How to Import Customers into BMS

Created by Greg Lock - Innovative Solutions, Modified on Wed, 19 Aug at 5:56 PM by Greg Lock - Innovative Solutions

Summary

Customers in BMS are your main customer records and can include company name, registered name, trading name, physical address, main contact person, telephone number, and web address. This article explains how to import customers using the BMS import wizard.

How to import customers into BMS

Step 1: Prepare the customer import file

Step 2: Start a customer import in BMS

Step 3: Preview, map, and confirm the import

Step 4: Process and verify the imported records

Step 1: Prepare the customer import file

Use the attached CSV template for the customer import.

Populate the file with the customer details you want to import.

Include the required fields such as:

Company name

Registered name

Trading name

Physical address

Main contact person

Telephone number

Web address
Other necessary fields

Save the file in CSV UTF-8 format.

Step 2: Start a customer import in BMS

Go to the Admin module.

Click the three dots menu.

Select Manage Imports.

Click New Import.

Set the Import Type to Customer.

Click Browse and select the CSV file you prepared.

Add a description for the import if needed.

This is optional, but it helps identify the purpose of the import later.

Set the Import Behaviour to Update existing or add new record.

Other options are available, such as Update existing only or Add only new, but in most cases the recommended option is Update existing or add new record.

Click Preview Import.

Step 3: Preview, map, and confirm the import

Review the next step in the import wizard where the columns are mapped.

If you used the attached template, the fields should map automatically.

Check the sample rows to confirm the uploaded fields match the BMS fields correctly.

If everything looks correct, click Confirm Import.

Step 4: Process and verify the imported records

The import will move to a staging view where the rows are listed for processing.

Review the rows and confirm the data is correct.

Click Process Item for a single record, or Process Pending Items to process multiple records in bulk.

If successful, the item will show as created or updated.

Open the Ignored tab to check for any records that were skipped or returned an error.

Click a created record to open the customer record in BMS and verify the captured information.

Important notes

Customers imported into BMS become available across all modules, including Sales and Service.

BMS should be treated as the main source of truth for customer information.

Additional contacts are imported separately and are covered in a different article.

If you need to update fields such as default invoice email method or payment terms, follow the relevant separate articles for those settings.

If a record already exists, the recommended import behaviour is to update it rather than create a duplicate.

Check the Ignored tab after every import to confirm there were no errors.

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Attachments (1)

csv

BMS Customer Import Template (190826).csv
687 Bytes