It's nice to start using Bookem with all your clients already loaded. You can do this if you can get your clients into a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file or spreadsheet, such as Excel or Numbers (if you're on a Mac). Once they are in your spreadsheet, check that you have all the information you need and that all the data is clean - cell phone number and email formats are correct etc.
Once you have, to import all clients into your Bookem account from a CSV file (or spreadsheet), follow these steps:
First, go to Clients and then click on the Import clients button:
You'll need to match the names in the columns in the file you're importing to the names of columns that Bookem expects. To see the names of the columns Bookem expects, you can download a sample file by clicking this button:
*This step is critical* Change the column names in your client file to match the columns in the sample file. - if they do not match exactly, they will not import. e.g. If your .csv has a row called "First name" and the Bookem profile field is "Name", it will not import - you need to change the .csv to "Name" in order to match them.
Now import/open your client file into a spreadsheet editing program such as Excel, Google Docs or Numbers. Here's a link that tells you exactly how to import a CSV file into Excel. It's very easy.
This part is not so easy! Using your spreadsheet editor, run through and see if you need to clean up your data, since there could be issues, depending on how well-formed the data is that you exported your data from. For example, there might be text where there should only be cellphone numbers, or email addresses which are not email addresses. If you don't fix the data in source file Bookem will simply ignore entries that aren't what are expected. You'll see problematic cells when you preview your import (after clicking Upload CSV file).
Other than your 'home/default country' (see screenshot below) your mobile numbers should be generally prefixed with country codes such as +27 or +44.
When you're happy your file contents look good, click the Import button under your Client section in Bookem
Make sure the edited file is saved again as a CSV file type (NB: choose CSV type UTF-8)
Now you can do a test import into Bookem:
If a lot of your mobile phone numbers don't have country codes, you can choose a default country code to use where one doesn't exist by choosing one from the dropdown under Default Country:
Upload your CSV file by clicking on the Load & Validate CSV file button and choosing the file from the location you saved it at above.
Carefully spot-check Bookem's preview of the imported data before clicking Save. If anything needs fixing, go back to the CSV file open in your spreadsheet editor and change it there. Save it again and do another test upload by clicking the Load updated CSV file button:
All done! Refresh the Clients page and double-check everything looks as expected.