Import from CSV - Recursos - principales preguntas

Importing customers from a CSV file

At CRM -> Customers -> Import from CSV it is possible to upload many customers' information at once.

Jump to:

Demo video: Importing data.
Importing new customers.
Example customers import table and file.
Updating existing customers.
Important notes.

What is CSV? CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a universal format for importing or exporting tabular data. A CSV file can be obtained by saving/exporting e.g. an Excel file as CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv).

When uploading the CSV file:

Select and match the names of the fields corresponding to the columns in the data.
Check the "The first row is heading" option if the first row of the file contains headers. Then the first row will not be imported.
Select "Do not import" as the column type if some column is not to be imported.
Click Import to upload the data into the appropriate fields of the database.
If the importing of some data failed, a skip file will be generated and downloaded to your computer, which indicates all errors line-by-line.

Importing new customers

When uploading customers, the fields that can be used are:

Company name*	Required. The name of the customer company.
Number	A unique code to identify the customer. If not imported, the code will be generated automatically.
Status	The status of the customer (plain text). Customer statuses are saved at Settings -> System Settings -> Customer Statuses. If the status does not exist it will be created.
Contact started	Date when the contact was started.
Next contact	Date and time for the next contact.
Trade credit limit	The credit limit for the customer.
Account manager	Your customer account manager.
Registration number
Tax/VAT number
Tax rate	The default tax rate for the customer.
Pricelist number
Pricelist name
Default discount	Default discount for the customer.
Payment period	Default payment period in days.
Payment period type	0 - after the invoice date, 10 - after the end of the invoice month.
Phone
Phone 2
Fax
Skype
E-mail
Web
Free-text address
Free-text address line2
Free-text shipping address
Address and Shipping Address	Structured address fields. Possible columns: First line of address* City* Country* First name Last name Company name Second line of address State Postal code Phone number * If present, then the columns "First line of address", "City", and "Country" are required.
Additional information	Free text notes.
Contact person's name
Contact person's position
Contact person's phone
Contact person's fax
Contact person's Skype
Contact person's e-mail
Custom fields	Any custom field defined for customers.

Example customers import table:

Number	Name	Status	VAT nr	Phone	Phone 2	E-mail	Address	Shipping address	Contact person	...
CU-012	Customer 1	Permanent		Primary phone	Secondary phone	info@ABC	Primary address		John Smith	...
	Customer 2	New	12345	Primary phone	Secondary phone	info@XYZ	Billing address	Shipping address	Jane Smith	...
(Up to 3000 lines can be imported at once)

Download a sample file: import-customers.csv

Re-importing data for updating customers

It is possible to update existing customers from a CSV file, at CRM -> Customers -> Import from CSV. (Alternatively, the bulk editing can be used at CRM -> Customers table.)

The Number field is used for matching the customers. If a customer with the same number already exists, then software updates this customer. If there are new values that will be updated, then:

A confirmation page is shown with a list of values that will be changed.
The user can choose whether to update a particular customer or skip it.

The following fields can be used:

Number*	A unique number to identify the customer. Required. Used for matching the customers.
Company name	The name of the customer company.
Status	The status of the customer (plain text). Customer statuses are saved at Settings -> System Settings -> Customer Statuses. If the status does not exist it will be created.
Contact started	Date when the contact was started.
Next contact	Date and time for the next contact.
Account manager	Your customer account manager.
Registration number
Tax/VAT number
Tax rate	The default tax rate for the customer.
Default discount	Default discount for the customer.
Payment period	Default payment period in days.
Payment period type	0 - after the invoice date, 10 - after the end of the invoice month.
Trade credit limit
Pricelist number

Important!

If the imported file contains non-Latin characters, the file must be in UTF-8 (preferred) or Unicode encoding. If Excel is used to save the file, select the "Unicode Text (*.txt)" option in the "Save as type" field. Even though the extension of the file is TXT, it can be imported as a CSV-file.
The limit is 3000 lines per upload. If the file is bigger, divide it into several smaller files.
Since importing can be a question of trial-and-error, we strongly suggest making a back-up of the database before importing. In that case, if anything goes wrong, it is always possible to restore the previous session.