Reusable Spreadsheet Data Imports

Use a data import when you regularly receive the same CSV or Excel export and want Peasy to remember how it maps into bills, sales orders, or work orders. Each data import keeps the saved mapping, import activity, and item links from past runs, so the next file goes through faster.

Data imports cover bills, sales orders, and work orders from spreadsheets you upload yourself. Shopify and QuickBooks sync separately under Integrations — they don't appear in the Data Imports list.

How to Get There

1. Open Configure in the sidebar.
2. Expand Data Imports.
3. Click Add Data Import to start a new one, or click an existing data import to upload another file with the same mapping.

You can also reach the wizard from the command palette (Cmd+K → "Add Data Import"), or from the shared import experience for Inbox documents, bills, sales orders, and work orders. Peasy hands spreadsheet files to an embedded Data Imports wizard inside that same flow, with no navigation required. On Make > Work Orders, select Bulk upload beside New Work Order to open a Work Order spreadsheet with 25 editable starter rows.

Upload a File

Drag a file onto the upload zone, click to choose a file, or paste rows directly from a spreadsheet. Peasy accepts:

• CSV and TSV files
• XLS and XLSX spreadsheets (Peasy reads the first sheet)
• Pasted rows from any spreadsheet app

Give the data import a name like "Faire wholesale orders" or "Acme vendor invoices." The name appears in the Data Imports list and at the top of that data import's page.

Fixing Your Spreadsheet Inside Peasy

The panel showing your uploaded file is a spreadsheet you can edit, so a typo or a missing value doesn't mean re-exporting the file and starting over. Your original file on your computer is never changed — Peasy only edits the copy it imports.

Click a cell to select it, then type to replace it or press Enter to edit what's there. You can also:

• Select more than one cell — drag across a range, click a column header to take the whole column, use the # corner to take everything, or tick the checkbox on a row number to select whole rows.
• Move around with the keyboard — arrow keys move the selection, Tab moves across, Enter commits an edit and drops down a row, and Esc cancels an edit and puts the old value back.
• Copy and paste — copy a selection out, or paste rows straight from Excel or Google Sheets. Pasting into the blank rows at the bottom adds new records.
• Clear what you selected — press Delete or Backspace to empty the selected cells without removing the rows.
• Duplicate a row — use the copy icon at the end of a row to add a matching row underneath it.
• Widen a column — drag the edge of a column header. Column widths are just for reading; they aren't saved with the import.

There are always blank rows at the bottom for adding records. A blank row you never type into is ignored, so it won't turn into an empty bill or order.

Editing After Records Are Staged

Editing on the Review step works the same way. The records on the right were built from the spreadsheet as it was, so Peasy tells you they're out of date. You have two ways to bring them up to date:

• Click Complete — Peasy rebuilds the records from your corrected data and then finishes the import in one step.
• Click Update records — Peasy rebuilds the records but stays on Review so you can look them over before you finish.

Either way rebuilds from your corrected data and replaces the previous version. If your edit changes a customer or vendor name, or leaves something that still needs attention — a new item to match, or a row Peasy couldn't rebuild — Peasy stops on that step so you can sort it out, and does not finish the import until you do.

The Five Steps

After upload, the wizard walks you through five steps. Hover over or focus the action bar at the bottom of the screen to expand the step tracker.

1. Setup — Peasy parses the file and asks you to confirm whether it is Bills or Sales orders by choosing a card. When the file's headers point one way, that card shows a Suggested hint, but nothing is selected until you pick — and you can change the type before continuing. If the file exactly or substantially matches an active saved template from a past import, Peasy shows the match and lets you Use saved template (reuse its remembered mapping and defaults) or Set up a new template (start a distinct template while keeping useful field-mapping suggestions) — it no longer applies a template for you automatically. Then set any import-level choices: for sales-order imports, choose Multiple orders or Single order. Multiple orders creates one sales order per unique Order Number mapped in Map fields. Channel is always available as an optional attribution.
2. Map fields — review the suggested column mapping. The left panel shows your uploaded spreadsheet next to the mapping, and you can edit it there — see Fixing Your Spreadsheet Inside Peasy.
3. Map customers/vendors — confirm any customer or vendor matches Peasy needs before staging. The spreadsheet stays editable; changing it returns you to Map fields so Peasy can rebuild this review from the corrected rows.
4. Map items — if any line items in the file aren't linked to Peasy items yet, match or create them here. Records without item mappings can't be finalized. The spreadsheet stays editable; changing it returns you to Map fields so the staged records and item matches can be rebuilt. See Matching External Items to Peasy Items for how matching works.
5. Review — check the records and row counts, and deal with anything that needs attention. You can still correct the spreadsheet here. Click Update records to rebuild and stay on Review, or click Complete to rebuild any changes and create the records.

Work Order imports use the same wizard with a shorter target-specific sequence. Peasy's starter sheet goes through Add Work Orders → Map templates → Review → Complete because its fields are already known. Other uploaded spreadsheets go through Choose Work Orders → Map fields → Map templates → Review → Complete. Each row is one work order, so there are no grouping controls. On Map templates, choose an active template for every distinct Item Name or SKU, or choose Ignore rows with this value. Peasy remembers source-specific template choices for later uploads. Rows with a Planned Date become Planned work orders; rows without one become Drafts.

The Work Order starter sheet accepts Item Name, SKU, Unit, Quantity, Planned Date, Location, and Notes. Quantity must be positive. When Unit is supplied, it must be compatible with the selected template output item's unit family. The template must be active, have an output item, and have a positive yield. Custom spreadsheets can still use headers such as Item Code or Product Code and map them to SKU.

For sales-order imports, the Channel chosen on Setup is remembered as a default for future uploads of the same data import. If you leave Customer blank in Map fields, Peasy uses that Channel as both the order's Customer and its reporting tag. You can instead select or map a different Customer while keeping the Channel for reporting. If Peasy remembers a Customer from an earlier upload and you want the selected Channel to be the buyer for this import, open Customer and choose the Use Channel … instead option. Peasy shows this option only when a remembered Customer and a different selected Channel are competing for the current import. Channel attribution does not apply to bill imports.

Single order combines every spreadsheet row into one sales order, with each row imported as a line item. In Map fields, map Customer to an uploaded column or choose one Peasy customer. Completed sales-order imports appear in Sales Orders; completed bill imports appear in Bills.

Refresh-Safe Progress

For a Bill, Sales Order, or Work Order spreadsheet, close the wizard and choose Save draft when you want to stop and continue later. Peasy saves the uploaded rows, spreadsheet corrections, mapping choices, customer or vendor decisions, and Work Order template choices without creating records. The saved import appears as one pending row in the Inbox and under Import Activity for that data import; open either row to resume at the step where you stopped.

The close dialog also offers Keep editing and Close without saving. Closing without saving discards changes made since the last draft save. If saving fails, the wizard stays open with your work intact so you can try again.

When Review contains spreadsheet corrections that have not been rebuilt, saving a draft keeps those corrections. When you return, use Update records to rebuild the staged records for another look, or Complete to rebuild and finish the import in one step.

For a Work Order spreadsheet, the saved draft also keeps your production-template choices. The browser warning remains as a fallback whenever the wizard has unsaved work.

What Peasy Detects

While you're in the wizard, Peasy looks at headers, sample rows, and the filename to detect:

• Whether the file looks like bills or sales orders — shown as a suggestion on the record-type cards, never selected for you.
• Whether it matches an active saved template from a previous data import. Peasy shows the match on Setup: an exact column match must reuse that template (to create a new one, first change the uploaded columns), while a substantial match asks whether to use the saved template or set up a new one. Choosing new may reuse field-mapping suggestions, but it does not reuse the old template's saved defaults or connection.
• How rows should group into records (multiple line items for one bill, or one record per row, or grouped by a key column like Order ID).
• Which column identifies line items.
• Whether vendor/customer review or item mapping is needed before staging.
• For sales-order imports, whether customer names come from a column or one Peasy customer, and whether the run should be attributed to a Channel.

Detected values like grouping and column mapping fill in when Peasy is confident, and the wizard asks you to pick when it isn't. The record type and a matched saved template are always your explicit choice — a detection only suggests, it never selects for you.

Item Review and Matching

Spreadsheet imports use item matching when a bill or sales order line refers to something Peasy does not recognize yet. Match the external line-item name or SKU to the right Peasy item before continuing to Review.

Peasy remembers item mappings for each data import. The next time you upload a similar spreadsheet, known line items can skip review and flow straight to record review.

For the shared matching rules, including when to use an existing item family versus creating a new one, see Matching External Items to Peasy Items.

Filters and Statuses on Review

The cards across the top of Review show how many records are in the import and what needs attention. Orders, Bills, or Work Orders appears first and shows every record. The other cards appear when applicable: Errors, Issues, Imported, Updates, and Skipped.

Click a card to show only those records. The selected card uses Peasy's primary color. Click the selected card again, or click the first record-count card, to return to every record.

Each record also has a badge describing what the import will do: Create, Update, Match, Skip, or Error. After an import, those labels use past tense, such as Created or Updated. A fulfilled order adds Fulfilled after a dot because changing it may affect inventory. Hover over or focus a badge for more context.

When a badge links to an existing Peasy order, click it to open the order in a new tab. The tooltip calls out that action on a separate line.

Error cards keep a red border and a red Error badge. Only source rows and row numbers with an actual error receive error styling. Issues use amber styling and do not block completion. Peasy flags an issue when the same SKU appears under different product names, or when a row with a blank SKU could match multiple SKUs with the same name. Click the issue message to jump to the affected source row.

When Some Records Can't Be Imported

One bad row no longer blocks the whole file. Peasy imports every record it can and holds the rest on the Review step with the reason it couldn't be applied — a missing quantity, a blank item name, or a value it couldn't read. Use Errors to show only the records that could not be imported. An error message can take you to the exact source row so you can correct it in the spreadsheet.

If a record fails because its rows are already linked to several different Peasy records, Peasy explains what happened, what to do about it, and what happens if you do nothing. The usual fix is to upload the file again and set Record grouping to one record per order or bill instead of combining everything into one.

For each held record you can either:

• Correct the row in the spreadsheet panel and click Update records, or
• Fix the source file and upload it again, or
• Once every remaining record has failed, click Complete without N bills/orders and confirm to skip them, which leaves them out of this import.

An import finishes once every record is either imported or skipped, so a file with a few bad rows still completes. Records you already imported stay saved, and the skipped source data remains visible under Import Activity — but skipping can't be undone within that import.

Accounting footer rows — a trailing "Total" line with an amount and no item — are dropped automatically and counted as skipped rows rather than turning into an empty bill or order.

Deleting a Pending Upload

If you no longer need an upload and nobody has tried Complete yet, you can remove it from Review.

1. Open the pending upload for that data import, then continue to Review if needed.
2. Click Delete in the bottom action bar.
3. Choose Keep import to cancel, or Delete import to permanently remove the pending upload and its review work.

After deletion, Review closes and the upload disappears from the pending list. The saved data import and its mapping remain available for another upload. Deleting an upload does not undo bills, sales orders, work orders, or other records already added to your account.

If anyone has already tried Complete, or some records were imported before an error, keep the import and contact Peasy support before deleting it. A return to Review does not mean that nothing was imported.

Reviewing What You Imported

Click Complete on the Review step to create the bills, sales orders, or work orders. If every remaining record has failed, the action changes to Complete without N bills/orders and asks you to confirm before Peasy skips those records. Spreadsheet Data Imports do not create a separate Inbox document for every staged record.

When you use the full-screen Data Imports wizard, completion returns you to the data import page. An embedded import returns you to the Bills, Sales Orders, or Inbox flow where you started. To review either kind of upload later, open the data import under Configure → Data Imports.

Under Import Activity, each upload shows its file name, status, uploader, date, row and record counts, and how many records were applied. Click a completed upload to open its read-only record details; closing the details returns you to Import Activity.

If you leave after records are staged but before clicking Complete, select that upload under Import Activity to resume the wizard. A saved Bill, Sales Order, or Work Order draft can also be resumed there before records are staged. Pending imports appear as one combined row in the Inbox; they never expand into one Inbox row per spreadsheet record.

Settings on the Data Import

Open an existing data import under Configure → Data Imports. Its page includes:

• The data import name, which you can edit at the top.
• Template — review the saved field, item, customer, or vendor mappings. Use the matching Review button when a source value needs to be relinked.
• Import Activity — pending and completed uploads. Select a pending upload to resume it or a completed upload to review its read-only details.

To retire a data import, open the Actions menu beside it in the Active Data Imports list and choose Archive data import. Archiving removes it from the active list and retires its saved mapping, while keeping its import activity and the bills or sales orders it already created.

Good to Know

• Data imports stage bills, sales orders, and work orders. Importing items, customers, or vendors uses separate flows — see Importing Items from a CSV and the bulk-add tools on the Customers and Vendors pages.
• Files larger than 10,000 rows need to be split before upload.
• Peasy creates bills, sales orders, or work orders only after you reach Review and click Complete.
• Need help mapping or running a tricky import? Drop the file into a Beacon chat — see Using Beacon for Data Imports.

Related

• Using Beacon for Data Imports — analyze and stage from chat
• Matching External Items to Peasy Items — match spreadsheet line items to Peasy items
• Integrations Overview — Shopify, QuickBooks, and other connections
• Importing Items from a CSV — item catalog import