Getting started
Importing Your Data
Whatever you are moving off — a spreadsheet, another tool, a filing cabinet somebody typed up once — comes in as CSV, one record type at a time.
What you can import
There is an Import CSV button on each of these lists. It is the same flow every time.
| Records | Where the button is | Matched on |
|---|---|---|
| Customers | Customers | |
| Properties | A customer's record | Address line 1 — repeats allowed |
| Jobs | Jobs | Title — repeats allowed |
| Services | Services | Name |
| Products | Products | SKU |
| Materials | Materials | SKU |
| Vehicles | Vehicles | Registration |
| Warehouses | Warehouses | Name |
Import customers before the things that point at them. A job needs a customer to belong to, and a property needs one to hang off.
How the flow works
- Choose a file. Any CSV. The header row is read to work out what your columns are.
- Check the mapping. Columns are matched to fields automatically from a long list of aliases — “client name”, “contact”, “company” and “full name” all find the name field. Anything it guesses wrong you set by hand, and anything you do not want you leave unmapped.
- Read the preview. Every row is shown as it will be created, with problems flagged before anything is written.
- Apply. Only then does anything land in your account.
Duplicates
Each record type has a field it matches on, listed in the table above. The preview uses it twice: to spot rows that clash with something already in your account, and to spot rows that clash with each other inside the same file — the second being the one people do not think to check, and the one that turns one customer into four.
Worth knowing
Two types are exempt, marked “repeats allowed” above. Jobs genuinely repeat — “Annual service” forty times over is a year of work, not forty mistakes — and two customers can perfectly well live at the same address line. Flagging those as duplicates would train people to ignore the warning that matters.
Limits and permissions
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| 2,000 rows per file | A larger export needs splitting. The limit is about giving you a preview you can actually read before committing. |
| Permission per record type | Importing customers needs the permission to write customers, and so on. There is no blanket import permission. |
| No undo | Applying an import creates records like any other. Check the preview — that is what it is for. |
What this does not do
Import creates records; it does not update existing ones. A row matching something you already have is reported as a duplicate and skipped rather than merged, so an import cannot quietly overwrite data you have since corrected by hand.