Best practices: Importing transactions
Bill.com offers the option to import transactions. Be sure to import non-transaction records (Vendors, Customers, Chart of Accounts, etc.) before importing transactions.
Transactions types
- Bills
- Invoices
- Vendor Credits
- Credit Memos
Key fields of an import
The import checks Key Fields in Bill.com for a record to update. If no matching record is found, a new record is created. If more than one field is listed for a record, both fields must match the record in Bill.com before the import attempts to update the record.
To properly identify a given record, each Key Field being used must be provided. If a Key Field is not being used (for example, an Account with no Account Number or a Vendor with no Vendor Id), then that unused field must be left blank or the import will not properly identify it.
An import creates and/or updates records by reviewing the following Key Fields:
Bills
- Vendor Name*
- Vendor Id
- Invoice #*
Invoices
- Invoice #*
Vendor Credits
- Vendor Name*
- Vendor ID
- Ref #*
- Credit Date*
Credit Memos
- Customer Name*
- Credit Memo #*
- Credit Date*
Vendors
- Vendor Name*
- Vendor Id
Customers
- Customer Name*
- Customer ID
Chart of Accounts
- Name*
- Account Number
Departments
- Name*
- Short Name
Items
- Name*
- Item ID
Classes
- Name*
- Class ID
Locations
- Location Name*
- Location ID
Jobs
- Job Name*
- Job ID
Note: Fields denoted with an asterisk are required.
Importing Transactions by row
When importing transactions, each row in the Import file is an individual line item. To include multiple line items on the same transaction, list each line item of that transaction consecutively in the import file. In addition, the value of the following fields must match in each row:
Bills
- Active?
- Vendor Name*
- Vendor Id
- Invoice #*
- Invoice Date*
- Due Date*
- GL Posting Date
- Description
Invoices
- Active?
- Customer Name*
- Customer ID
- Job Name
- Invoice #*
- Invoice Date*
- Due Date*
- GL Posting Date
- Customer Message
- P.O. Number
- To Print/Mail
- To Email
- Item Sales Tax Name
- Terms
- Sales Rep
- FOB
- Ship Date
- Ship Method
Vendor Credits
- Vendor Name*
- Vendor ID
- Ref #*
- Credit Date*
- GL Posting Date
- Description
- P.O. Number
- GL Account Name
- GL Account Number
Credit Memos
- Customer Name*
- Credit Memo #*
- Credit Memo Date*
- GL Posting Date
- Customer Message
- P.O. Number
- To Email
- Item Sales Tax Name
- Sales Tax Total
- Terms
- Sales Rep
- FOB
- Ship Date
- Ship Method
Things to know
- If an error occurs during an import, it will appear as failed. Click the View link in the Action column for information and download a CSV Error Report. The Error Report lists records that failed and the cause of the failure. Any record not listed in the report successfully imported.
- When updating Transactions, all fields are required. If fields are left blank, it can result in that field being cleared during the import. For example, if an update to a bill is imported and the GL account for each line is not included, the import will clear the existing GL Accounts.
- If a field in the Import file matches more than one record in Bill.com when creating or updating during an import, it will result in an error.
- When importing a transaction that has multiple line items, each line item should appear as its own line in the imported file, taking care to assure that details like the description field and the record number are consistent for each line of the multi-line transaction: failure to do so will result in import errors.
