mbovy Help

Importing from a spreadsheet

You can bring a customer list, or a list of open work, in from a spreadsheet instead of typing it in one record at a time. Import customers is in the Administration menu under Customers, and only an administrator can import customers.

Import work (Import tasks in Basic mode) is the upload icon above the work items list, right of Repeating tasks. It needs permission to create work items, so anyone who can add a task can do it.

The file is read in your browser. Nothing is sent until you press the import button on the last step, and the file itself is never uploaded or stored.

What you can import

Accepted formats: .csv, .tsv, .txt, .xlsx and .ods, up to 5,000 rows. The first row must be the column headings; every row under it is one record.

Only the first sheet of a workbook is read. If your file keeps a sheet per client, join them into one sheet first, with a column that says which client each row is for.

Step 1 — the file

Download a template gives you an empty file whose headings are exactly the ones this import expects — fill that in and there is nothing to map.

Step 2 — the columns

Each field that can be filled is listed with a dropdown of your file's headings. Headings that match are already paired up, including common Spanish ones, so usually there is nothing to change. Set a field to (not mapped) to leave it out; a field marked with * must be mapped before you can continue. One heading feeds one field: picking a heading that is already in use frees it from the other field.

Some fields show the accepted values under them — your customer types, your customer groups, the statuses, the task types. Values are matched ignoring case and accents.

Step 3 — review

The preview shows the first rows as they will be imported, and lists any row with a problem (a missing required value, a name that matches nothing, a date or number that cannot be read). Rows with a problem are skipped, the rest are imported. Go Back to fix the mapping, or fix the file and start again.

The import then reports every row: imported, skipped, or failed with the reason.

Customers

Importable: Company name, First Name, Last Name, Code, Email, Phone, Address, City, State, Postal code, Country, Customer type, Customer group, Member since, Active, Notes, and every customer custom field. Fees type and Fees value appear only if you are allowed to see financial information.

Each row needs either a company name or a first/last name. A customer type or group that does not already exist is not created for you — the row is refused so you can add the type or group first, or correct the spelling.

An import never overwrites an existing customer. If a row's Code is already used, that row is reported as skipped and the customer is left exactly as it was. Fixing a few rows and importing the same file again is therefore safe.

When the workspace reaches the number of customers its plan allows, the rows that fit are imported and every row after them is reported as failed, with the limit as the reason. They are not skipped rows: once there is room, importing the same file again brings them in.

Work

Every imported row becomes a task. Outside basic mode you choose the Target project they go under once, at the top of the page; it opens on the project you are currently working in, and you can clear it to import tasks that belong to no project.

Importable: Summary (required, up to 100 characters), Description, Task type, Status, Priority, Start date, Due date, Customer, and Assignee — matched by display name, full name, user name or email. Time estimated appears only if you are allowed to see and edit estimates, and accepts 2, 2:30 or 2.5.

A row with no status is imported as Open; with no priority, as Normal. Imported items are ordinary work items: they appear in the list, on the board, and in the activity feed.