Import data

Import is how you get an existing business into EyeOnTask without typing it in. It is mostly a setup job, and it is worth doing before anyone starts working in the system rather than after.

Settings → Import Data.

Settings → Import Data

What can be imported

Import	Brings in
Clients	Your customer list, with their addresses and contacts.
Inventory Items	Your stock list. See how inventory works.
Jobs	Work already booked.
Supplier	Who you buy from. See suppliers.
Job Type/Services	Your price list for labour. See job type/services.
Equipments	Units you or your clients own. See how equipment works.
Requests	Enquiries already logged.

All seven take CSV and Excel, and all seven create or update — an import is not only for the first load. Running one again against the same records updates them, which is how a bulk price change or a re-import of a corrected spreadsheet is done.

The order to do it in

Records refer to each other, so import them in dependency order:

1. Clients and Suppliers — nothing depends on anything else.
2. Job Type/Services and Inventory Items — the things a job is made of.
3. Equipment — needs the clients it belongs to.
4. Jobs and Requests — need clients, services and equipment to exist.

Importing jobs before clients leaves you with jobs attached to nobody, and no quick way to reattach them.

Before you import

Two things are worth doing first.

Set the lists up. Client types, job categories, product categories and brands — a spreadsheet column full of values EyeOnTask has never heard of imports badly. Create the lists, then import against them.

Try a small file. Ten rows first. Check what arrived, in the module itself, before you send five thousand.

Related

• Bulk updating items — the item list’s own export/edit/import round trip
• How settings work