The Badge Importer brings your access control data into Mapiq. With it, you can see who actually entered the building, not just who booked a desk. Pair the data with bookings and you get a fuller view of office traffic, including visitors, people who forgot to book, and buildings without desk booking. Because every access system writes its files in a different way, the importer uses AI to read your CSV for you. The imported data will be visualized in the Office attendance report to show you exactly who came to the office. No IT help is needed, and no custom set-up.
Where the Badge Importer lives
You'll find the importer in the Admin portal, under Insights > Data sources. The Data sources page lists every outside data feed linked to Mapiq, including a Badge access card.
The card shows the health of your badge data with one of three labels:
Healthy— recent data is loaded and ready to use.Outdated— your last import is getting stale; time to refresh.Inactive— no badge data has been imported yet.
From this card you start a new import, review past imports, or delete data you no longer want stored.
Uploading a badge file
Imports are done one building at a time. You upload a .csv file with a header row, currently that's the only format the importer accepts for now. Drag the file in, or pick it from the file picker.
Before processing starts, you pick a privacy level (see below). The importer then reads a sample of your CSV rows in your file on your own machine. It then uses an AI model to figure out the columns: timestamps, user IDs, entry or exit, and access status. No manual column mapping is needed. If anything fails to parse, the system tries again on its own.
💡 Until you confirm the import, nothing is stored in Mapiq. The file is read on your device first, so personal data does not leave your laptop unless you save the dataset.
Reviewing and saving
Once processing finishes, you'll see a preview. It shows the total records, the date range covered, and any warnings (for example, denied access events or rows skipped because of bad dates). You can compare the badge data against your desk bookings here to see how the two sources line up.
You can also download the dataset to check the output before you save. When you're happy, click Save dataset to finish the import. From that moment on, the dataset is stored in Mapiq and feeds your attendance reports. The source file is never stored.
Privacy levels
Picking a privacy level is the most important choice in the import flow. It sets what gets stored in Mapiq, what kind of analysis is possible later, and what cannot be done with the data. You can save your preferred level as the default, but you can still change it per upload. There are three levels to choose from.
Keep personal data
This is the most detailed option. It's built for when you need person-level analysis
What it stores
All fields from your file. That includes user IDs such as email address, badge ID, or employee number, plus any team or job fields that came along (department, job title, and so on).
What it enables
Person-level views: how often a given employee comes in, on which days, at which times.
The richest filters and segments across reports.
The strongest duplicate check within a file and across future uploads, because IDs can be matched.
What to keep in mind
This is the least privacy-friendly option. User IDs are stored in Mapiq. Use it only when person-level analysis is truly needed and your privacy policy allows it.
Keep department info
This is the middle option. It's built for group-level views without storing who the people were.
What it stores
Team or job fields such as department, team, or job title — whatever your file holds. User IDs (name, email, badge ID) are stripped before the data is saved.
What it enables
Group-level filters and reports: who's on site by team, by department, by role.
Compare groups (for example, which teams are most often on site).
A balanced trade-off between depth and privacy.
What it cannot do
Person-level views: there is no way to look at a single employee's pattern.
It cannot fully hide individuals through user IDs alone. Very small groups (fewer than 5 people) can still be inferred. Reports group these into an
Otherbucket to reduce that risk.
Fully anonymous
This is the strictest option. It's built for when you want the least data stored.
What it stores
Entry and exit counts only. No user IDs, no team or job fields — just how many people were present.
What it enables
Trend reports at the building level: average and peak headcount, weekday and hourly patterns.
A privacy-first footprint that's easy to defend to your works council, data protection officer, or staff.
What it cannot do
Any person-level or group-level breakdown. You cannot filter by team, role, or any other field.
Reliable duplicate checks. Because all IDs are removed, the importer cannot tell when the same person swiped twice in a file, or when the same person shows up across uploads. The same swipe events may be counted more than once if your files overlap in time.
Choosing between them
A simple way to think about the trade-off:
Pick
Keep personal datawhen person-level questions are the point of the import.Pick
Keep department infowhen team or department patterns matter, but single-person views do not.Pick
Fully anonymouswhen all you need is the headline trend and your goal is to store as little as you can.
Tracking your imports
Every import is logged in a table on the Badge access page. It shows the filename, who uploaded the data, the date, the privacy level used, and the status. You can download a past file to check its content, or delete it if you want to remove that data from Mapiq.
If you upload a file whose date range overlaps an earlier import, Mapiq will skip duplicates where it can — but only when the privacy level allows it (see the note on Fully anonymous above).
Behind the scenes
CSV is the only format for now — The file must have a header row. Files without one are not yet supported.
One building per file — Imports are scoped to a single building. A master file that mixes many locations cannot be split for you.
Local processing — The AI step runs on your own device. Nothing is stored in Mapiq's database until you click
Save dataset.What we store, what we don't — Only the dataset is stored. The source CSV is never saved in Mapiq.
Duplicate handling depends on the privacy level — The
Fully anonymousoption strips all IDs, which means duplicates cannot be detected across uploads. UseKeep personal dataorKeep department infoif exact duplicate checks matter.Imports power the Office attendance report — Once badge data is saved, the
Office attendancedeep dive report becomes available for that building.
💬 Need More Help?
If you'd like some extra assistance, reach out via the Messenger (question mark in the corner) and chat with our support team, or send us an email at [email protected].
We're always ready to help! 😉