Bring your data over from another tool

What you can import

Most client, booking, invoicing and accounting tools can export your data to a file, and so can contacts apps. Tendroom recognizes many of these exports, and any spreadsheet with a header row works too. Each kind of record needs its tool turned on:

Before you start

• Import your clients first, then invoices or appointments, so they're matched to the right clients. Anyone an invoice or appointment names who isn't in your list yet is added as a new client.
• Upload the file exactly as you downloaded it. Opening and saving it in a spreadsheet app can change its dates and numbers.
• Use a CSV file or an Excel workbook (.xlsx) with a header row. Only the first sheet of a workbook is read. Save an older .xls or a Numbers file as .xlsx or .csv first. Password-protected workbooks can't be read.
• A CSV file can be up to 2 MB. An Excel file can be up to 8 MB, as long as its contents come to 2 MB or less. Either can have up to 5,000 rows; split larger files.

Import a file

1. Go to Settings → More → Import & export. Under Import, select Import a file. (While your client list is empty, Clients also offers Import from another tool.)
2. Drop your exported file on the page, or choose it.
3. Check What's in it. If Tendroom guessed the wrong kind of records, change it.
4. Under Match your columns, check that each field uses the right column. Each shows a sample from your file, or Not in this file. If you change anything, select Update preview.
5. Review the preview: what will be added, what will be added with a note, and what will be skipped and why, by row number.
6. Select the button at the bottom, which shows the count (such as Add 25 clients). When it's done, you can view what you added or select Import another file.

Importing doesn't email anyone: no invoice emails, booking confirmations or reminders.

Duplicates and skipped rows

• Clients already in your list (with the same email address, or the same name and phone number) are skipped. If a client with the same email address has no phone or address and the file has one, it's filled in; nothing you already have is changed. A client who appears on several rows becomes one client.
• Invoices keep their original number if it's free, and get a new one if it isn't. Unpaid invoices are imported as sent, with no emails or reminders until you send them again. Invoices without a date or a client, credits and refunds, and invoices for $0 are skipped.
• Appointments that were cancelled are skipped. Times that the file gives in another time zone are converted to yours.
• Products & services with a name you already have, or without a price, are skipped. You can have up to 500 in total.
• Tasks that are already done are imported only if they belong to a project.
• Importing the same file again adds nothing new.

You can import up to 10 files an hour and 25,000 rows a day. Importing is paused while a payment to Tendroom is overdue.

When your old tool can't export something

Some tools can't export invoices. Import your clients, then add any invoices that are still open by hand. If Tendroom doesn't recognize a file, it reads it like any spreadsheet, so check the column matches carefully before you add anything.