# Importing answers from past questionnaires

**Category:** [RFP Responses](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/rfp-responses)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

## Start with what you have already answered

Most teams arriving here have a folder of completed questionnaires. That folder is already your answer library — it is just not in a database yet. Go to **Answering → Answer library → Import past answers** and upload one.

We read the file, find the questions and the answers you gave, and show you what would be imported before anything is written.
### What it can read

Excel and Word. The file needs a question column and an answer column you filled in — a blank questionnaire has nothing to harvest, and belongs in the normal upload flow on a response instead.

PDFs are refused here on purpose. Text pulled out of a PDF has no columns, so which run of text is the question and which is the answer would be a guess, and a wrong guess pollutes your library rather than a single response. If you have the Excel or Word original, import that.
### What gets skipped

- Questions you never answered.
- Placeholders — *N/A*, *TBD*, *See above*, a bare *Yes*, a tick, a score.
- Cells holding a pasted policy document rather than an answer to one question.
- Anything already in your library. The preview shows the count that matters: how many are **new**, not how many were found.

Numbering is ignored when comparing, so "3.1 Describe your uptime SLA" and "Describe your uptime SLA" are recognised as the same question two buyers asked.
### Imported answers wait for review

This is the important part. Imported answers arrive **unapproved** and nothing reuses them until a person approves them.

An answer that went to a buyer two years ago was true two years ago. Certifications lapse, SLAs change, sub-processors get dropped. If importing put those answers straight into a live library, the first thing this app would do for you is quietly assert a lapsed certification to your next buyer — which is precisely what the rest of the app is built to avoid.
### Reviewing them

Go to **Answer library → imported answers to review**. Select the ones that are still true and approve them in bulk; discard the rest. Approved answers become available for reuse immediately. It is worth doing this in one sitting per file, while the context of that questionnaire is fresh.

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## Related Articles

- [Limits, plans, and boosters](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-limits)
- [Exporting your answers](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-export)
- [Where answers come from](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-drafting)
- [The answer library](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-answer-library)
- [Knowledge sources](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-knowledge-sources)

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