diff --git a/ena_upload/ena_upload.py b/ena_upload/ena_upload.py
index 556b1b6..53bf46c 100755
--- a/ena_upload/ena_upload.py
+++ b/ena_upload/ena_upload.py
@@ -804,7 +804,12 @@ def main():
         schema_tables = {}
 
         for schema in SCHEMA_TYPES:
-            xl_sheet = xl_workbook.parse(schema, header=0)
+            if schema in xl_workbook.book.sheetnames:
+                xl_sheet = xl_workbook.parse(schema, header=0)
+            elif f"ENA_{schema}" in xl_workbook.book.sheetnames:
+                xl_sheet = xl_workbook.parse(f"ENA_{schema}", header=0)
+            else:
+                sys.exit(f"The sheet '{schema}' is not present in the excel sheet {xlsx}")
             xl_sheet = xl_sheet.drop(0).dropna(how='all')
             for column_name in list(xl_sheet.columns.values):
                 if 'date' in column_name: