| Purpose & Benefits |
|---|
| This function allows you to import and update TAS Customer information from ASCII CSV text files – 100’s of records are processed in seconds. You can achieve major savings because the expensive, time-consuming and error-prone tasks of manually re-keying this data to the TAS Ledgers are automated. For each Customer there are almost 100 columns of data available to you. Not only can you add new Customers to TAS, but also, at the same time, you can optionally update the current TAS data for existing ones. The ASCII CSV text file may be created automatically by your “front-end” system, but can also be produced from a spreadsheet. It can use either the traditional TAS layout or the equivalent Sage layout. Note that you can set your preferences for which of these layouts to use and in which folder they are to be found with the Maintain Central Information function from the Central menu. The Customer records are handled in pretty well the same way as if you used TAS function 211 (Maintain Customers) to create/edit them. |
Important
The file containing the records for import must be output from your third party software or spreadsheet as a Comma Separated Variable file (CSV) called ‘NAMES.DAT’, if you are using the traditional TAS layouts, or ‘CUST.CSV’/’SUPP.CSV’ (Customers/Suppliers), if you are using the Sage layouts; thus, for example, for a default single user PC it could be C:\TASData\Company001\Accounts\NAMES.DAT. The order, format and size of the fields/columns for each record are critical for the import to succeed. Full details of the current file specifications, which must be used to output your data from your third party software, are documented separately in TAS Data Transfer File Specs which you can obtain from the Infoplex website, together with a TAS Data Transfer Toolkit containing sample files. It is crucial that you and/or your third party software provider follow these specifications. The specifications also give you useful information about how the program behaves if the import file contains blank or invalid data in the various fields/columns.
On selecting the Customer Import function from the Processing menu, the Import Customers form appears, like the one shown below.
At the top of the screen is a progress bar, which initially displays the number of records it has found in the import file.
Before importing you can alter the following run-time options:
| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Update Name? | Unchecked | With this option checked, if a customer in the import file already exists in TAS and the customer’s name in the import file is different from the customer’s name in TAS, the program only updates the customer name field in the TAS record (i.e. no other fields are updated) provided that the Update Nothing? option is not ticked. |
| Update Nothing? | Unchecked | With this box ticked, if a customer in the import file already exists in TAS, the information from the import file will not update the customer’s record in TAS (but all new Customer details will be created in TAS). If neither option box is ticked all the details in TAS are updated. |
| Ignore Blank Values | Checked | If you create an import file that only populates certain columns (including the Customer Code), leaving other columns present but blank, only the populated columns will be updated. |
| Show Warnings in Log? | Checked | Uncheck this box to make the Log text file less verbose by excluding warnings; only errors will then be reported. |
Import
Click this button to start the routine which imports the contents of the ASCII CSV import file. Those Customers for whom no records already exist in TAS have new records created. Those existing in TAS have their records updated unless you have ticked the Update Nothing? check box.
The Progress bar lets you to see the progress of the import. The processing of hundreds of records is completed in seconds and the program automatically renames the ASCII CSV import file by inserting the date and the run number for that date in that folder, i.e. in the format of:
[original filename] _YYYY-MM-DD_NN. A message box advises you about this:
If there are errors or warnings you can review them in the log file immediately by clicking Yes. Alternatively you can view it later.
Note that the log file is assigned the name ‘Cust_IMP’ + a Date & Number using the same method as described above for the ASCII CSV import file, for example: Cust_IMP_2024-07-24_01.LOG. Please note that if a log file of the same name exists in that folder it is overwritten, the run number being determined from the renamed import file’s numbering.
The progress bar on the Import form indicates that the import is complete:
Click Exit to close the Customer Import form.