Your spreadsheet already is a form definition: the column headers are your fields. Upload it, let AI draft the eCRF, cut over on one date and keep the spreadsheet as the record of what was collected before.
Free sandbox · No credit card · 21 CFR Part 11 aligned
Freeze and archive the spreadsheet
Read-only copy with a date and a checksum note
Upload the column headers
XLSX or CSV to a draft form; AI proposes fields
Review, add checks and logic
Ranges, required flags, skip logic
Test with sample participants
Free sandbox, nothing real entered
Cut over on one date
New entries only in the EDC
In brief
The trigger
Few teams plan to use Excel as a study database. They start with a small pilot, the sheet works, and the study grows: a second site arrives, someone overwrites a value, an ethics committee asks who changed a figure, or a sponsor wants an audit trail. By then the data is live and the switch is mid-study.
That is not a failure. It is the most common route into EDC for small teams, and the reason our Capture vs Excel page exists. A spreadsheet allows any value to be changed with no per-field record of who, when and why; access is usually all or nothing; and there are no edit checks, queries or visit schedules unless you build them yourself. If any of those matter to your study, the move is worth making, and the earlier the cheaper.
The principle is the same one that applies between EDCs: do not blend two systems for a single record. Draw a line in time, freeze the old data and start the new system cleanly.
The path
Save a read-only copy with the date and time, who held the file and which version was current. It becomes the legacy record and goes with your trial master file.
Make sure each column has one meaning, units are in the header and codes are consistent. Do not correct values retrospectively without recording why; corrections belong in the new system with an audit trail.
Open a draft form in Capture and upload the XLSX or CSV. The AI reads the uploaded sheet and drafts questions, choices and units for you to review. Nothing is saved until you approve it.
Set required fields, ranges that raise an auto-query, calculated fields and skip logic. Attach forms to visits so the schedule is enforced rather than remembered.
Use the free sandbox to run two or three dummy participants through each visit, including a deliberate out-of-range value and a signature. Nothing real is entered during testing.
Tell the team that from a named date, entries go only into the EDC. Give each role the right access and show sites how queries work.
Combine the archived spreadsheet with the Capture export using a variable map. Capture exports are wide-format CSV or Excel with an automatic data dictionary, so the merge is a mapping exercise.
Your sheet is the spec
The AI reads your uploaded file, in CSV, XLSX, PDF or DOCX, and drafts the questions, units and choice lists. For lab sheets it builds a table with analytes as rows and unit, result and reference range as columns. You then spend your time on checking, not typing.
Haematology
| Row | Code | Unit | Range | Stratum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haemoglobin | HGB | g/dL | 13.0-17.0 | Male 18-65 y |
| Haemoglobin | HGB | g/dL | 12.0-15.5 | Female 18-65 y |
| Platelets | PLAT | 10^9/L | 150-400 | All |
| ALT | ALT | U/L | 7-56 | All |
| Site QC flag | SITEQC | - | - | All |
Free sandbox, every feature, no credit card and no time limit. Nothing is saved until you approve it.
What changes
Mid-study realities
The question every team asks is whether the existing rows can be loaded. There is no direct spreadsheet import into Capture, and we would not recommend one for a regulated study: loaded rows would look as if they were entered on the load date, not when they were collected. The defensible approach is to keep the frozen spreadsheet as the record of the period before the cut-over and merge it at analysis with a documented variable map.
If participants are still being followed across the switch, decide per participant. A participant who completed all visits stays entirely in the spreadsheet. A participant with visits to come can be enrolled in Capture, with the earlier visits identified in your data management plan as collected on the spreadsheet. Record this decision in writing so a reviewer can follow it. For regulated studies, see how to switch EDC vendors mid-study, which applies the same logic.
Check consent as well. If the data is identifiable, make sure participants have been told where it is held. Capture's eConsent keeps signed consent in the same platform and audit trail. And for studies that began on paper rather than a spreadsheet, paper CRF to eCRF conversion covers that route.
Before you switch
Read-only, dated, with the person who held it recorded.
Spreadsheet column to Capture field, written before the first entry.
One date, communicated to all sites and staff.
Who sees identifiers, who enters, who reviews.
Ranges and required fields agreed with the investigator.
A short note in the data management plan on the switch and the merge.
What next
A spreadsheet costs nothing, so the first question is whether an EDC is affordable for a small study. Capture has no setup fee, no per-site fee and no per-seat licences, and you pay only once the study is live. For a worked formula, see EDC cost for a 100-patient trial, and for the market context the EDC software pricing guide.
For the next study, start in the EDC from day one. The sandbox is free, so you can build the forms before the protocol is final, and every amendment is made by your own team with no change order.
There is no direct import of spreadsheet data. You can upload the sheet to the AI form drafter, in CSV or XLSX, to draft the eCRF from its columns. Keep the old data as a frozen archive and merge it with the Capture export at analysis.
Freeze and archive the spreadsheet, draft the forms with AI from the sheet, test in the sandbox, then choose one cut-over date after which new entries go only into the EDC. Document the switch and merge the datasets at analysis.
Loaded rows would appear to have been entered on the load date, not when they were collected, which weakens the audit trail. Keeping the archived sheet and merging at analysis preserves each dataset's provenance.
A field-level audit trail, edit checks that raise auto-queries, role-based access, visit schedules, electronic signatures and exports with a data dictionary.
No. The sandbox is free with every feature, no credit card and no time limit. Capture has no setup fee, no per-site fee and no per-seat licences, and you pay only once the study is live with real participants.
For a small non-regulated project with one person entering data, it can be. See Capture vs Excel for when a spreadsheet is enough and when to move.
Keep exploring
Capture vs Excel
When a spreadsheet stops being enough.
Paper CRF to eCRF conversion
For studies that started on paper.
How to switch EDC vendors mid-study
The cut-over logic for live studies.
CRF builder for clinical trials
AI drafting, edit checks and calculators.
EDC cost for a 100-patient trial
A worked cost formula.
How to migrate from REDCap
The same path for REDCap projects.
Upload it to the free sandbox, review the draft and test before you cut over. No credit card, and you pay only once you go live.