WorkGuru Data Import Overview

Importing data is a relatively simple procedure, but its success is dependent on the quality of the data imported and ensuring the import templates are formatted as correctly as possible.  It is worth spending the time to review the following before importing your data into WorkGuru.

Import vs Update

It is important to understand whether your import is able to update existing data or not.  The import page will detail if the import can update or is import only. If the import is flagged Not For Updating, if you import the same data it WILL create duplicates.

Spreadsheet Checks

• Spreadsheet Auto-formatting - When opening existing data exports, ensure you aren't compromising data due to it being auto-formatted by your spreadsheet application. Spreadsheet apps tend to strip away leading zeros and auto-format barcodes and dates. To be 100% sure source data is not being auto-formatted, try importing your data into your preferred spreadsheet application. All spreadsheets provide this function, and allow you to turn off autoformatting. Below is the example function in Google Sheets with Excel having a similar function.
• Rows and Columns - It is recommended, if possible, to remove rows and columns which do not contain data.
• Cell Formats - As the primary import file is a csv (comma separated values), it may be beneficial to change the entire import template to text or plain text format to ensure what you are seeing in the spreadsheet is what is going to be imported.

Data Checks

• Template Headers - The WorkGuru import templates require ALL mandatory template headers to be included, even if they contain no data.
• Date Formats - All WorkGuru imports require the following date format:  DD/MM/YYYY.   Note: must have two characters for the day and month (01/01/2024).  Prefix with a zero for single digit days/months.
• Pricing - All pricing fields require a numerical value to import successfully.  If you are importing data which does not have a price, you must include a 0, instead of leaving blank.
• Mandatory Data - Be aware data required by WorkGuru may not be available in your previous system. For example, SKUs (stock keeping units/product codes) are mandatory for product import in WorkGuru but may not be present in the available data. These need to be generated and populated before import.
• Existing Data - Some WorkGuru import templates require data already exist in WorkGuru for the import to match.  For example clients, suppliers, product SKUs etc. Ensure required data has already been imported - usually simply just making sure data imports are done in the correct order.
• Spaces - Ensure the data does not have any leading or trailing spaces.  These are hard to 'see' but can potentially cause a lot of ongoing issues.  For example, product code with a trailing space, will not match a product code without it, as the space is counted as a legitimate character and therefore will no longer match as the same code.   Google sheets provide a great tool to analyse and remove these spaces.
• Unsupported Characters - Like most text based import templates, it is important to ensure non-supported characters are removed.  Common examples are currency symbols ($), which prevent prices being the required numerical format  and commas (,), which may interfere with the way the data in the csv is separated on import.
• Duplicates - Ensure your data does not have duplicates on their mandatory fields.  If duplicates are present, depending on the type of import, it will either import the duplicates as they appear in the spreadsheet, or override the data so the fields of the last duplicate in the import is what is appears in WorkGuru.