Import clients from a .CSV file

Taxfiler provides a tool which allows the import of basic client information (code, name, address etc) from a CSV file. This can be found on the TOOLS page from the Taxfiler menu.

CSV files are one of the most commonly supported import/export formats and many applications support the export of data to a CSV file. An Excel spreadsheet can be saved as a CSV file by choosing Save As… and selecting CSV as the file type. Please ensure you select *.csv (comma delimited) as the file type as other file types may not be recognised.

The CSV file that you import into this tool must have column headers that tell Taxfiler what data each column contains. If your CSV file was exported from another application you will probably have to edit your file in Excel or some other tool in order to add or amend the column headers to the recognised Taxfiler names.

Full details of the fields that can be imported into Taxfiler are given on the introduction screen for the CSV Import tool.

Running the CSV import

To run the CSV import, click on the TOOLS menu and choose Run CSV Import Tool. The introductory screen describes all the fields that are available in the import and how to save a CSV file from Excel.

After preparing your CSV file, click Start Import and select the file that contains your client details. Then click the Upload button.

Validating the CSV file

After uploading your CSV file, Taxfiler will validate the contents and the import review screen will be shown. This screen contains four tabs:

• Validation successful: Shows the rows that have been validated successfully and are ready to be imported into Taxfiler.
• Validation failed: Shows rows that have failed validation and cannot be imported. Click on the tab to see the reason for each error. You may wish to edit your CSV file to fix any errors, then click Cancel to restart the process.
• Clients imported: This tab will initially be empty but will later show clients that are successfully imported.
• Imports failed: This tab will initially be empty but will later show any attempted imports that fail.

Selecting the clients to import

In the Validation successful tab you can choose which clients to import by ticking next to the client code. To select all the clients on the list tick the box in the header row.

When you are happy with your selection click Import selected clients. Taxfiler will then attempt to create these clients.

Clients that are imported successfully will be listed in the Clients imported tab. Any clients that fail to import will be shown in the Imports failed tab.

Below is a copy of the blank template for you to download.