However, since online accounting solutions were created for the purpose of making the lives of business owners more convenient, there is a silver lining to this since these programs are at least capable of handling contacts seamlessly – even in cases where they are imported from another source.
Importing contacts via CSV files
For as advanced as online accounting software is, sadly in most cases the only way to ensure that all your customers and their respective contact information are correctly added into the new database is by creating an Excel sheet, saving it as a .CSV file, and then uploading it into the program. The main problem with this method is that it still requires a lot of manual data entry to make it complete and even then it may still be rejected by the software due to some incompatibility or wrong formatting.
Thankfully, most accounting services are aware that leaving users to create complex Excel sheets from scratch is anything but helpful, which is why they usually provide their own .CSV templates. Admittedly, filling out the sheet will still take some time, but since these templates are preformatted there is at least no concern that the accounting software will struggle to import the file without hassle once the necessary data has been entered.
It’s worth noting that most of these premade .CSV templates require only the most necessary data – namely clients’ names, addresses, phone numbers etc. – but there are instances where users can provide additional but equally important information or can start separating customer and vendor data before the import. Uploading additional data to the accounting software’s database can significantly speed up and further simplify mundane tasks, whether the software has been used before or not. Simply put, the more information that the .CSV file contains about your clients, the more complete the software’s database will be and as such the more things that can be autofilled into invoices, projects and the like.
Advanced solutions
While creating a separate file to build the client database in this way is an effective and often only means of kickstarting the online accounting program, it still requires a lot of extra time from its users. Thankfully, accounting solutions are constantly evolving, which means that it’s hopefully sooner rather than later businesses will be able to forget the need to import .CSV templates altogether. In fact, there are online accounting programs that already demonstrate the future of contact management – and Xero, which is well-known for its innovative ideas, is one such company.
For starters, Xero can be hooked up to Gmail for Business or Microsoft Office 365, allowing users to see the relevant email communications under each contact without the need to leave the software. Additionally, contacts can be organized into so-called smart lists, with which entire marketing campaigns can be executed based on clients having similar purchasing behaviors, particular invoice amounts, locations, and the like.
The same intelligent organization is also present in Xero’s accountant and bookkeeper version, Xero HQ, with one difference: here there can be multiple clients under a single contact entry, which is especially useful if users provide accounting services for more than one person in the same business.
Zoltán G.
Sander D.
