Customers & debts
Importing customers and their old debts from a CSV file
A CSV with the customer name, optional phone, email and city, plus Debt and Debt date for old balances. A dry run first; a bad row never stops the rest.
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Steps
- Prepare the file with one customer per row. The name is the only required column; phone, email and city are optional. To bring old debts across, add a Debt column with what the customer owes today, and a Debt date column if you know when it started. Ready sheets are on the CSV templates page.
- Save it as CSV.
- Open "Customers" and press "Import", then "Choose a CSV file".
- Review the dry run: how many customers are "Ready to import" and the "Rows with errors", with the reason for each. Fix the file and upload again if needed.
- Press "Import". Rows with errors are skipped and never stop the rest.
What happens in the books
Each debt is booked as an opening balance dated the Debt date (today if the column is empty), not as a sale. The customer then shows in the receivables list and in the reminder queue at once, with the right age, and a payment taken at the cashier reduces the debt like any invoice. From there you can send the customer their balance as in Sharing a statement on WhatsApp.
What the system does not do
- It does not update customers you already have (create only), and it does not check for duplicates, so upload each file once.
- It does not read Excel files here; save as CSV first.
- It does not import old invoices, only the one balance per customer. Suppliers' balances are not imported either.
Common questions
- I uploaded the customers file twice.
- The import only creates customers; it does not check for ones you already have, so a second upload adds the same names again, and with a Debt column it adds the debts again. Upload a file once, and delete a duplicate from the customer page if it happens.
- Can I upload an Excel file?
- The customers import reads CSV files. In Excel choose Save as, then CSV. Arabic names are read correctly from the file Excel saves.
- My column headings are in Arabic.
- The usual Arabic headings are recognised, for example الدين or الرصيد for the debt and تاريخ الدين for its date. The first column is read as the name, and a column whose heading is not recognised is not read, so rename it to one of the usual headings.
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In the same section
- Adding a customer and setting a credit limitCreating a customer from the customers screen or the till, setting the credit limit, price list and group, and what happens when a credit invoice exceeds the limit.
- Collecting a payment from a customer who owes youRecording a payment from the customer page with "Collect payment": amount and method (cash, card, transfer), allocated to invoices oldest-first.
- Issuing a credit or debit note for a customer or supplierWhen to use a credit note (reduce what a customer owes) or a debit note (raise it), and how to issue one from the customer or supplier page.
- Sharing a customer's account statement on WhatsAppFrom the customer page: "Account statement" then "Share" opens WhatsApp with a secure link valid for 30 days showing invoices, payments and the balance.
This page is also available in العربية · کوردی
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