How to import customers in QuickBooks Online

Get the file right first, because a bad import takes a long time to fix by hand. Intuit's rules for the spreadsheet: column headers in row 1 with nothing above them, contacts on Sheet1, and no formulas, charts, blank rows or error values such as #REF!, #NAME?, #N/A or #VALUE!. Names can't contain colons or quotation marks, and every entry in the Name field must be unique.

Check the limits. A file can be at most 2MB or 1,000 rows. Only one email address per contact comes across, and the address you give is imported as the billing address. Sub-customers can't be imported, so Intuit suggests making them parent customers for the import and changing them back afterwards.

If your customers live in an email program, export them first. In Outlook, select File, then Open and Export, then Import/Export. Choose Export to a file, pick Comma Separated Values, select the folder your customer contacts are in and note where the file is saved. In Gmail, open Contacts from Google apps, select Export, choose all contacts or a single group, pick Outlook CSV or Google CSV and export.

Building the list from scratch in Excel or Google Sheets? Label each column in row 1 to match Intuit's sample layout, such as Full Name in column A and Company Name in column B, and leave blank anything you don't know. Save it as an XLS or XLSX file, or from Google Sheets select File, then Download, and choose Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) or Comma Separated Values (.csv). Then open the file, compare its row 1 titles with the sample, and correct any mistakes.

1. Go to All apps, select Customer Hub, then select Customers & leads.
2. Select the dropdown next to New customer, then select Import customers.
3. Select Browse.
4. Find the spreadsheet on your computer, select it and select Open, then select Next.
5. Match each field in the spreadsheet to the right part of the customer info in QuickBooks, then select Next.
6. Select Done.

Intuit's email contacts article starts the same import from Settings instead: select Settings, then Import Data, and choose Customers. After you browse to the file and select Next, use the arrow beside each entry in the Your Field column to match it, choose No Match for any field your file doesn't have, untick any contacts you don't want, and select Import. That screen also offers Suppliers for a supplier list.

Each imported contact becomes a customer profile on your customer list, so it's there to pick on invoices and other transactions and shows up in your reports.

An import adds to your list rather than overwriting it. If a file went in wrong and you import it again, the earlier customers stay, which can create duplicate entries. Intuit's fix is to delete the imported customers before importing again, or to correct each one individually.

A few tidy-ups may be left. Customers you made into parents for the import can be changed back into sub-customers, and any extra email addresses can be added to each profile in QuickBooks.

When a file won't import cleanly, compare it against the rules above: headers in the first row, data on Sheet1, no formulas, charts, blank rows or error values, and unique names without colons or quotation marks. If it's over the size limit, split it into smaller files and import each in turn.