Import Manager bulk-loads data from a CSV into Bizuno — customers, vendors, inventory items, contacts, opening balances, and more. You’ll use it heavily at go-live, occasionally after that when a vendor sends a parts list or you onboard a batch of customers.

How to get there #

Menu: Tools → Import Manager
Direct URL pattern: https://yourdomain.com/?bizRt=bizuno/tools/imports

What you can import #

Import type	Typical use
Customers	Migrate customer list from a prior system.
Vendors	Onboard suppliers.
Inventory Items	Load a parts catalog or distributor price list.
Contacts	Additional contacts under an existing customer or vendor.
Opening Balances	Initial A/R, A/P, bank balances at go-live.
Vendor Prices	Distributor price lists tied to vendor SKUs.
Chart of Accounts	Replace the default CoA with your own.
Journal Entries	Bulk-load historical or batch JEs (advanced).

Step-by-step: a clean import #

1. Backup first (Tools → Export & Backup). Every import carries risk.
2. Click New Import and pick the Import Type.
3. Download the Template CSV for that type. It has the columns Bizuno expects and sample rows.
4. Open the template in Excel, paste in your data, save as CSV (UTF-8).
5. Back in Import Manager, click Upload and select your CSV.
6. Map each CSV column to the matching Bizuno field. Bizuno auto-maps columns with exact header matches; review the auto-mapping closely.
7. Click Validate. Bizuno does a dry-run and reports errors per row.
8. Fix errors in your CSV, re-upload.
9. When validation is clean, click Import.
10. Review the Import Log for created / updated / skipped row counts.

Important: Always, always Validate before importing. Validation catches 95% of problems without touching your data. Skipping validation because “the last one was fine” is how you create 2,000 duplicate customers at 4:45pm on a Friday.

Insert vs. update #

Each import type has a key field (e.g., Customer ID for customers, SKU for inventory). When the key already exists:

• Insert only — skip existing rows. Safest for onboarding new records.
• Update only — only touch existing rows, skip new ones. Use for refreshing a price list.
• Upsert — insert new, update existing. Convenient but risky; easy to accidentally overwrite intentional edits.

Common gotchas #

• Leading zeros — Excel strips them from SKUs and customer IDs. Format the column as Text before pasting, or use a plain-text editor to build the CSV.
• Delimiters — some exports use semicolons. Bizuno expects commas. Re-save as comma-delimited CSV.
• Quoting — if your data contains commas (addresses, descriptions), those cells must be wrapped in double quotes.
• UTF-8 — special characters (é, ö, &) require UTF-8 encoding. “CSV (Comma delimited)” from Excel is not always UTF-8; prefer “CSV UTF-8”.
• Date formats — Bizuno expects YYYY-MM-DD. “4/15/26” will fail validation.
• Account numbers — opening balance imports must reference existing CoA account numbers. Import the CoA first.

Inventory import tips #

• Keep your first import small (10 items). Verify cost, sale price, inventory type, and any category assignments before importing the full list.
• Vendor SKU is separate from your internal SKU. Use Vendor Prices import to tie distributor part numbers to your items.
• Item type matters: Stock, Non-Stock, Service, Assembly, Master, Special, Labor. The import template has a type column — fill it in deliberately.

Opening balance import tips #

• Post opening balances as a single journal entry dated the day before you go live.
• Verify debits = credits on your CSV total before uploading.
• Don’t forget inventory on-hand as a debit to Inventory asset; it must match your physical count.

Recoverable vs. unrecoverable imports #

Some imports can be “un-done” by deleting the created records (customers with zero transactions, items with zero activity). Others can’t: journal entries, price updates that overwrote custom prices. This is why you backup first.

Tips for Ridgeline Cycles #

• Export your current list from the prior system; clean it in Excel before importing. Don’t bring old junk into the new system.
• Label your Excel staging file with the date and a version number; you’ll revise it several times.
• For a distributor price list import, match the distributor’s SKU column to your Vendor Part Number, not your internal SKU.
• After any import of 100+ rows, spot-check 10 random rows in the UI. Fields that validated can still have silently mis-mapped into the wrong attribute.

Where to go next #

• Export & Backup — take a backup before every import.
• Custom Fields & Mass Update — fix rows post-import without re-importing.
• Admin → Settings → Import Defaults — default import behavior settings.