The Problem
Event managers and community leads waste hours manually typing attendee phone numbers from spreadsheet forms into phones, leading to formatting errors and delayed communication.
The Solution
SyncBatch parses Excel and CSV files client-side, maps custom column headers, cleans phone formatting, and exports ready-to-import VCF files or syncs directly via Google People API.
Research
Studying real event operations showed that inconsistent phone formatting (+91 codes, leading zeros, stray spaces) caused 90% of import failures. The parser needed smart sanitization defaults.
Design
A single-screen workflow: upload, map columns, preview cleaned records, and export. Simple, responsive, and immediate.
Development
Built with Next.js and TypeScript. All CSV parsing runs in the browser for privacy, ensuring contact data stays on the user device unless syncing through Google OAuth.
Challenges
Handling edge-case phone number formatting across different country standards and Excel auto-format truncations required building custom regex normalization logic.
Outcome
Reduced contact list processing time from 2 hours to 2 minutes for event organizers across communities in Kerala.
Lessons
Solving a specific daily bottleneck completely creates more long-term utility than building feature-heavy platforms.