How do I import my clients from a spreadsheet?

You do not have to retype your client book. Go to Clients › Import Customers & Pets: the Import Clients button on the Clients page, the setup checklist row "Bring your clients over", or search "import" in Settings. The importer takes the file your old software exports and walks you through four steps: Upload, Validate, Preview, Done.

Steps

1. Click Download template if you want the exact column layout, or use your own export. CSV and Excel both work.
2. Drop the file on the upload box. One row per pet; repeat the owner's details on each of their pets' rows. A file of clients with no pets works too.
3. On Validate, read the three counts: rows that are ready, rows Woof tidied for you (phone formats, dates, yes/no answers, names split into first and last), and rows it will skip, each with the reason.
4. On Preview, check the real owners and pets it found. The counts of unique customers, pets and vaccine records come from your file, not a guess.
5. Click Continue importing. Woof creates each owner and then their pets, and shows how many were created, matched to existing clients, skipped, or failed.

What the file needs

Every row needs the owner's First Name and Last Name. If your old system puts the whole name in one column (headed Client Name, Customer Name, Owner Name or Full Name), Woof splits it for you: "Jane Smith" and "Smith, Jane" both become Jane / Smith, and in a longer name the first word is the first name. A name with only one word is skipped and listed, so you can fix it rather than have Woof guess.

A row with a pet needs a Pet Name. A row with no pet details at all is imported as a client on their own, so a clients-only file works. A row with some pet details (a breed, say) but no pet name is skipped and listed.

If your store marks other fields as required under Settings › Profile Fields, those are required here too (pet fields only on rows that have a pet).

Woof recognises columns by their header, so you rarely need to rename anything. Email, phone, address, breed, species, gender, birthday, spayed/neutered, weight, colour, allergies, medications, vet, and the expiry dates for rabies, DHPP, Bordetella and flea/tick are all picked up. Columns it does not recognise are listed as ignored, never treated as errors.

Two optional columns are worth keeping if your old system exports them: Customer ID and Pet ID. Woof stores them as the record's reference, which makes a second import of the same file match rather than duplicate.

Running it twice is safe

Before creating an owner, Woof looks for an existing client with the same Customer ID, then the same email. If it finds one, the pets are added to that client instead. A pet whose name already exists on that client is skipped, so importing the same file again creates nothing new.

Adding pets to clients you already have

Use Import Pets instead. Each row names the pet and enough to find the owner: Customer ID, email, or first and last name (one name column is split the same way). Owners are matched, never created; a row with no match is skipped and listed before anything is written, so you can fix the file first.

Clients and pets in separate files

Import the clients file here first, then the pets file with Import Pets. Keep the Customer ID column in both files if your old system has one: it is the surest way to match each pet to its owner.

When the export is messy

If your old system gives you balances, notes, appointment history or a file that will not validate, click Request Assisted Import and attach the raw files (up to 25 MB each). You get a request number straight away, and we load the data for you. Bigger files, a database backup, or a Google Drive or Dropbox link: email them to support@woof.net instead.

Moving from another system

Download your files before you cancel your old software. Then either import them here, or email them to support@woof.net (or send a Google Drive or Dropbox link) and we move everything for you: clients, pets, notes and future appointments. Step-by-step guides: Moving from DaySmart Pet, Moving from MoeGo and Moving from Gingr.

If your trial has ended

The import creates clients, so if your free trial ended before you added a card it is paused along with adding clients: the Upload step says so, and the file area is closed. Nothing you already imported is affected. Adding a card on the Membership page opens the import again straight away. You can still request an assisted import and we will run it once your plan is active.