diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java
index a5fedaf84..34030b795 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java
@@ -525,7 +525,7 @@ private List<Trait> verifyTraits(UUID programId, List<Column<?>> phenotypeCols,
                                                          .map(TraitEntity::getObservationVariableName)
                                                          .collect(Collectors.toSet());
             List<String> differences = varNames.stream()
-                                               .filter(var -> !returnedVarNames.contains(var))
+                                               .filter(var -> !Utilities.containsCaseInsensitive(var, returnedVarNames))
                                                .collect(Collectors.toList());
             //TODO convert this to a ValidationError
             throw new HttpStatusException(HttpStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY,
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java
index 35fceddb3..54a1afe06 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
 import io.micronaut.context.annotation.Prototype;
 import io.micronaut.http.HttpStatus;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.brapi.v2.model.pheno.BrAPIObservation;
 import org.breedinginsight.api.model.v1.response.ValidationError;
 import org.breedinginsight.brapi.v2.constants.BrAPIAdditionalInfoFields;
@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ private boolean isValueMatched() {
     }
 
     private boolean isTimestampMatched() {
-        if (timestamp == null) {
+        if (StringUtils.isBlank(timestamp)) {
             return observation.getObservationTimeStamp() == null;
         } else {
             return observationService.parseDateTime(timestamp).equals(observation.getObservationTimeStamp());
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java
index 0013f0458..6863cd561 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java
@@ -265,7 +265,9 @@ public AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext process(AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext
                         BrAPIObservation observation = gson.fromJson(gson.toJson(observationByObsHash.get(observationHash)), BrAPIObservation.class);
 
                         // Is there a change to the prior data?
-                        if ((!cellData.isBlank() && !cellData.equals(observation.getValue())) || (cell.timestamp != null && !observationService.parseDateTime(cell.timestamp).equals(observation.getObservationTimeStamp()))) {
+                        if (
+                                isChanged(cellData, observation, cell.timestamp)
+                        ) {
 
                             // Is prior data protected?
                             /**
@@ -380,4 +382,14 @@ public AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext process(AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext
             return this.compensate(context);
         }
     }
+
+    private boolean isChanged(String cellData, BrAPIObservation observation, String newTimestamp) {
+        if (!cellData.isBlank() && !cellData.equals(observation.getValue())){
+            return true;
+        }
+        if (StringUtils.isBlank(newTimestamp)) {
+            return (observation.getObservationTimeStamp()!=null);
+        }
+        return !observationService.parseDateTime(newTimestamp).equals(observation.getObservationTimeStamp());
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java
index d12ff2509..af143863b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import org.breedinginsight.model.Trait;
 import org.breedinginsight.services.OntologyService;
 import org.breedinginsight.services.exceptions.DoesNotExistException;
+import org.breedinginsight.utilities.Utilities;
 import tech.tablesaw.columns.Column;
 
 import javax.inject.Inject;
@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@ public List<Trait> verifyTraits(UUID programId, DynamicColumnParseResult cols) {
                     .map(TraitEntity::getObservationVariableName)
                     .collect(Collectors.toSet());
             List<String> differences = varNames.stream()
-                    .filter(var -> !returnedVarNames.contains(var))
+                    .filter(var -> !Utilities.containsCaseInsensitive(var, returnedVarNames))
                     .collect(Collectors.toList());
             //TODO convert this to a ValidationError
             throw new HttpStatusException(HttpStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY,
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java
index 92b46623e..20f3254d6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java
@@ -27,10 +27,7 @@
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.sql.ResultSet;
 import java.sql.Statement;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Optional;
-import java.util.UUID;
+import java.util.*;
 import java.util.function.Function;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
@@ -48,10 +45,10 @@ public static <T> Optional<T> findInList(List<T> checkList, T objectToCheck, Fun
      * Case insensitive search for string in string list
      *
      * @param target - string to search for
-     * @param list - list of strings to search in
+     * @param list - collection of strings to search in
      * @return true if case insensitive match, false otherwise
      */
-    public static boolean containsCaseInsensitive(String target, List<String> list){
+    public static boolean containsCaseInsensitive(String target, Collection<String> list){
         return list.stream().anyMatch(x -> x.equalsIgnoreCase(target));
     }