Data import

What this does

Settings → Data Import loads history from a CSV: Customers Only, Vehicles Only, Work Orders & Invoices, Payments Only, or a full export. Presets exist for TRACS and QuickBooks column names; Other lets you map columns by hand. It's a four-step wizard: upload, map fields, review duplicates, import, with a report at the end.

Before you start

settings.import. A CSV with one row per record (or per line item, for work orders). Do customers and vehicles before work orders, so the matching has something to match against. If the imported invoices are still owed, plan the ledger side too: imported invoices don't post revenue; AR onboarding sets the opening receivable afterward.

Steps

1. Upload the file and pick the source (TRACS, QuickBooks, Other) and the data type.
2. Map Fields. Each column in your file is matched to a field (Customer Name, Phone, Email, Address, VIN, License Plate, Year/Make/Model, Mileage, Order Number, Invoice Number, Invoice Total, Labor Description/Hours/Rate, Part Name/Qty/Price, Payment Date/Amount/Method). Pick — skip — for columns you don't want. Customer Name (for matching) and Customer Phone (for matching) tell the importer how to find an existing customer.
3. Review duplicates. Customers are matched by phone, vehicles by VIN, work orders by date + customer + VIN. Matches are updated rather than created; new ones are created.
4. Import. The report shows, per table, how many rows succeeded, errored, and were skipped, with the reason for each error (a vehicle row missing make or model can't be created, say). Export the report for the errors.

Every import runs as a batch with an id, so the records it created can be found later.

Common problems

Half the vehicles were skipped. Make and model are required on a vehicle. Fill them in the file and re-import; matched rows won't duplicate.

Work orders imported with no lines. The line-item columns weren't mapped, or your export has one row per work order with the lines elsewhere.

Totals don't match the old system. The importer records the invoice total you give it; it doesn't recompute from lines. Compare a few by hand and look at the error rows.