Import Customers from a CSV or Spreadsheet
If you're moving to Trade2Base from another system, or you keep customer records in a spreadsheet, you can import them all at once using a CSV file. There's no need to add customers one by one — a well-prepared file can have hundreds of records loaded in under a minute.
Preparing your CSV file
Trade2Base expects your CSV to have specific column headers. The following fields are required — every row must have a value for each of these:
nameThe customer's full name or business name.emailA valid email address. Used for invoices and notifications.phoneMobile or landline number, including country code if outside the UK.The following fields are optional but will be imported if present:
addressFull address including postcode. Used as the default job address.notesAny internal notes about the customer, visible only to your team.tagsComma-separated tags (e.g. "residential, boiler cover") for filtering customers in the CRM.Make sure your CSV is saved with UTF-8 encoding to avoid issues with special characters in names and addresses.
Downloading the Trade2Base import template
The easiest way to get started is to use the official import template, which already has all the correct column headers in the right order:
Click Customers in the sidebar to open the CRM.
Click the Import button in the top-right of the customer list.
In the import panel, click Download template. This gives you a CSV with the correct headers that you can open in Excel or Google Sheets and fill in.
Fill in the template with your customer data, save it as a CSV file, and you're ready to import.
Running the import
Go to Customers, click Import, and you will see the upload area.
Drag your CSV file into the upload area or click Browse to select it. Trade2Base validates the file format before proceeding.
If your column names differ from the expected headers, Trade2Base shows a column-mapping step where you match your column names to the correct fields.
Trade2Base shows the first five rows of your import so you can confirm the data looks correct before committing.
The import runs in the background. For large files this may take a few seconds. You will receive a notification when it completes.
Handling errors and duplicates
After the import completes, Trade2Base shows a summary screen with three counts: rows imported successfully, rows with errors, and rows skipped as duplicates.
Rows with missing required fields or invalid email addresses are flagged as errors. Click Download error report to get a CSV of the failed rows with an explanation for each one. Fix the issues and re-import just the error rows.
If a row matches an existing customer by email address, Trade2Base skips it rather than creating a duplicate. You can override this and merge the data by enabling the Update existing customers option before running the import.
If you're importing a large list for the first time, consider running a test import with 10–20 rows first to confirm your data maps correctly before importing the full list.
What happens after the import
Once the import completes, all successfully imported customers appear immediately in your Trade2Base CRM. From there they are fully integrated into the platform:
No job history or invoice records are created for imported customers automatically — only the contact details you included in the CSV are imported. Historical data from another system would need to be added separately.
Import in minutes and start creating jobs and quotes right away. Try it free.
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