Q: Our counselors don't have specific student groups assigned in Blackbaud. Can we mass-import a custom list of "counselors” (teachers), as well as class-teacher and class-student associations into pickAtime?


Yes, you can achieve this by using the pickAtime Importer to bypass the standard Blackbaud SKY API sync. This allows you to manually define counselor-student relationships.

Step 1: Adjust Your Settings

To allow manual imports while using Blackbaud, you must first disable the automated sync:

  • Navigate to Global Setup / Business.
  • In the Single Sign On section, uncheck the box labeled "Use SKY API Importer".


Step 2: Prepare Your Data Files

You will need to create and import three Tab-delimited text file (*.txt or *.tsv):

File Type

Requirement

Key Instruction

Teacher file

List of Counselors

Use their BlackbaudID as the TeacherID.

Class file

"Counselor Classes"

Create a unique ClassID (e.g., smith_counselor) and ClassName (e.g. Counselor John Smith) for each counselor. 

Enrollment file

Student Rosters

Use the ClassID from Step 2 and the StudentID from Blackbaud to link them.


Step 3: Run the Import

  1. Go to the Importer page.
  2. Set Data Type to "School".
  3. Select your specific event from the Event dropdown.
  4. Upload the files one by one in this order: Teacher → Class → Enrollment.
  5. Click Select File and Import for each.


Step 4: Verification

Once the imports are complete, open your event in the Admin UI and navigate to the Class Editor. Here, you can verify that the counselors are correctly linked to their assigned students.

Note: Because you are unchecking the "Use SKY API Importer" box, ensure that any other automated data syncs you rely on won't be negatively impacted during this manual process. Once you complete the import of the data files, you can activate the ‘Use SKY API Importer’ again.