Ambivo Books User Guide
DocsUG-060
Data Import
Importing chart of accounts, opening balances, bank transactions, masters
Books has three dedicated importers in the frontend today — Chart of Accounts, Trial Balance (opening balances), and Bank Transactions. All three share the same pattern: upload a file, confirm column mapping, preview, import.
Customer, vendor, and product imports are not currently exposed in the Books frontend — those master records typically come in through the Core Ambivo platform or via the REST API. This guide covers the three accounting importers in depth.
Common Pattern
Every importer follows the same four steps:
- Upload — Drop a CSV or XLSX file
- Validate — Books parses the file, auto-detects column headers, lets you map them, and shows you what it sees
- Import — You confirm and Books processes the rows
- Complete — A summary tells you how many rows imported, how many failed, and why
The validate step is your safety net. Always look at the preview before clicking Import. Importing is reversible only by manual cleanup.
Importing the Chart of Accounts
Use this when you are migrating from another accounting system or have an accountant-prepared chart in a spreadsheet.
Getting There
- Click Accounts in the sidebar
- Click Import at the top, or open the Import Chart of Accounts screen directly
File Format
A CSV or XLSX with at least two columns:
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | Account name |
| Type | Yes | One of the 21 account types — see Chart of Accounts |
| Code | No | Account code |
| Currency | No | 3-letter ISO code; defaults to entity base currency |
| Description | No | Free text |
| Category | No | Will be created if it does not exist |
Books accepts a wide variety of header names — "Account Name", "AccountName", "Name", "ACCT NAME" all work.
Steps
- From the import screen, drag in your file
- Confirm the column mapping — Books auto-detects but lets you override
- Set a default Currency for accounts that do not specify one
- Preview the parsed rows
- Fix any errors highlighted by the validator
- Click Import
What Happens Next
Each row becomes an account. Existing accounts with the same name are skipped (or updated, depending on your selection); new accounts are created.
A summary at the end shows how many were created, updated, or skipped.
Importing a Trial Balance (Opening Balances)
Use this when you are bringing forward closing balances from a previous accounting system. Books posts a single Opening Balance transaction that sets every account's starting balance at once.
Getting There
Open the Import Trial Balance screen (from Settings, or directly via the URL)
File Format
A CSV or XLSX with at least three columns:
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Account (or Name / Code) | Yes | Identifier matching an account in your COA |
| Debit | Yes | Debit balance (or 0 / blank) |
| Credit | Yes | Credit balance (or 0 / blank) |
Total debits must equal total credits — if they do not, your opening balance does not balance, and Books will not let you import.
Steps
- Make sure your Chart of Accounts is in place first (run the COA import if needed)
- From the Trial Balance import screen, drag in your file
- Confirm column mapping
- Set the As-of date for the opening balances (typically the day before your first transaction in Books — e.g., Dec 31 if you are starting Books on Jan 1)
- Set the Currency
- Preview
- Click Import
Books automatically creates (or finds) an "Opening Balance Equity" account to absorb any rounding or imbalance in the source, so you do not need to pick the equity account by hand. Make sure your source totals balance to start with — if they do, the Opening Balance Equity entry will be zero.
What Happens Next
Books creates one Opening Balance transaction with line items for every account, posts it to the ledger, and your reports immediately reflect the opening position.
If you re-import after correcting a mistake, void the prior Opening Balance transaction first — otherwise you double up.
Importing Bank Transactions
Use this for manual bank accounts (accounts not connected via Stripe FC). For connected accounts, transactions arrive automatically — no import needed.
Getting There
- Open the manual bank account in Bank Feeds
- Click Import Transactions
- Or open the Import Bank Transactions screen directly.
File Format
A CSV or XLSX exported from your bank. Common bank formats are auto-detected. The required fields are:
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Yes | Transaction date |
| Description | Yes | Memo from the bank |
| Amount | Yes | Single signed amount, or split into Debit / Credit columns |
| Reference | No | Cheque number, wire reference, etc. |
Most banks export something like "Date, Description, Debit, Credit, Balance" — Books understands this layout.
Steps
- From the import screen, drag in your CSV
- Confirm the bank account you are importing into
- Map columns (auto-detected for common formats)
- Books shows a step-by-step progress: Upload → Validate → Import → Complete
- Review duplicate detection — Books flags rows that appear to already exist (matching date + amount + description)
- Choose Skip duplicates or Import all
- Click Import
What Happens Next
Each imported row becomes a Bank Transaction in the Unmatched state. From here, work through the matching workflow — see Bank Transactions and Reconciliation (UG-031).
Duplicate Handling
The duplicate detector compares by (account, date, amount, description). If you re-import the same statement, duplicates are flagged and you can choose to skip them. This makes it safe to re-upload a corrected file.
Importing Customers, Vendors, and Products
A bulk importer for customers, vendors, and products is not currently exposed in the Books frontend. Use one of these paths instead:
- The Core Ambivo platform has a CSV importer for customers, vendors, and products. Records imported there appear in Books automatically because the master records are shared.
- The REST API can be scripted to bulk-create records. See the API documentation for endpoints under /customers, /vendors, and /products.
A frontend importer for these lists is on the Books roadmap.
Migrating from QuickBooks
If you are coming from QuickBooks Online or Desktop, the typical migration sequence is:
- Export your Chart of Accounts from QuickBooks → import it
- Export your Trial Balance as of your switchover date → import opening balances
- Export Customers and Vendors → import them
- Export Products → import them
- Start entering transactions in Books from the switchover date forward
Historical transaction detail does not need to be imported — your opening balances carry the cumulative effect. Keep the old QuickBooks file as your historical archive.
If your tenant is configured to keep QuickBooks as the system of record, the migration is different — see QuickBooks Migration and Read-Only Mode (UG-090).
File Format Tips
- Use UTF-8 encoding. CSVs in Latin-1 or other encodings sometimes garble accented characters.
- First row should be headers. Books expects column names in row 1.
- Don't include totals or subtotals in the data rows — they confuse the parser.
- Avoid merged cells in XLSX — they often parse to blank in adjacent cells.
- Numeric amounts should not have currency symbols ("1234.56", not "$1,234.56"). Books tolerates a few formats but plain numbers are safest.
Common Questions
Can I undo an import?
Not as a single action. You have to delete or void the imported rows individually. For Trial Balance imports, void the single Opening Balance transaction the import created.
What if my source data has more accounts than my COA?
The COA importer creates new accounts as needed. The Trial Balance importer fails if it sees an account that does not exist — run the COA import first.
Can I import a comparative trial balance (this year and last year)?
No — the importer creates a single Opening Balance transaction. For comparatives, run two separate imports for two separate as-of dates, or post journal entries.
What if my CSV has columns my fields do not match?
Map them to "(skip)" in the column mapping step. Books ignores unmapped columns.
My import failed and I cannot tell why
The error message in the failure summary should tell you. Common failures: missing required column, account does not exist (TB import), duplicate detection fired but you did not pick a strategy, debits ≠ credits (TB import).
Can I import customers in bulk with Wise recipient details?
The customer importer covers basic fields. Wise recipients are created separately (one per vendor) and there is no bulk recipient import today.
What encoding should I use for international characters?
UTF-8. Excel sometimes saves CSVs in another encoding by default — re-save with "CSV UTF-8" if you see garbled text.
Tips and Best Practices
- Always preview before importing. A 10-second preview review catches almost every mistake.
- Import in this order: COA → Trial Balance → Customers/Vendors/Products → forward transactions. Each step depends on the previous.
- Set the Trial Balance as-of date carefully. It should be the day before your first Books transaction, not the same day.
- Keep your source file until you are confident the import was correct. Re-imports are easier with the original file.
- Test with a small file first if you are nervous. Import 10 accounts, look at the result, then import the rest.
- Don't keep importing the same file repeatedly to "fix" things. Use deletes/voids and one clean import.