{"id":2518,"date":"2026-04-28T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firetext.wpengine.com\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:23:01","slug":"how-to-format-mobile-phone-numbers-in-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firetext.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-format-mobile-phone-numbers-in-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Format Mobile Phone Numbers in Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This guide will walk you through how to format mobile phone numbers in Excel so they upload cleanly to your SMS platform. No scientific notation and no rejected rows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short: you select the column containing your numbers, right-click and choose Format Cells, then select Number and set decimal places to 0. That stops Excel from converting long numbers into scientific notation (the E+10 or E+11 you’ve probably seen) and keeps them intact when you save as CSV. For international numbers, you’ll also need to add the country code using the CONCATENATE formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three-step guide below walks you through the whole process to excel-lently format your phone numbers – from cleaning your data, to placing it in the right columns, to formatting the numbers so they’re ready for upload. There’s also a section at the end for anyone sending to international numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Clear out the data you don\u2019t need<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, remove anything from your spreadsheet that you don\u2019t want to be uploaded into the FireText platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re doing this, be sure to actually \u2018delete\u2019 columns instead of simply hiding them (to delete, right click the whole column > press ‘delete’). And if you’re removing unnecessary information ready to upload to FireText, always keep a backup file of all your data!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 2: Place your data in the columns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You have the option to upload your recipients’ name, number and 3 custom fields to personalise your messages<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can pick and choose from these options which data you would like to upload, but obviously mobile numbers are essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you only want to upload numbers, that\u2019s absolutely fine. Just like the example below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 3: Format your phone numbers correctly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When saving an Excel document as a CSV file, it will save it exactly how it looks (or, as we like to say, ‘save what you see’).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Excel is great with numbers, when it comes to phone numbers it tends to struggle and will often shorten it – so you may see an E+10 or E+11 at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because this is how the CSV will save it, the FireText platform is clever enough to detect that these numbers aren’t correct – preventing you from uploading them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So you need to ensure that the numbers are formatted correctly. To do this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n