Import customers

Already have your customers in Excel, in another booking system or in your accounting package? You do not have to retype them. The import wizard reads an Excel or CSV file, lets you decide which column belongs to which field, checks everything before anything is created, and then imports in one pass.

Preparing your file

Your file needs one row of column headers, and one row per customer beneath it. The headers can say whatever you like — you map them to the right fields yourself in step 2 — but recognisable names save work, because those get suggested automatically.

This file works without any changes:

The second row shows what a business customer looks like: no first or last name, but a company name.

The rules that actually stop an import:

• Accepted: .xlsx, .xls and .csv, up to 5 MB.
• Only the first sheet of an Excel file is read. If your customers are on the second tab, the file will look empty.
• There must be at least one data row below the header row.
• Required per customer: a last name (private) or a company name (business). That is all.

Step by step

1. Upload your file

   Go to Customers and choose Import. Drag your file onto the drop zone or click Browse files.

   

2. Map your columns

   Above each column is a dropdown naming the field that column lands in. Schedulinq fills these in as best it can from your headers — you can spot those suggestions by the marker beside them.

   

   Check them. A wrong suggestion is the one mistake that goes through without any warning: the file imports neatly, it is just that your phone numbers end up in the house-number field. Set any column you do not need to Skip column.

   

3. Review what is wrong

   Schedulinq now walks every row and splits them into two piles: rows that are ready, and rows with a problem.

   

   Expand Rows with issues to see exactly what is wrong. You get the row number, the customer, the field, the value that was there and what is wrong with it. The row number matches the row in your spreadsheet, so you can go straight to it.

   

   You now have two options. Back, and repair your file — or Import valid rows only, which skips the bad rows. Skipped rows are not lost, they are simply not created; you can supply them later in a second file.

   Under the issues sits one box: Import rows whose e-mail address already belongs to a customer. Leave it unticked and those rows are skipped. What it is for is under Customers you already have.

4. Import

   The import runs in blocks of 50 rows. On a large file you will see the progress climb. Do not close the tab while it runs.

   

   Afterwards you see how many customers were created. A row that was skipped because its e-mail address was already taken is counted under Duplicates; a row Schedulinq refused while importing — a VAT number in the wrong shape, say — under Errors. Open the list below them to see which rows those were. Click Back to customers to check the new customers straight away.

Customers you already have

Schedulinq recognises a customer you already have by one thing: the e-mail address. A row whose e-mail address already belongs to one of your customers is not imported. It is skipped and counted under Duplicates on the last screen. The same goes for a row whose address already came up higher in the same file: the first one is imported, the rest are skipped. Capitals make no difference — Sanne@Example.com and sanne@example.com are one address.

Import rows whose e-mail address already belongs to a customer

Default: offOn the review step

Tick it and those rows are imported after all, each as a customer of its own.

Why

Several customers can share one inbox: a family with one address, or one office address behind several companies. Their rows would otherwise be skipped. Leave it off for an ordinary import: then a file you import a second time does not give you every customer twice.

An import never changes a customer you already have: it only creates new ones.

The fields that need attention

Most columns speak for themselves. These decide whether your import does what you expect.

Last name or company name

Required

Each customer needs exactly one name field: a last name for a private customer, a company name for a business one. A first name is optional.

Why

If it is missing, that row appears under the issues and is skipped — the rest of your file goes through as normal.

Customer type

OptionalDecides which fields apply

Enter person or business. individual, company and the Dutch particulier and zakelijk are recognised too, and capitalisation does not matter.

Why

This field decides which name is required. Leave the column out or blank and Schedulinq picks for you: if there is a company name it becomes a business customer, otherwise a private one. That is usually right, but a sole trader with no company name in the file becomes a private customer when you meant a business one. Fill the column in if the distinction matters for your invoices.

Address

OptionalTwo ways

You supply the address one of two ways: a single full address column, or separate columns for street, house number, postal code and city. Street and house number may be separate — they are joined into one line. A Country column may sit beside either, holding a country name or a two-letter code such as NL. If that column is missing, or Schedulinq does not recognise the country, the address is saved without a country; the row is not refused for it. The address lands on the customer record as the customer's own address, the one the invoice goes to as well.

Why

The two ways are mutually exclusive. Map a column to Full address and Schedulinq releases the separate address columns automatically, and the other way round. That is not a fault: it stops the same address being written twice. An address is never required — customers who always come to you do not need one.

Email

OptionalBut valid if filled

An empty email field is fine. A filled one has to be a real address — name@domain.com.

Why

A typo such as a missing @ is exactly what the review step catches, and that is worth having: a customer with a broken e-mail address never receives a confirmation, and you only find out when they phone.

Phone country code

OptionalNeeded to read local numbers

A two-letter country code such as NL or BE, in a column of its own beside the phone number. With it, a local number such as 0612345678 is saved as an international number, +31612345678 — the way the customer form saves it too. Without it, every number is saved exactly as it is in your file.

Why

Most files hold numbers the way you dial them, without +31. The country code tells Schedulinq which country they belong to. Write it in letters: +31 is not a country code here. A number that cannot be read with the code it is given, or that has a letter in it, is refused, and that row is listed under Errors after the import.

Language

OptionalBlank: your company's language

The language this customer is written to in, as a two-letter code: nl, en, de, fr. Leave the column out or a cell blank and the customer gets your company's language.

Why

Confirmations and reminders go out in this language. If all your customers speak the language your company works in, you do not need the column at all.

Inactive

OptionalBlank: active

Marks customers you no longer serve, so they come across as Inactive straight away. ja, x, 1, true and yes all count as inactive (and a few more); anything else, and an empty cell, counts as active.

Why

An inactive customer cannot book online, and your customer list only shows them once you switch its filter to Inactive. That way your former customers come along with their details without cluttering the list you work from. See The customer record.

Business details

OptionalBusiness customers

VAT number, Chamber of Commerce number and the contact person's first and last name (Contact person first name, Contact person last name) each have a column of their own.

Why

For a business customer the first and last name columns become the contact person anyway; separate contact person columns take precedence when both are filled. A VAT number has to start with a two-letter country code, as in NL123456789B01 — spaces, dots and hyphens do not matter. A row with a VAT number in another shape is listed under Errors after the import.

If you have created custom fields for customers, those appear in the dropdown too and you can map a column to them just the same.

When something goes wrong

There are duplicates in my file. Rows with the same e-mail address are imported once: the first one goes in, the others are counted under Duplicates. Rows without an e-mail address are all created, so deduplicate those beforehand, in your spreadsheet.

The import stops half way. Whatever was already imported stays. Each customer is created individually, so a failure further down does not roll back the earlier rows. Import the same file again and the rows that came through are skipped as duplicates — but only the ones with an e-mail address. Remove the imported rows without one from your file first, otherwise you get those customers twice.

I mapped something wrongly and already imported. There is no undo. You will have to delete the created customers by hand. This is why it is worth practising with a small file first.

Frequently asked questions

Will an export from my accounting package work? Usually, as long as you save it as CSV or Excel. You do not need to rename the columns — you do that in step 2.

My file looks empty. Only the first sheet of an Excel file is read. If your list is on another tab, move it to the front or save that tab separately as CSV.

Are existing customers updated? No. An import only ever creates new customers and never touches existing ones. A row with the e-mail address of a customer you already have is skipped, not merged.

Can I import another file later? Yes, as often as you like. Rows whose e-mail address is already in Schedulinq are skipped; customers without an e-mail address are created again.