Importing and exporting CSVs

Nobody starts on Studiohaus. You arrive with a client list in a spreadsheet and a product library in another, and the fastest way in is to import them rather than retype them.

Importing products

Open Products (under Operations) and click Import.

Upload a CSV or Excel file, and Studiohaus reads the header row and maps the columns it recognises — name, vendor, SKU, price, category, and the rest. You confirm the mapping before anything is written, so a mislabelled column is caught on screen rather than discovered a week later.

Common column names are matched automatically. If your spreadsheet calls it Item rather than Name, or Supplier rather than Vendor, point it at the right field once in the mapping step.

Importing clients

Clients import the same way from the Clients page. Name and email are what matter; addresses, phone numbers, and anniversaries come along if you have them.

Duplicates are skipped rather than merged. Matching is by email first, then by name — so if the same client appears twice in your spreadsheet under two addresses, expect two records and tidy up after.

Before you import

Ten minutes in the spreadsheet saves an hour in the app:

• One header row, no merged cells, no notes above the header.
• Prices as numbers. 1,499.00 and $1,499 both cause trouble; 1499 doesn't.
• Split names into first and last if you can.
• Delete the junk rows — the totals row at the bottom, the "ask Jane" row in the middle.

Exporting

Export does the reverse: your products (or clients) as a CSV, current as of the click. Useful for a vendor who wants a spec list, for a bookkeeper, for a backup before a bulk edit, and for the reassurance that your data isn't hostage — you can take it out whenever you like.

A note on scale

Very large imports are best split. If a file is more than a few thousand rows, cut it into a couple of files and run them in sequence — you'll get clearer errors and a faster result than one enormous upload.

Related

• Creating a client
• The product clipper