If you have your customer data stored in another software system, and you want to quickly and easily add this to your vWork account, you can bulk import this data.  Bulk importing customer data saves you time and effort and reduces the chance of creating errors.

In this article

This article explains how to import customer information from a CSV file.

💡 Tips:

• You'll need to save your customer data into a CSV file format before you can import it. You can find out more about how to prepare a CSV file for importing customer information in the article, Prepare a CSV file to import data into vWork.
• You can also import customer data directly from other packages that are integrated with vWork such as Xero, Quickbooks Online, MYOB, or Salesforce. To find out more about this, please see the article, Can I import my Customers from Salesforce/Xero/Quickbooks etc...

Topics covered in this article include:

• Do you want each customer’s site address to show on the map?
  
• Import customers from a CSV file
• Update multiple customer records with a CSV file

Click the link above to go to that topic. You can return to this topic list by clicking this icon:

Do you want each customer’s site address to show on the map?

• If you want your customer’s site address to be easily added to job steps and be visible on the map, in addition to the customer’s formatted address (a descriptive address such as, Level 10, 120 Albert Street, Auckland) you must also include the latitude and longitude coordinates of the address in the CSV file.
  
  
• The latitude and longitude coordinate fields from the CSV file are matched to the Delivery contact lat, and Delivery contact lng vWork customer fields during the customer import process. These are separate fields in the CSV file. You can find out more about this in the article, Prepare a CSV file to import data into vWork.
  
  
• If you import data directly from an accounting package that is integrated with vWork (Xero, Quickbooks Online, MYOB, or Salesforce) no latitude or longitude coordinates are imported with the customer information. You can add this information through a second CSV file customer information import that will update the customer records imported from your accounting package. This process is explained below under the heading, How to update multiple customer records with a CSV file.

Import new customers from a CSV file

The customer data import process

Customers are imported through the Customers tab. When you import customers from a CSV file you perform 2 steps:

1. First, upload the CSV file into vWork.
2. Next, match the specific data fields from the uploaded CSV file to the vWork customer fields and run the import.

Upload the CSV file

Before you upload the customer import CSV file make sure that it is ready for import. Take a look at the article, Prepare a CSV file to import data into vWork, for more information about how to set up the CSV file.

💡Tip: You can import a maximum of 1000 customers in a single CSV file. If you want to import more customers than this, create multiple CSV files and import your customers in batches.

To upload the CSV file:

1. Go to the Customers tab.
   
   
2. Click to open the CSV file import page.
   
   
   
   
3. Click  and browse your network to find and select the customer import CSV file.
   
   
4. If the customer import CSV file has header rows (recommended) click the checkbox to select My CSV has a header row.
   This ensures that the header row is excluded from the data import and also provides you with the CSV field labels to make it easier to match the CSV fields to the vWork customer fields in the next stage of the import process.
   
   
   
   
5. Click to import the CSV file and open the customer field matching page. This is where you complete stage 2 of the customer import process. The blue fields on the left correspond with the columns that you have in your customer import CSV file. We haven’t included a column in the CSV file to match every customer field in vWork as we didn’t need data in all the vWork customer fields.
   
   
   

Match the customer import CSV file fields to the vWork customer fields 

At this stage of the process, you begin matching the fields that contain the data from the customer import CSV file to the corresponding customer fields in vWork.

• We only import data from the fields that you choose to match. 
  
  
• Customers are not created in vWork until you have completed the matching process and clicked Import Customers. This means you can review where you have matched fields and adjust this before finalizing the customer import. 

To match the CSV fields to the vWork customer fields:

1. Drag the first blue field that you want to match from the 'CSV fields' on the left to the corresponding 'vWork Customers Fields' on the right. Drop the CSV field in the corresponding field. The vWork customer field changes to green when the CSV field is matched, and the CSV file field changes to a light blue.
   
   
2. Repeat step 1 for each field that you want to match.
   
   💡Tip: If you accidentally drag a CSV field to the wrong customer field you can click the X in the right-hand corner of the green box to remove the match.
   
   
   
   
3. Once you have matched all fields from the customer CSV file to the vWork customer fields click to import the customer information into vWork.
   
   
4. A warning shows to tell you how many customers you are importing and how many fields you have mapped from the customer import CSV file to the vWork customer fields.
   Click Accept to import the jobs.
   
   
   
5. When you Accept the import vWork returns to the Customers tab and a banner displays at the top of the page to advise that the customer information is being imported. Depending on the number of customers you are importing this may take a while. You can continue to do other tasks in vWork while the customer import is processing. We’ll send you an email when the customer import is complete. 
   
   

Update multiple customer records with a CSV file 

You can add or update all your customer records with a bulk data import. This follows the same process asabove for importing new customers using a CSV file. 

There are two methods to create the CSV file for updating existing customer information:

1. Create a CSV file by exporting the existing customer records from vWork and then editing this exported CSV file. To export the existing vWork customer records to a CSV file:
   1. 1. go to the Customers tab
      2. click Export. This creates an exported CSV file in your 'downloads' folder.
         
         
2. Alternatively, you can export your customer database as a CSV file from another software application.  

How to avoid creating errors when updating customer records

To avoid creating duplicate customer records and over-writing data that you don't want changed, please keep in mind the following:

• ❗ Important: You must include the same customer ID in the CSV file that is used in the existing customer record when updating existing customer data. If you leave this field blank or use a different ID you will create a new customer record for the same customer with the new data from the CSV file.
  
  
• Only fields that you match from the CSV file to the vWork Customer fields are updated. You don’t need to include the fields that you don’t want to update in the CSV file. By leaving these fields out you ensure you don’t overwrite the data in them.
  
  
• When you re-import customer data all matched fields are overwritten.
  • You must not leave a field empty when there is data in the existing customer record for that field. If you do you will overwrite the existing data with an empty field.
  • When you import multiple customer records but only want to overwrite the data for some customers for selected fields, you must make sure that the fields you match have the same information as currently exists in the customer record where you don't want that data overwritten. Values in the CSV file always overwrite the matched field in vWork so when you don't want the data changed you must overwrite with the same data.
    
    
• You can update a customer’s name provided you match the customer ID when re-importing the customer record.
  

💡 Tip: Take a look at the article, Prepare a CSV file to import data into vWork, for more information about layout and formatting the customer import CSV file.