Import Contacts into Xero
If you have a list of suppliers and customers from your old system, you can import them into Xero accounting software – so you don’t have to add them in one-by-one. Or you can add your contacts in as you go.
Creating a new contact is as easy as typing in a new name when entering a transaction. Or, from ‘Contacts’, simply select ‘Add Contact’, complete the details you need and then save.
In Xero, a contact can be a customer and a supplier – so you don’t have to enter them twice or import them as two separate records.
To import a list of contacts, click on the ‘Import’ option and ‘Download the template file’. You should be able to export data out of your old software into a spreadsheet, which you can then copy into the correct columns on the Xero template.
You don’t have to fill out every column – as a minimum, all Xero needs is a contact name. But you can include a lot more – address, phone, email, Skype name, even default account codes to be used for a particular contact.
Once you’re ready, save the CSV file somewhere easy to find and make sure it is saved as a CSV – not Excel or any other format. Then browse to select it and import it into Xero. You can see how many contacts have been uploaded and if there have been any updates to existing contacts. Click the ‘Complete Import’ button and your contacts list will be updated.
If you just want to get rid of a contact, you can archive them. Just tick the ones you want or bulk select at the top and click ‘Archive’.
You can also merge two instances of the same contact that have been entered slightly differently. You can make further changes at any time by simply clicking into the contact and choosing ‘Edit’. So, if you’d like to add anything you didn’t include in the import, you can complete those fields from directly within Xero.