Moving your data into Petsoft

Switching software is painful. Nobody wants to retype five years of customer records. Petsoft supports importing customer and pet data from spreadsheets so your transition does not turn into a data entry nightmare.

What you can import

The import tool handles:

• Customers (names, addresses, phones, emails)
• Pets (names, breeds, weights, colors, birthdays)
• Vaccination records (vaccine type, date given, expiration date)
• Basic vet information (clinic name and phone)

You cannot import:

• Reservations from your old system
• Invoices or payment history
• Photos
• Notes or incidents

Those have to be recreated manually or left in the old system for reference.

Preparing your file

Petsoft expects a CSV file. Most software can export to CSV. If your current system only exports to Excel, save the sheet as CSV before you upload.

The columns need to match what Petsoft expects. At minimum, you need:

Column	Required?	Notes
Customer First Name	Yes
Customer Last Name	Yes
Customer Email	Yes	Must be unique; used for portal login
Customer Phone	Recommended
Pet Name	Yes	One row per pet
Pet Breed	No	But helpful for rate calculations
Pet Weight	No	Needed if you charge by weight
Vaccine Name	No	Only if importing shot records
Vaccine Date	No	Must match Vaccine Name
Vaccine Expiration	No	Must match Vaccine Name

If a customer has three pets, they appear in three rows. The customer information repeats in each row. That is fine. The importer knows to group them.

Uploading and mapping

Go to Organization > Import and upload your CSV.

The next screen lets you map your columns to Petsoft fields. If your spreadsheet has a column called "Owner Email" but Petsoft expects "Customer Email," just select the match from the dropdown. You only have to do this once. Petsoft remembers your mapping for future imports.

After mapping, you will see a preview of the first ten rows. Check them carefully. If the email addresses look wrong or the pet names are in the wrong column, go back and fix the mapping.

Handling errors

The importer validates your data before it writes anything. Common errors include:

Error	How to fix it
Duplicate email	Find the duplicate rows in your spreadsheet and merge them
Invalid phone number	Remove letters and special characters; keep only digits
Missing required field	Fill in the blank cells or remove those rows
Future vaccine date	Check that dates are in MM/DD/YYYY format

If there are errors, the importer gives you a downloadable error report that tells you exactly which row failed and why. Fix the spreadsheet and upload again.

After the import

Once the import finishes, you will get a summary: how many customers were created, how many pets, and how many vaccinations. Spot-check a few customer profiles to make sure everything looks right.

Send your customers a welcome email letting them know they can now log into the parent portal. Their login email is the one from the import. They will need to use "Forgot Password" to set a new password since imported accounts do not have one initially.

Getting help with large imports

If you have more than a thousand customers, the import process can take a while. You do not have to sit and watch it. Petsoft emails you when it is done.

For very large or messy datasets, contact support before you start. They can review your file structure and catch problems before you waste time uploading and fixing.