Import & Export

Imports are scoped to a single entity type at a time: Items, Houses, or Contacts. Each entity has its own import page, reached from the Import action on the matching list page. Importing requires the Admin role; stagers and movers do not see the action. The wizard remembers the file you uploaded and which step you were on, so closing the tab mid-mapping doesn't lose your work.

Column headings should read like the labels you see in the app — Name, Quantity, Address, Stage Date, Customer Email. Custom field labels work the same way; if you've added a custom field called Vendor, a column called Vendor auto-matches to it. Capitalization and trailing whitespace don't matter.

The exported workbook is also the canonical template. Export your existing data, edit the rows in Excel, and re-import the same file — the column labels will still line up. A file with no header row is accepted too; in that case the wizard names the columns Column 1, Column 2, and so on, and you map them by hand.

Dates and numbers are tolerated in any common shape. ISO 2024-01-15, US 1/15/2024, EU 15/01/2024, German 15.01.2024, and long-form Jan 15, 2024 all parse to the same canonical date. Numeric fields strip currency symbols, thousands separators, and surrounding whitespace, so $9,999 commits as 9999.

1. 1

   Open the import page

   From the inventory, houses, or contacts list, choose Import. The upload screen offers a drop zone, a Browse files button, and a Start blank button if you'd rather build the sheet by hand inside the wizard.
2. 2

   Upload the file

   Drop the spreadsheet onto the drop zone or pick it through Browse files. The review grid appears as soon as the file parses, and the Map columns drawer opens automatically with a summary like Matched 8 of 10.
3. 3

   Map columns

   The drawer pairs each column from your file with a field in Staging Assistant. Auto-matching handles obvious labels; anything the wizard isn't sure about lands in the unmapped list. Pick a field from the dropdown to map a column, or leave it unmapped to skip it on import. Close the drawer with Escape or reopen it any time from the Columns button on the toolbar.
4. 4

   Review the data

   The review grid shows exactly what will be created. Double-click a cell to edit it, paste tabs- or comma-separated data from Excel or Sheets directly into the grid, and use the toolbar to Add a row, delete a row, or undo and redo edits. Cells with parsing problems show a marker; the Issues button on the toolbar opens a list and jumps focus straight to the offending cell.
5. 5

   Confirm and import

   Click Import N items (or houses, or contacts). A confirmation dialog opens with a small preview of the first rows and the count of related records that will be created alongside — for example, three new clients linked to the houses in the file. Confirm to commit.

Every import creates new records for the rows in your file — the wizard does not match against existing items, houses, or contacts and update them in place. Re-importing the same row produces a second copy, so treat import as a way to add records, not sync them. To update existing records, edit them in the app directly.

Related records are different. A house import that includes a Customer Name or Customer Email column will attach each house to a contact: the wizard reuses an existing contact when the email or name matches, and creates a new contact otherwise. The same logic covers Agent columns on houses and category columns on items.

When two rows in your file claim the same contact but disagree on a detail — same email, different phone numbers — the wizard surfaces the disagreement as a conflict in the Issues menu. Click the conflict to jump to the offending cell, click the marker on the cell, and pick which variant to use; the choice is applied to every sister row that shares that identity.

• Missing identity for related records. A house import with a Customer Phone column but no Customer Name or Customer Email can't be committed; the wizard has no way to dedupe or create a contact from a phone number alone. Add a name or email column, or unmap the phone column to drop it from the import.
• Calendar-invalid dates. A value that parses into a real-looking date but doesn't exist on the calendar — Feb 30, for example — is flagged so it doesn't sneak through as a silent shift to March 1. Edit the cell to a real date.
• Conflicting variants. Two rows that share an identity but disagree on another field, as covered above. Resolve from the Issues menu.
• Out-of-list values for choice fields. Fields with a fixed list of options — Stage Status, for example — auto-suggest the closest matching label as you type. Pick from the dropdown instead of typing a free-form value, and the value commits cleanly.

Fix each issue inline in the review grid. The Issues button updates as you go and disappears once nothing is left to resolve, at which point the Import button becomes active.

Image columns are not part of the import grid. Add photos after the import lands by opening each item or house and uploading through the photo manager. Bulk photo workflows live in the photos section.

Open Settings, choose Company, and pick Export Data. The Export button generates the workbook and downloads it as data-export.xlsx. Column headings match the field labels you see in the app, including any custom fields you've added, and column order mirrors how each entity is configured.

A few things are intentionally left out of the export: photos and other image fields, room lists nested inside houses, and relation fields that store lists of other records. For text values, booleans become Yes / No, dates are written in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD), and category fields are joined into a comma-separated string of names.

The items, houses, and contacts lists also have a per-list export: an Export entry in each list's more-actions menu that downloads the current view as an .xlsx file. The filters and sort order active on the list apply, so narrow the list first to export exactly the rows you need.

Both exports — the full company workbook and the per-list download — are available to Admins only; stagers and movers do not see the option.

• Browse and edit the imported items on the inventory page, or open an imported house from the houses page.
• Add the columns you wished the importer had as custom fields so the next import can map them automatically.
• Upload images for the imported records through the photo manager.