Import clients from a .CSV file

Taxfiler by IRIS provides a tool which allows the import of basic client information (code, name, address and so on) from a CSV file.

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 selectingSave As... and selecting CSV as the file type.

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 by IRIS what data each column contains. If your CSV file was exported from another application you need to edit your file in Excel or some other tool in order to add or amend the column headers to the recognised Taxfiler by IRIS names.

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

Run the CSV import

  1. Go toTools | 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.

  1. After preparing your CSV file, select Start Import and then the file that contains your client details.

  2. Select Upload.

Validate the CSV file

After uploading your CSV file, Taxfiler by IRIS will validate the contents and the import review screen will be shown.

This screen contains four tabs:

  • Validation successful - displays the rows that have been validated successfully and are ready to be imported into Taxfiler by IRIS.

  • Validation failed - displays rows that have failed validation and cannot be imported. Select the tab to see the reason for each error. You may wish to edit your CSV file to fix any errors. Select 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.

Select the clients to import

  1. On the Validation successful tab, select each client to import. To select all the clients on the list, tick the box in the header row.

  2. When you are happy with your selection, select Import selected clients. Taxfiler by IRIS 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.