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Save a spreadsheet as CSV UTF-8

Updated 2026-11-02

Zovos reads every CSV file as UTF-8 text. UTF-8 is the encoding that keeps accented names, curly quotation marks and symbols such as the euro sign exactly as you typed them. A CSV saved in an older encoding stores those characters in a way Zovos cannot read safely, and a name such as José would be stored garbled in your compliance records. So Zovos refuses the whole file instead. Nothing from it is imported, and the message names the row and column of the first character it could not read.

The fix is to save the file again as CSV UTF-8 and import it again. The steps below cover the spreadsheet tools most teams use. If your import takes an Excel workbook, you can skip the conversion and upload the .xlsx file as it is. The list of those imports is at the end of this page.

  1. Open the file in Excel.
  2. Choose File, then Save As, then Browse.
  3. In the Save as type list, choose **CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv)**.
  4. Choose Save. If Excel warns that some features may be lost, choose Yes to keep the CSV format.

The type named CSV (Comma delimited), without UTF-8 in its name, saves in an older encoding. Use the one that says UTF-8.

  1. Open the file in Excel.
  2. Choose File, then Save As.
  3. In the File Format list, choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv).
  4. Choose Save.

As on Windows, the plain Comma Separated Values (.csv) format is not UTF-8.

  1. Open the sheet.
  2. Choose File, then Download, then Comma Separated Values (.csv).

Google Sheets always writes a CSV download as UTF-8, so there is nothing else to set. It downloads the sheet you have open, so switch to the right tab first.

  1. Open the spreadsheet in Numbers.
  2. Choose File, then Export To, then CSV.
  3. Open Advanced Options and check that Text Encoding is set to Unicode (UTF-8).
  4. Choose Save.

A file that holds only plain letters, digits and punctuation reads the same in every encoding, so the problem shows up only once a name or a note has an accent or a special character. These are the signs.

  • Zovos refused the import. The message says the file is not UTF-8 and names the row and column of the first character it could not read. Look at that cell first.
  • Accented names look garbled. José shows as Jos� with a question mark in a diamond, or as José in another program. The same happens to curly quotation marks that Word or Outlook added to copied text.
  • The file came from another system. Exports from older core, HR and learning systems often use an older encoding. Open the export in Excel or Google Sheets and save it again as CSV UTF-8.

If a name already looks garbled when you open the file in your spreadsheet tool, fix the name there before you save. Saving as UTF-8 keeps the text exactly as it appears, so it does not repair a character that was already damaged.

Every Zovos import that accepts a CSV file also accepts an Excel workbook (.xlsx), so you can upload the workbook without converting it. Zovos reads the first worksheet, and the import wizard in your AI assistant lets you pick the sheet. Zovos reads the values Excel saved and never runs a formula. Save a macro-enabled workbook (.xlsm) or an older .xls file as .xlsx first.

  • Core registers. Risks, vendors, controls, policies, findings and information systems each have an Import button that takes a CSV or an .xlsx file.
  • Programs. Complaints, loss events, training completions, the training roster, loans for credit risk review, and the accounts and staff roster of an access review all take either format.
  • Monitoring and oversight. Model monitoring metric values, partner program AML metrics and the AML oversight metrics sheet take either format.
  • Third-party risk and audit. Vendor reconciliation, questionnaire templates and co-source audit workpapers take either format.
  • The import wizard. The wizard in your AI assistant takes a .csv or an .xlsx file for every register it lists, as described in Onboarding your institution.