Import orders from a file

Settings › Sales & orders › Import orders brings orders in from a spreadsheet — usually the export of the software you used before. MoveBoard matches the file's columns to its own, checks every row, and shows you what would be imported before anything is.

Before you start

• Anyone who can open Settings can import. The orders go into the branch you are working in.
• The file must be .csv or .xlsx, with the column headings in the first row. An old Excel .xls file must be saved as .xlsx or .csv first.
• Exports from SmartMoving, Moveworx, SuperMove, Granot and HomeAdvisor are recognised by their column names.

The five steps

1. Upload File — drop the file on the box or click to choose it.
2. Map Columns — each MoveBoard field shows the Column in your file matched to it. Change any match that is wrong. Still to match: lists required fields with no column yet (a full-name column can stand in for first and last name). A column you don't need can be Not imported (kept in the notes). Press Validate data.
3. Validate Data — the rows with problems and what is wrong with each. Type a fix straight into the cell, then press Re-validate. Download problems gives you the whole list (the screen shows the first 200).
4. Preview & Import — how many orders are ready to import, and the first 20 of them. Decide on Don't send any emails or texts for these orders and Import again even if already imported (see below), then press Import.
5. Import Progress — the orders go in a few at a time. Keep the page open until it says Import complete. Total, Processed, Remaining, Imported and Failed are the import's own counts — the same ones Import history shows.

Back to mapping, Upload new file and Start over let you go back at any point before you press Import.

Emails and texts

• Ticked: every imported order, and every customer the import adds, is set to receive no emails and no texts. Switch them on per order when you want to write to the customer.
• Not ticked: the imported orders take emails and texts like any other order — reminders and other automatic messages will go to these customers.

Orders already imported

Each row's order number from your file (the Order ID column) is remembered. When a later import of the same branch has a row with an order number that was already imported, that row is skipped — no order comes in twice. It is counted under Skipped and listed in the errors file as Already imported as #RES-37 (the MoveBoard order it already is).

• So you can safely upload the same file again — for example after an import stopped half-way: only the rows not imported yet come in.
• To bring the orders in a second time on purpose, tick Import again even if already imported on the Preview & Import step (it is off to start with). Those orders will then be in MoveBoard twice.
• An order deleted since it was imported does not count: its row is imported again.

Import history

The Import history card lists this branch's recent imports — Importing, Completed, Completed with errors, Import failed, Stopped or Stopped — the page was closed — with Imported, Failed, Skipped and Total counts and an Errors CSV (Skipped CSV, or Errors / skipped CSV) for the rows that failed or were skipped.

Stop and Resume

The import runs from your open page. If the page is closed, you sign out or the computer sleeps, the import pauses.

• An import with nothing happening for 15 minutes shows Stopped — the page was closed.
• Stop (on an import that is running, or one whose page was closed) asks first, then marks it Stopped. Every order already imported stays in MoveBoard. A page still running that import stops too.
• Resume (on a stopped import) carries on from the next row not yet imported, with the same file, the same column matches and the same choices. The progress shows on the Import Progress step — keep the page open until it says Import complete.
• File not kept instead of Resume: that import's file is no longer kept (imports started before October 29, 2026, or more than 30 days ago). Upload the same file again — the orders already imported are skipped.
• A stopped import never blocks a new one: you can upload another file at any time.

While the import runs

• If MoveBoard is slow to answer for a moment, the card says MoveBoard is taking longer than usual to answer. The import is still going on the server; this screen keeps following it. Nothing is lost: the screen picks up where the import is and finishes it. A row is never imported twice in the same import.
• A row that could not be imported is listed under the counts with its row number, its order number in your file and the reason, and Download failed rows gives them as a file.
• The card only says Import stopped when the import really cannot go on, or someone pressed Stop in Import history; it then says how many rows were imported — those orders are in MoveBoard. Press Resume in Import history to go on.
• Skipped (shown when there are any) counts the rows whose order was already imported by an earlier import.

If something goes wrong

• That file could not be read. / That file is too large to import at once. — split the file or save it again.
• Old Excel (.xls) files cannot be read here. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets and save it as .xlsx or .csv, then upload that.
• No column is matched to … — match a column to that field on the Map Columns step.