QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Importing Data from Other Programs

Importing data from other programs comes in handy mostly for generating lists in QuickBooks. However, you can also import data to generate your chart of accounts (Acquiring a Chart of Accounts) or to load different versions of your company budget (Copying Budgets and Creating What-if Budgets). The biggest requirement for importing data is that the files have to be either Excel workbooks (.xls file or .xlsx file) or delimited text files, which separate each piece of information with commas or tabs.

Importing an Excel Spreadsheet

If you’re familiar with importing Excel spreadsheets into other programs, importing them into QuickBooks is a snap. In fact, QuickBooks includes several Excel import templates that walk you through getting your Excel data for customers, vendors, and items into the format that QuickBooks requires. (If you have a file that’s already formatted to work with QuickBooks, skip to the box on Importing Formatted Excel Files to learn how to import a preformatted file.) Here’s how to use the QuickBooks’ Excel import templates:

1. Choose File→Utilities→Import→Excel Files.

   QuickBooks opens the Add Your Excel Data to QuickBooks wizard.

2. Click the button for the type of data you want to import: Customers, Vendors, or Products I Sell.

   QuickBooks opens an Excel template for the type of data you’re importing, as shown in Figure 24-10.

   Figure 24-10. The Excel import templates not only get your data into the right fields, they also ...