Accept imported and Keep existing, since a registration is either the active one or it is not.

Each action shows a short confirmation at the top of the queue (imported value accepted, existing value kept, or conflict dismissed), and the count badge falls as you clear them. Because these decisions are part of the import, they are covered by the same 72-hour undo as everything else it created, described next.

Changed your mind? The 72-hour undo

For 72 hours after you confirm, an "Undo Import" option reverses what the import created. It deletes the animals it added, the records it sourced, and the pedigree links it made, and it withdraws any pending pedigree suggestions. A few safety rails are worth knowing:

• The window is rolling. Each time you confirm more rows from the same import, the 72 hours resets from that confirm, so finishing in passes keeps extending your undo window to cover the whole set.
• An animal you edited after importing (say you added a parent claim) is left in place, not deleted, and reported as skipped from the undo, so your later work is never destroyed.
• Records and edits you added by hand after the import are not removed either. Only what the import itself created is reversed.
• Conflict decisions come back too. Any imported color, birth date, sex, or registration you accepted in Import Conflicts for this import is reversed along with it, as long as you have not changed that value again since. Conflicts you kept or dismissed made no change, so there is nothing there to reverse.
• After 72 hours the import is permanent. To remove animals then, you delete them individually.

So you can import freely: a fresh import is fully reversible for three days, minus anything you have changed since.

For the upload half of the flow, see Importing your animals. If your animals live in Evans Software Solutions software, use Importing from Rabbit15, Cavy15, Goat15, and Poultry15.

Related information

• Importing your animals (bring them all in)
• Importing from Rabbit15, Cavy15, Goat15, and Poultry15 (the winrbro import)
• Add an animal by importing its pedigree

Updated on: 07/07/2026