The Import button on the Deals page opens MCA Pilot's bulk importer in a new tab, already connected to your workspace. Upload the lead sheet your provider sent you — CSV or Excel, in whatever format it came — and MCA Pilot creates a deal and owner for every row. AI figures out which column is which, so there's no template to match.
Nothing is created until you confirm on the review screen, so you can walk through the whole flow safely.
This imports new deals. To change deals that already exist, use the Update button instead — see How to Bulk Update Deals via CSV.
Step 1 — Upload your lead sheet
Go to Deals, click Import, and drop your spreadsheet in the Lead sheet box. CSV and Excel (.csv, .xlsx, .xls) are accepted, up to 1,000 leads per import. The importer detects the header row automatically — if your sheet has cover rows above the headers, you can pick the right row from the dropdown.
Have the merchants' documents too — bank statements, applications, licenses? Add the package zip (or pull it straight from Google Drive) in the same import and each lead's files attach to its deal automatically. See Attach Documents to Imported Leads (Zip or Google Drive).
Step 2 — Confirm the column mapping
The importer maps your columns onto MCA Pilot fields for you. Each column gets a status: Matched (a confident match), AI suggestion (the AI's best guess — click Confirm to accept, or Confirm all to accept them all), or Ignored (won't import). Sample values from your sheet are shown next to every column so you can sanity-check each mapping at a glance.
A few things to know:
Business name is the only required field. Everything else is optional.
Unmapped columns are never silently dropped — they're listed as Ignored so you can see exactly what's excluded.
To change a mapping, just pick a different field from the dropdown.
Import from the same provider regularly? Check Save this mapping for next time — the next sheet with the same columns maps itself.
Step 3 — Match files to leads (packages only)
If you attached a package, the importer pairs each folder of documents with its lead — exact name matches automatically, close ones with AI assistance you approve. No package? This step is skipped. Full details in Attach Documents to Imported Leads.
Step 4 — Choose status, assignment & lead source
On the Options step, pick the deal status — Lead (nothing has been worked yet, the default for a bought package) or New application (the merchant already applied) — and choose who the deals go to. Deals are assigned round-robin in row order across everyone you pick, so a package splits evenly across your team. If your sheet has an Originator column naming specific reps, those reps win for their rows and round-robin fills the rest.
This is also where you attribute the import to a lead source: pick the provider the package came from, and the import is tracked as its own batch under that source (or added to a batch you already track) — so every deal, and your per-batch lead ROI numbers, know where the leads came from. It's optional, and the card only appears once your workspace has lead sources. Full details in Import Deals with Lead Source Attribution.
Step 5 — Review and run
The review screen is the last stop before anything is written: how many deals will be created, how many have files, and the settings that will apply. When it looks right, click Create N deals.
If auto-underwriting is on in your workspace, a banner reminds you that imported leads with bank statements will be underwritten automatically — AI spend plus a notification email per deal. That's usually exactly what you want for a real import; turn it off in workspace settings first if you're just testing.
Step 6 — Track progress and download your results
Each lead shows its live status as the import runs. You don't need to watch it — you can close the tab and the import keeps running.
When it finishes, download the results CSV — one row per lead with the deal link, assigned rep, status, how many files attached, how many bank statements were found, and the lead source.
The results CSV includes a file upload link for every lead. Send a lead's link to the merchant or your rep and any documents they add land on the right deal — no logins, no manual filing.
Fields filled in automatically from the application
If a lead's package contains its application PDF, the importer reads it and fills in fields your sheet left blank — EIN, address, start date, ownership details, and more. Filled fields are listed in a note on the deal ("Auto-filled from application scan") so you always know where a value came from. It's on by default; there's nothing to configure.
What can't be imported
The importer creates deals, owners, and their documents. The following still need to be added in MCA Pilot afterward:
Submissions to funders
Offers and approvals
Funding details and advances — see How to Add Previous Funded Deals
Lead sources must already exist in MCA Pilot — the importer's lead-source picker chooses from your existing sources but doesn't create new ones. See Import Deals with Lead Source Attribution.
Troubleshooting
"That file has no readable rows" — the file isn't a readable spreadsheet. Re-export it as .csv or .xlsx and try again.
"N sheet rows have no business name and will be skipped" — those rows are missing the one required field. Fill in the business name on the sheet, or check that the right column is mapped to Business name.
A field mapped to the wrong place — fix it on the Map columns step before continuing; the sample values column makes mistakes easy to spot. Already imported? Use Bulk Update to correct fields across many deals at once.
More than 1,000 leads? Split the sheet and run multiple imports.
Prefer to skip spreadsheets entirely? You can also create single deals from application PDFs, or have leads emailed straight into MCA Pilot — see Email Leads Straight into MCA Pilot.