If users wish to bring transactions from another financial software, they may take advantage of the transaction import utility instead of adding the transactions manually.
Note: Before attempting to import your data, consult the list below of prerequisites, as you may need to make some adjustments to your data and/or format.
- Data requirements include:
- Any payees referenced in a transaction must already exist in Ledger.
- Any accounts referenced in a transaction must already exist in Ledger.
- Debits and credits are required.
- Each transaction must have a row for each line item.
- The file must include at least 10 rows of data.
- There must be at least one transaction that lists a payee.
- And your file must have columns specifying at least 7 items below:
- Date
- Transaction type
- Check or document number (a number is not required for each transaction, but the field is required).
- Account
- Credit
- Debit
- Payee
- And format requirements:
- The import file must be saved as a .csv (comma delimited) file type.
- Issues may occur if UTF-8 CSV, MS-DOS CSV or Mac CSV formats are used.
- There must be an empty row between each transaction.
- Date information must be saved/display in a date format.
- Account names should not have a period in them.
- Amounts must be formatted as numbers with 2 decimal places, rather than as currency. And be sure that "Use 1000 Separator (,) is un-checked, as shown below:
- The import file must be saved as a .csv (comma delimited) file type.
A sample template is available at the bottom of this article, though it is not required to use the transaction import utility. Exported files from other financial software can be used directly with this utility as long as they are CSV.
To import transactions from a CSV file:
On your Ledger site, click the General Ledger link at the top, and then select Import, from the upper-right of the window next to "Show Voided", "Print" and "Export".
Click Choose File and browse to/select your CSV data file.
Once the file name shows next to "Choose File", click Upload to begin.
Under "Select Header Row", use the arrows to the right of the selections to choose which row in the file is to be used for column headers. This will help with matching columns to their respective fields
Under "Select Last Data Row", use the arrows to the right of the selections to choose which row contains the last line item of the last transaction to be imported and click "Next".
In the next window, use the drop-down menus to match column headers from the file to expected columns for transaction fields. Other than "Line item memo", all field selections are required to successfully import your data. Click Next when you've selected expected fields for at least those 7 required columns.
Make sure all the transaction types in your file are matched with the corresponding types in Ledger. The importer will attempt to make the appropriate selections automatically, but if any are missing, you can use the drop-down to match them manually. Then click Next.
Then make sure the payees from your file match up with corresponding payees in Ledger, and click Next again:
On the next view, make sure all of your accounts are matched to the accounts already in Ledger. use the drop-down to match them manually if any are not, and then click Finish.
You should see a summary of your import as it goes. When complete, click Done.
The import will close and you will be returned to the General Ledger view, where you can verify your data.