Can I import data from my old system?
Yes. The most common entities — accounts (your customers), contacts (the people on those accounts), and items (your price list / inventory) — can be imported via CSV through the import area. There's a CSV template for each, and the import tool maps your columns to Suprata fields.
What imports cleanly
- Accounts — name, address, phone, email, default terms.
- Contacts — name, email, phone, link to an account.
- Price-list items — name, description, price, cost, tax category.
- Vendors — supplier records.
For these, export from your old system to CSV, conform the columns to Suprata's template, and run the import. Test with a small subset (10-20 rows) first.
What's hard to migrate
- Open invoices and unpaid balances. These can be entered, but tying them to historical jobs and matching the as-of-date for each balance is fiddly. Most businesses bring forward only the open balance per customer, not the full invoice history.
- Historical jobs / work orders. Jobs reference too many other entities (statuses, types, assigned techs, attached forms) to import cleanly. Most businesses leave history in the old system as read-only and start fresh in Suprata.
- Recurring agreements / contracts. Schedules and renewal dates need to be set up by hand.
- Time-clock history. Individual time punches don't import. If you need historical payroll figures, bring them forward as totals rather than punch-by-punch.
- Notes and attachments. Bulk-importing notes is possible but rarely worth it; attachments definitely have to be moved manually.
The pragmatic approach: import accounts, contacts, items, and open balances. Leave the rest in the old system for reference.
Related articles
- Your first week with Suprata
- The anatomy of an account vs. a contact
- Bulk-importing your price list (forthcoming)