Importing data - an overview

The Import/Export module on the menu allows you to import new data to Scoro and update existing data.

This article provides an overview of managing data import permissions, what to consider before importing data to Scoro, and how the data importing process works. 

For more in-depth guides on importing specific types of data to Scoro (such as tasks, projects, contacts, and more), check the relevant article in the Import and export section.

1. Should I import historical data?

When you start using Scoro, the easiest way is to start from scratch without importing any historical data. Companies typically keep historical invoices, bills, and other financial documents only in their preferred accounting software and choose not to import those to Scoro.

If you decide to start from scratch, you can:

• Import your contacts and products (services) to start working with your existing client base and issue sales documents (quotes and invoices). Of course, if you provide only a few services (products) or have a handful of contacts, you can manually enter the data in Scoro as you go.
• With the rest of the data, it may be easier to start from scratch. For example, keep all the historical invoices only in your accounting system and start creating the upcoming ones in Scoro.

If you need your historical data in Scoro (for example, for reporting purposes), in addition to companies, people, and products, you can also import projects, quotes, invoices, receipts, bills, purchase orders, expenses, and tasks.

2. Managing data import permissions

Only users with the Import/Export permission in their permission set can import data to Scoro.

Site administrators can grant the import permission this way:

1. Go to Settings > Administration > Permission sets
   
2. Choose the permission set you want to update and open the Modules and actions
3. Tick the Import/Export checkbox.

Once the permission is granted, the user can access the Import/Export module on the site menu.

3. What to consider before importing data

We recommend importing data in a specific order, which will ensure you can correctly link items to each other. For example, to link all your projects and sales documents with the relevant company, the companies should be imported before projects and documents.

We recommend importing your data in the following order:

1. Companies
2. People
3. Products
4. Projects
5. Quotes
6. Sales invoices
7. Receipts
8. Purchase Orders
9. Bills (purchase invoices)
10. Tasks

Here are more tips to ensure successful and clean data imports:

• Import only the data you really need
  • We advise starting with importing contacts and products so you can start working with your existing contact base and issue sales documents. Evaluate whether you really need to import all your historical data.
• Add your company's employees as users
  • By adding employees as users, you ensure that you can link them to contacts, projects, sales, and purchase documents.
  • If you want to import historical data and link it to a person who no longer works in your company, you should still add them as users in Scoro and mark those users as inactive so they wouldn't take up a user seat.
• Test a smaller data import before importing large data sets
  • Create a test import file with a couple of rows and import it to Scoro to check if everything imports as you expect. If all looks alright, proceed with importing the large data set.

4. Importing data files

There are three steps for importing data to Scoro:

1. Preparing the import file
2. Uploading the import file and matching the fields
3. Importing the file and verifying the result

Let's walk through each of these steps!

4.1. Preparing the import file

You can use the CSV, XLS, and XLSX formats for your import files, although CSV is the recommended file format.

Data in the import file must follow the basic table structure:

• Each column is for specific data, such as company name, company street address, etc.
• Each row represents a set of related data, with every row following the same structure. For example, in a company import file, each row represents a single company. Columns include data like company name, company street address, etc.

We highly recommend using our example files to ensure a successful data report without having to manually map the data fields during the import. You can get the example files two ways:

• In the Import/Export module, open the relevant tab (for example, People) and download the example CSV or XLS import file.
• Export data from Scoro (for example, export tasks from the task list) and use the export file as the basis for your import file.

Using an example file will help you prepare the data columns correctly and remove irrelevant data columns. Additionally, you won't need to spend a lot of time manually mapping the fields during the import process.

Follow these tips to ensure your data imports are clean and error-free:

• Remove empty rows
  • If the import file contains empty rows, the rows below the empty one won't import to Scoro.
• Clean up the data in the import file
  
  • Remove rows with duplicate data
  • Replace outdated information with up-to-date details
  • Ensure that email addresses and all other data are written correctly
  • Delete all the unnecessary columns that don't contain any values - this way, you can avoid the possibility of overwriting some data with blank values in case some of the data already exists in Scoro.
• Make sure the import file doesn't exceed 10,000 lines
  • Importing files with more than 10,000 rows may cause problems during the import process.
  • If you need to import more than 10,000 rows of data, create multiple import files.
  • Always test the data import with a smaller file containing a few rows to ensure everything imports correctly; once you're set, proceed with importing the large data set.

4.2. Uploading the import file and matching the fields

To import your data:

1. In the Import/Export module, open the tab of the data you'll be importing (for example, People)
2. Click Choose file and select your import file
3. Click Proceed.
   
4. Next, you'll need to map the columns in your file to fields in Scoro. If you used our example import file or an export file to prepare your data, the fields should already match, making the import process faster. 
   
5. Tick the relevant checkboxes if you want to update already existing items or match fields by specific values.
   • If you tick the Save matched column headers as default checkbox, the column header names in the import file will be saved, and the system will automatically match the values next time you import a similar file.
6. Click Import to start the data import.

Once you start the import, the data will import in the background, and you can continue using your site. You can click on the black banner at the top of your screen to view more details of the data importing progress.

4.3. Importing the file and verifying the result

The Imports module in the Import/Export module displays all data imports.

All the imported lines are imported right away. The faulty lines discovered during the import are merged into one error file that states the reason why they were left out.

If any errors happen during a data import, you can export this file to see the reason. If something is not right with the imported data, you can delete your data import, fix the data, and import the updated file.

4. Deleting data imports

You can delete data imports that were added within the last 14 days. Older data imports cannot be deleted; you'll need to delete the imported data manually from Scoro.

To delete a data import:

1. Go to the Imports tab in the Imports/Exports module
2. Click the trash bin icon and confirm the deletion.