Importing customers from a CSV file

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

Jump to:

  1. Demo video: Importing data.
  2. Importing new customers.
  3. Example customers import table and file.
  4. Updating existing customers.
  5. 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:

  1. Select and match the names of the fields corresponding to the columns in the data.
  2. 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.
  3. Select "Do not import" as the column type if some column is not to be imported.
  4. Click Import to upload the data into the appropriate fields of the database.
  5. 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:

  1. A confirmation page is shown with a list of values that will be changed.
  2. 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.
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