Documentation/ Accounting/ Importing the chart of accounts
Importing the chart of accounts from Excel
Where you already have the chart of accounts in a spreadsheet, usually exported from the accounting program, it goes up whole instead of being typed. The import is by company: the first thing it asks is which one the accounts belong to.
Accounting › Chart of Accounts › Import
On this page
The four steps
The dialogue lists them itself:
- Select the client or company for the accounts.
- Download the Excel template.
- Fill it in with the accounts' codes and names.
- Upload the completed file.
Step 1: choose the company
This is required and it comes first. The accounts end up tied to the company chosen here: without it, the import button stays disabled and the dialogue tells you a client or company has to be selected first.
The company is found by tax number or by name. If the one you need is not there, the dialogue offers a link to create it without losing what you have already done.
This step is what lets the same chart exist separately for several companies. If you only keep one, always choose the same.
Step 2: the template
A button downloads the template, which has two columns: code and name. That is all: the company is not in the file, it is chosen at step 1.
Using the template is the sensible course, because it guarantees the headings are the ones the import expects.
Step 3: fill the file in
| Column | Rule |
|---|---|
| Code | Required. Maximum 20 characters. |
| Name | Required. |
A row missing either of them is rejected. Worth going over the file before uploading it: strip out subtotal rows, repeated headings and blank lines, which is what an export from an accounting program usually drags along.
Watch out for codes that begin with a zero. Excel turns them into numbers and loses the leading zero. Format the column as text before writing them.
Step 4: upload and import
Select the file and press import. The application tells you how many accounts it is about to process and asks you not to close the window until it finishes, showing the progress as it works.
While it imports you see a live count of created, duplicate and failed. The warning is explicit: close it and only the accounts processed up to that point will have been imported.
The result
| Figure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Created | New accounts that went in. |
| Duplicate (ignored) | An account with that code already existed. It is neither touched nor duplicated. |
| Failed | Rows that could not be processed. |
Duplicates turning up is not an error: it is the protection that lets you repeat an import without fear of duplicating the chart. If an import was cut off half way, simply run the whole thing again.
The errors reported row by row
When something fails, the message gives the row number and the reason, which lets you correct the spreadsheet without guessing:
| Message | What to correct |
|---|---|
| Row N: code or name missing | Fill the empty cell in or delete the row. |
| Row N: code exceeds 20 characters | Shorten the code. |
| The file contains no valid accounts to import | Check the headings: the template was probably not used. |
| The client selected is not valid for your account | Choose another company from the list. |
Where there are many errors, the message shows the first few and says how many more there are. Once those are corrected, run the whole import again: the ones already created will be ignored as duplicates.
Importing from the Monitor Informática PDF
Accounts with the Monitor Informática integration have a second route: uploading the chart of accounts PDF that program produces, with no spreadsheet template involved.
The client, supplier and expense sub-accounts are read from it. Where the PDF is not that listing, the application says so — this PDF is not a Monitor Informática chart of accounts — and imports nothing.
Import or load the general chart
| Import from Excel | General chart by country | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the accounts come from | Your file | The country's standard chart |
| Includes your sub-accounts | Yes, whichever you put in | No |
| Needs a file preparing | Yes | No |
| When to use it | When your chart is already built in another program | To start from scratch |
The two can be combined: load the country's general chart and then import your own sub-accounts. Matches are ignored.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The import button is disabled | No company has been chosen, or no file selected. | Complete the first two steps. |
| Every row comes out failed | The file's headings are not the template's. | Download the template and move the data into it. |
| The codes have lost their leading zero | Excel treated them as numbers. | Format the column as text and export again. |
| The import was cut off half way | The window was closed before it finished. | Run the whole thing again: the ones already created are ignored. |
| The accounts are not in the list | They were imported to a different company from the one filtered. | Change the filter by company. |