Importing your existing data

If you already keep your customers, stock or balances in a spreadsheet, the import wizard brings them in rather than making you retype them. It works the same way for every kind of data: download a template, fill it in, upload it, check what it found, then commit.

Before you start

Import in dependency order, or the later files will fail: accounts first, then customers and suppliers, then stock items, then opening balances.
Work on a copy of your spreadsheet, not the original.
Nothing is written until the last step, so an upload that looks wrong costs you nothing.

Import a file

Open System ManagerData Import.
Choose what you are importing.
Click Download CSV template and fill your data into it. Keep the heading row as it is.
Drag your file onto the upload box. CSV or Excel, up to 10 MB.
Click Next and check the column matching. The wizard guesses from your headings; correct anything it got wrong.
Click Next and read the review carefully — it shows how many rows will be created, how many updated, and which rows have problems.
If the problem count is not zero, download the error report, fix those rows in your file, and start again from the upload step.
When the review looks right, run the import. The records appear on their own screens straight away.

Step one of the import wizard: choose what you are bringing in. A row that fails does not stop the rest. That is usually helpful, but it means a partly-successful import needs the failed rows fixed and re-uploaded — not the whole file.

Bringing in opening balances

Three of the import types exist for the moment you switch over from your old system, and they are the ones worth most care.

Opening trial balance — your account balances as at your switch-over date.
Opening invoices owed to and by you — the individual unpaid invoices, so your customer and supplier balances have documents behind them rather than one lump.
Opening stock — quantities and their cost, which is what every future sale values its cost against.

Get opening stock cost right before you sell anything. Every sale afterwards works out its cost from it, so a wrong figure here quietly misstates your profit on every subsequent sale rather than failing loudly.

Import the same file again

Re-importing is safe and is the normal way to correct a batch. A row matching an existing record by its code updates that record instead of creating a second one, so you can fix a column in your spreadsheet and upload the whole file again.

Fix the data in your spreadsheet.
Upload it again and step through the wizard.
Check the review: it should show updates rather than creations.

What can stop you

If the upload is rejected outright, the file is not CSV or Excel, or it is over 10 MB. Split a very large file.
If every row fails on a missing customer or item, you are importing out of order. Import the thing being referred to first.
If a date column fails, the dates are in a format the file does not declare. Format that column as plain text in the shape the template shows.
If an amount column fails, it contains currency symbols, spaces or thousands separators. Leave digits and a decimal point only.
If opening balances are refused, they fall in a closed month. See Financial Periods.
If the whole screen is unavailable, your plan or your role does not include importing. Needs Data Import on your plan