Bring Your Data Across

Import what you already have rather than re-keying it, and check every row before anything is saved.

Go to Company > Import Data. Company administrators only. An accountant working in a client's books imports into that client. There is no extra charge.

How every import works

1. Upload a CSV. Your column headings can say anything. In Excel, use File, then Save As, then CSV. A blank template is available on each screen if you prefer to start from ours.
2. Match your columns. We suggest a match from your headings; correct anything that is wrong and set anything you do not have to Not in my file.
3. Check the file. Every row is checked before anything is written. You get a count of what is ready and a list of what needs fixing, numbered by the row as it appears in your spreadsheet.
4. Confirm. Only this step writes anything. Rows with a problem are skipped and reported: a file of 500 customers with 3 bad rows imports 497 and names the three.

What you can import

Outstanding invoices and bills

• Import them after your customers and suppliers, and after your opening balances.
• Capture the amount still owing, not the original invoice total. The payments that got it there belong to your old system's records.
• They arrive as history. They appear on statements, on the customer's account and in aged receivables, but no VAT is declared and nothing is posted to the ledger: the VAT was declared by your previous system, and the debtors or creditors balance comes from your opening trial balance.
• The file total must equal what your opening trial balance says is outstanding. If it does not, the import is refused and the difference is shown. We will not balance a difference to a suspense account on your behalf, because one of the two figures is wrong and it is worth knowing which.

Quotations still on the table

• A quotation is a document with lines, not a single row, so it takes one row per line with the quotation number repeated on each. Rows sharing a number become one quotation, and the first of them carries the customer, the date, the validity date and the status. A later row may repeat those or leave them blank, but it may not disagree with the first.
• Import them after your customers and your products and services. A customer name matching nobody is refused, and so is an item code matching no item: an accepted quote becomes a real tax invoice, and a line that lost its item posts no cost of sales when it does.
• Give each line the VAT treatment it really carries. Blank is standard-rated. A line marked 15% where the supply is zero-rated becomes a wrong tax invoice the day the customer says yes.
• Status is Draft, Sent, Accepted or Rejected. Blank counts as Sent, because the customer already has it. Nothing is posted to the ledger and no invoice is raised: converting a quote is still something you do yourself.
• The template on this screen shows two rows on one quotation number, because that grouping is the whole shape of the file.

Your staff list

• The employee import brings names, ID or passport, tax number, start date, pay and banking across, so you are not retyping twelve people before the first pay run.
• It needs payroll switched on, and it can be done at any point: it depends on nothing else you have imported.
• Nothing is posted to the ledger and no payslips are created. The undo is refused for anybody who has since appeared on a pay run.

Dates and amounts

• Dates are read day first: 12/08/2026 is 12 August. A date written as 2026-08-12 is never ambiguous and is the safest thing to send.
• A month-first date such as 08/30/2026 is refused rather than guessed at, because reading one date the wrong way round means the whole file is being read the wrong way round.
• Amounts cope with R 1 234,56 and with 1,234.56, and brackets such as (450.00) are read as negative.
• Files are limited to 10,000 rows. Split a longer list and import the parts one after another.