Import field reference

Bokeping can import data in 19 places, from your chart of accounts to invoices, bills and bank statements. This article explains how importing works, then goes through each import, module by module: which fields Bokeping needs, which are required, and what each field is used for.

In this article

• How importing works
• Accounting: Chart of Accounts · Manual Journals · Tax Rates
• Contacts: Customers · Vendors
• Products & Inventory: Item Categories · Items · Inventory Adjustments
• Sales: Estimates · Invoices · Sales Receipts · Credit Memos · Payments Received
• Purchases: Purchase Orders · Bills · Expenses · Vendor Credits · Payments Made
• Banking: Bank Statements

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How importing works

Where to start

Open the list you want to import into, for example Contacts → Customers, and click the upload icon in the toolbar. Bank statements are imported from the bank account itself (see Bank Statements).

You can upload CSV, XLSX or XLS files.

The three steps

1. File Upload. Choose your file. The page lists the required columns, and Download template gives you a sample file with every column Bokeping accepts, plus example rows.
2. Mapping. Bokeping matches your file’s columns to its fields. Columns with the same name as a Bokeping field match automatically; for the rest, pick the matching column from the list. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*). Anything you don’t map is not imported. Some fields also let you apply one value to every row, for example Yes for all.
3. Review. Every row is checked before anything is saved. Rows that need attention are flagged with the reason, and you can fix the value right in the table or ignore the row. Under Import settings, turn on Import all or nothing if you’d rather import nothing at all when any row fails.

Two ways to prepare your file

• Use the template. Rename and arrange your columns to match the template, and the mapping fills itself in.
• Upload your file as it is. Keep your own column names and match them on the Mapping screen. This works well for files exported from another accounting program.

Formats Bokeping expects

Kind of value	What to enter
Dates	The templates use YYYY-MM-DD (2026-09-28). Common formats such as 09/28/2026 are recognized too.
Yes/No fields	Yes/No, True/False or T/F. Status fields also accept Active/Inactive.
Numbers and amounts	Plain numbers, without currency symbols.
Linked records	Accounts, items, customers, vendors, categories, warehouses, branches and tax rates are matched by name. Accounts and items can also be matched by code. The record must already exist in Bokeping, except for customers and vendors on sales and purchase documents, which are created automatically if the name is new.

Documents with several lines

Estimates, invoices, sales receipts, credit memos, purchase orders, bills, expenses, vendor credits and payments can have several lines. In the file, each row is one line:

• Rows that share the same document number become one document. For example, three rows with Invoice No. 1035 become one invoice with three lines.
• Document-level fields, like the date, customer or terms, belong to the whole document. Repeat them on every row of that document.

Suggested import order

Records that other records point to need to exist first:

1. Chart of Accounts, then Tax Rates
2. Item Categories, then Items
3. Customers and Vendors
4. Transactions: Manual Journals, or sales and purchase documents
5. Payments Received and Payments Made, after the invoices and bills they pay
6. Bank Statements

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Accounting

Chart of Accounts

• Where: Accounting → Chart of Accounts → upload icon
• Creates: accounts in your chart of accounts.
• Required: Account Name, Account Type.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Account Name	Yes	The account’s name, as it appears in reports and account lists. It must be unique and at least 3 characters long. Use Parent:Child, such as Vehicles:Original Cost, to create a sub-account.
Account Type	Yes	Decides where the account appears on your financial statements and how its balance behaves. See Account types and detail types for the full list.
Detail Type	No	A more specific description within the account type. Leave it empty to use the type’s default.
Account Code	No	A unique number for the account (up to 10 characters). Leave it empty and Bokeping assigns one.
Description	No	A note about what the account is used for.
Active	No	Whether the account can be used. Blank imports as active.
Currency	No	The account’s currency, for accounts held in a foreign currency.
Parent Account	No	Another way to make a sub-account: enter the name of the parent account.
Source System, Source Account ID, Source Parent Account ID	No	For migrations. Record the other system’s own account IDs and build the parent/sub-account structure from those IDs instead of names. The parent row must appear earlier in the file.

Manual Journals

• Where: Accounting → Manual Journals → upload icon
• Creates: manual journal entries, one or more lines each.
• Required on every line: Journal Date, an Account (by name or code), and a Debit or Credit amount.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Journal Date	Yes	The date the entry is posted to your books.
Account / Account Code	Yes (one of the two)	The account the line posts to.
Debit / Credit	Yes (one of the two)	The line’s amount. Each journal’s debits must equal its credits.
Journal No.	No	Groups lines into journals: rows with the same number become one journal. Leave it unmapped and Bokeping splits the rows wherever the debits equal the credits, and numbers the journals for you.
Contact Type, Contact	Needed on A/R and A/P lines	Which customer or vendor a line belongs to. Lines posting to Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable need a contact, so the balance shows up against the right customer or vendor.
Source Transaction Type	No	Keeps the original transaction type from another system, such as Invoice or Bill. The record is still imported as a manual journal.
Reference No.	No	Your own reference number.
Memo	No	A note for the whole journal.
Description	No	A note for one line.
Currency, Exchange Rate	No	For journals in a foreign currency.
Branch	No	The branch the line belongs to, if you use branches.

Moving from another accounting program? You don’t need to rebuild your history in this template. Upload the Journal report exported from your old software as it is: Bokeping recognizes the layout, maps the columns, and rebuilds one journal per original transaction.

Tax Rates

• Where: the Tax Rates list → upload icon
• Creates: tax rates you can apply to sales and purchase lines.
• Required: Tax Name, Code, Rate.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Tax Name	Yes	The name shown on documents and tax reports.
Code	Yes	A short code for picking the rate on document lines.
Rate	Yes	The tax rate.
Description	No	A note about the tax.
Non Recoverable	No	Marks tax you can’t claim back, so it’s treated as part of the cost.
Compound	No	Marks a tax that’s calculated on top of other taxes.
Active	No	Whether the rate can be used.

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Contacts

Customers

• Where: Contacts → Customers → upload icon
• Creates: customers.
• Required: Display Name.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Display Name	Yes	The name shown on invoices, lists and reports. Transactions you import later are matched to customers by this name, so keep it exactly the same.
Customer Type	No	Business or Individual. Blank rows import as Business. If your file has no such column, choose a fixed value for every row on the Mapping screen.
First Name, Last Name	No	Your contact person at the customer.
Company Name	No	The customer’s legal or trading name.
Email	No	Where invoices and statements are sent.
Work Phone, Personal Phone	No	Phone numbers.
Website	No	The customer’s website.
Opening Balance, Opening Balance At	No	What the customer still owed you when you started using Bokeping, and the date of that balance. If you’re also importing past invoices or journals that already include this balance, leave it empty, or the balance will be counted twice.
Tax Exempt	No	Yes means no sales tax is charged on this customer’s invoices and receipts, even when a line has a tax rate. Blank imports as No.
Status	No	Active or Inactive. Blank imports as Active.
Note	No	Internal notes about the customer.
Billing Address 1, 2, City, State, Postcode, Country, Phone	No	The billing address, one part per column.
Shipping Address 1, 2, City, State, Postcode, Country, Phone	No	The shipping address, one part per column.

Vendors

• Where: Contacts → Vendors → upload icon
• Creates: vendors.
• Required: Display Name.

The vendor import has the same contact, address, status and opening balance fields as customers, with two differences: the phone fields are called Work Phone Number and Personal Phone Number, and there’s no Customer Type or Tax Exempt. Vendors also have fields for 1099 reporting:

Field	Required	What it’s for
Display Name	Yes	The name shown on bills, lists and reports. Transactions are matched to vendors by this name.
Contractor Type	No	Leave blank for an ordinary supplier. Choose 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC to include the vendor in 1099 reporting.
Tax ID	No	The vendor’s EIN (12-3456789) or SSN (123-45-6789). Nine digits without dashes are accepted too.
Tax Classification	No	The federal tax classification from the vendor’s W-9: Business, Individual / sole proprietor, or Nonprofit. It also decides how a 9-digit Tax ID is formatted (SSN for individuals, EIN for everyone else).
W-9 Status	No	Not collected, Requested or Received. Blank imports as Not collected.
Opening Balance, Opening Balance At	No	What you still owed the vendor when you started using Bokeping. Leave it empty if you’re also importing past bills or journals that include this balance.

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Products & Inventory

Item Categories

• Where: Products & Inventory → Categories → upload icon
• Creates: item categories.
• Required: Name.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Name	Yes	The category name. Items are linked to a category by this name.
Description	No	What the category covers.

Import categories before items: an item can only use a category that already exists.

Items

• Where: Products & Inventory → Items → upload icon
• Creates: products and services, and optionally their opening stock.
• Required: Item Type, Item Name.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Item Type	Yes	Inventory, Service or Non Inventory. Inventory items track quantity and value; the others don’t.
Item Name	Yes	The name shown on documents and lists.
Item Code	No	Your SKU or product code. Items can be matched by code in later imports.
Sellable, Purchasable	No	Whether the item can be used on sales documents and on purchase documents. Map a column with true/false for each row, or set one value for all items. Blank or invalid values use the fallback you choose (false by default). Each item needs at least one of the two.
Sales Price, Cost Price	No	The default prices on sales and purchase documents.
Income Account	No	Where sales of the item are recorded. Matched by account name or code.
Purchase / Cost Account	No	Where the item’s cost goes. Inventory items need a Cost of Goods Sold account; services and non-inventory items can use an expense, asset or liability account.
Inventory Account	No	The asset account that holds the value of an inventory item’s stock.
Opening Quantity	No	Inventory items only: the stock on hand on the opening date. Needs an Opening Quantity Date and a cost (Opening Unit Cost, or the item’s Cost Price). Each item with opening stock gets an inventory adjustment that debits the Inventory Account and credits Opening Balance Equity.
Opening Unit Cost	No	The unit cost the opening stock is valued at. You can leave it blank if Cost Price is filled in; enter 0 only if the stock really has no value.
Opening Quantity Date	With an opening quantity	The date the opening quantity is counted. A blank date fails the row rather than defaulting to today.
Warehouse	If you track stock by warehouse	Which warehouse the opening quantity is in, by warehouse name or code.
Sales Description, Purchase Description	No	Default line descriptions on sales and purchase documents.
Category	No	The item’s category, by name. The category must already exist.
Internal Note	No	Notes visible only inside Bokeping, never printed on documents.
Status	No	Whether the item still appears in pickers and new documents. Blank imports as Active.

Importing opening stock and past transactions together? If the transactions you import also contain the value of that stock, the opening stock is counted twice. Record one journal entry afterwards to remove the duplicate.

Inventory Adjustments

• Where: Products & Inventory → Inventory Adjustments → upload icon
• Creates: inventory adjustments that change an item’s quantity, value, or both.
• Required: Date, Item, Adjustment Account, Reason.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Date	Yes	The date of the adjustment.
Item	Yes	An existing inventory item, by name or code.
Adjustment Account	Yes	The account on the other side of the adjustment, for example Inventory Shrinkage.
Reason	Yes	Why the adjustment was made, for your audit trail.
Mode	No	Leave blank for a quantity adjustment. Quantity & value sets the counted quantity and value; Value only revalues the stock without moving quantity.
Type	For quantity adjustments	Increment or Decrement. The value modes work out the direction themselves.
Quantity	For quantity adjustments	How much the quantity moves, always as a positive number.
Unit Cost	When incrementing	The cost of the added stock. Ignored when decrementing, where the cost comes from the item’s valuation method.
New Quantity	For Quantity & value	The target quantity on hand.
New Value	For Value only and Quantity & value	The target total value.
Adjustment No.	No	The adjustment’s number. Leave it blank to number automatically; a number you enter must not already be in use.
Publish	No	T posts the adjustment to your books. Blank or F saves it as a draft.
Description	No	Extra notes.
Warehouse, Branch	No	Where the adjustment applies, if you use warehouses or branches.

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Sales

All sales documents share the same line fields:

Line field	Required	What it’s for
Item Name	No	The product or service, by name or code. Leave it blank to import the line as a free-text service line.
Rate	Yes	The price per unit.
Quantity	Yes	How many units.
Line Description	No	The description printed on the line.
Line Discount, Discount Type	No	A discount on this line, as a percentage or an amount.
Tax Code	No	The tax rate for this line, by name.

Each also has these optional document-level fields: Exchange Rate for foreign-currency documents, Amounts Include Tax if your line amounts already include tax, Branch and Warehouse.

Estimates

• Where: Sales & Receivables → Estimates → upload icon
• Required: Customer, Estimate Date, Expiration Date, Estimate No., and Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Customer	Yes	Who the estimate is for. A name Bokeping doesn’t know yet is created as a new customer.
Estimate No.	Yes	The estimate’s number. Rows with the same number make one estimate.
Estimate Date, Expiration Date	Yes	When the estimate was issued and until when it’s valid.
Reference No.	No	Your own reference.
Customer Note	No	A message shown to the customer.
Terms & Conditions	No	Terms printed on the estimate.
Memo	No	An internal note.
Document Discount, Discount Type	No	A discount on the whole estimate.
Adjustment	No	An amount added to or taken off the total, such as rounding.

Invoices

• Where: Sales & Receivables → Invoices → upload icon
• Required: Invoice No., Customer, Invoice Date, Due Date, and Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Invoice No.	Yes	Groups the file: rows that share an invoice number become one invoice with several lines. If you don’t map it, every row becomes a separate invoice.
Customer	Yes	Who you’re billing. A new name is created as a new customer.
Invoice Date	Yes	The invoice date.
Due Date	Yes	When payment is due. It drives overdue status and A/R aging.
Payment Terms	No	Due on receipt, Net 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90, or Custom.
External Reference	No	A reference number, for example the customer’s PO number.
Customer Message	No	A message printed on the invoice.
Terms & Conditions	No	Terms printed on the invoice.
Memo	No	Team-only notes. Never printed, emailed or shown to the customer.
Document Discount, Discount Type, Adjustment	No	A discount on the whole invoice, and any final adjustment to the total.

Repeat every invoice-level field on each row of the same invoice.

Sales Receipts

• Where: Sales & Receivables → Sales Receipts → upload icon
• Creates: sales paid on the spot, so no invoice is needed.
• Required: Receipt No., Receipt Date, Customer, Deposit Account, and Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Receipt No.	Yes	The receipt’s number. Rows with the same number make one receipt.
Receipt Date	Yes	The date of the sale.
Customer	Yes	Who bought. A new name is created as a new customer.
Deposit Account	Yes	Where the money went, for example a bank account or Undeposited Funds.
Payment Method	No	Cash, check, credit card, online or other.
Reference No.	No	Your own reference.
Receipt Message	No	A message printed on the receipt.
Memo	No	An internal note.
Document Discount, Discount Type, Adjustment	No	Discount and adjustment on the whole receipt.

Credit Memos

• Where: Sales & Receivables → Credit Memos → upload icon
• Creates: credits you’ve given customers, for returns or allowances.
• Required: Credit Memo No., Customer, Credit Memo Date, Reason, and Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Credit Memo No.	Yes	The credit memo’s number. Rows with the same number make one credit memo.
Customer	Yes	Who receives the credit. A new name is created as a new customer.
Credit Memo Date	Yes	The date of the credit.
Reason	Yes	Why the credit was given.
Return Items to Stock	No	Puts returned inventory items back into stock.
Reference No.	No	Your own reference.
Customer Note, Terms & Conditions	No	Text printed on the credit memo.
Memo	No	An internal note.

Payments Received

• Where: Sales & Receivables → Payments Received → upload icon
• Creates: customer payments, applied to invoices.
• Required: Payment No., Customer, Payment Date, Deposit Account, and Payment Amount on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Payment No.	Yes	A unique number for the payment. Rows with the same number make one payment.
Customer	Yes	Who paid. A new name is created as a new customer.
Payment Date	Yes	The date the payment was received.
Deposit Account	Yes	Where the money went, by account name or code.
Invoice	No	The invoice this line pays, by invoice number. Leave it blank to import an unapplied payment.
Payment Amount	Yes	How much of the payment goes to this invoice.
Amount	No	The total amount received.
Payment Method	No	ACH transfer, check, credit card, cash, wire transfer or other.
Reference No.	No	For example the check number.
Memo	No	An internal note.
Exchange Rate, Branch	No	For foreign-currency payments, and branch tracking.

Import the invoices first, so payments can be matched to them.

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Purchases

Purchase documents use similar line fields to sales documents: Rate and Quantity are required, and Description, Line Discount, Discount Type and a tax rate are optional. Bills and vendor credits can post each line to an Item or directly to an Account.

Purchase Orders

• Where: Purchases & Expenses → Purchase Orders → upload icon
• Required: PO No., Vendor, Purchase Order Date, and Item Name, Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
PO No.	Yes	Rows with the same PO No. are combined into one purchase order, so every row needs it.
Vendor	Yes	Who you’re ordering from. A new name is created as a new vendor.
Purchase Order Date	Yes	The order date.
Item Name	Yes	What you’re ordering, by item name or code.
Expected Delivery	No	When you expect the goods.
Reference No.	No	Your own reference.
Vendor Message, Terms & Conditions	No	Text printed on the purchase order.
Memo	No	An internal note.
Adjustment	No	An amount added to or taken off the total.

Bills

• Where: Purchases & Expenses → Bills → upload icon
• Required: Bill No., Vendor, Date, and Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Bill No.	Yes	The bill’s number. Rows with the same number make one bill.
Vendor	Yes	Who sent the bill. A new name is created as a new vendor.
Date	Yes	The bill date.
Due Date	No	When the bill is due. It drives A/P aging.
Payment Terms	No	Due on receipt, Net 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90, or Custom.
Item / Account	One of the two on each line	What the line is for: an item, or the account the cost goes to.
Landed Cost	No	Marks a line, such as freight, as a cost to spread over the inventory on the bill.
Reference No.	No	Your own reference.
Vendor Memo	No	A note from the vendor.
Memo	No	An internal note.
Document Discount, Discount Type, Adjustment	No	Discount and adjustment on the whole bill.

Expenses

• Where: Purchases & Expenses → Expenses → upload icon
• Creates: expenses you’ve already paid, so no bill is needed.
• Required: Expense No., Payment Account, Payment Date, and Amount on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Expense No.	Yes	The expense’s number. Rows with the same number make one expense.
Payment Account	Yes	The account you paid from, such as a bank or credit card account.
Payment Date	Yes	The date you paid.
Expense Account / Item Name	One of the two on each line	What the money was spent on: an expense account, or an item.
Amount	Yes	The line amount.
Vendor	No	Who you paid.
Tax Rate	No	The tax on this line.
Landed Cost	No	Marks the line as a cost to spread over inventory.
Reference No., Memo, Line Description	No	References and notes.
Amounts Include Tax, Branch	No	Tax-inclusive amounts and branch tracking.

Vendor Credits

• Where: Purchases & Expenses → Vendor Credits → upload icon
• Creates: credits a vendor has given you.
• Required: Vendor Credit No., Vendor, Vendor Credit Date, and Rate and Quantity on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Vendor Credit No.	Yes	The credit’s number. Rows with the same number make one vendor credit.
Vendor	Yes	Who gave the credit. A new name is created as a new vendor.
Vendor Credit Date	Yes	The date of the credit.
Credit Type	No	Physical return, price allowance or expense refund.
Item / Account	One of the two on each line	What the credit is for.
Reference No., Memo	No	Your own reference and notes.
Document Discount, Discount Type, Adjustment	No	Discount and adjustment on the whole credit.

Payments Made

• Where: Purchases & Expenses → Payments Made → upload icon
• Creates: payments to vendors, applied to bills.
• Required: Payment No., Vendor, Payment Date, Payment Account, and Payment Amount on each line.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Payment No.	Yes	A unique number for the payment. Rows with the same number make one payment.
Vendor	Yes	Who you paid. A new name is created as a new vendor.
Payment Date	Yes	The date you paid.
Payment Account	Yes	The account the money came from.
Bill	No	The bill this line pays, by bill number. Leave it blank to import a vendor prepayment.
Payment Amount	Yes	How much of the payment goes to this bill.
Amount	No	The total amount paid.
Payment Method	No	Check, ACH, credit card, cash or other.
Reference, Memo	No	For example the check number, and notes.
Exchange Rate, Branch	No	For foreign-currency payments, and branch tracking.

Import the bills first, so payments can be matched to them.

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Banking

Bank Statements

• Where: Banking → open the bank account → Import
• Creates: transactions in the bank account, ready for you to match or categorize.
• Required: Date, plus the amount in one of the two ways below.

Field	Required	What it’s for
Date	Yes	The transaction date on the statement.
Amount	Use this, or Deposit and Withdrawal	A single column for the transaction amount.
Deposit (money in), Withdrawal (money out)	Use these, or Amount	Two columns, if your bank shows money in and money out separately.
Bank Merchant / Payee	No	Who the money came from or went to. It helps when matching and categorizing.
Bank Description	No	The bank’s own description of the transaction.
Reference No.	No	For example a check number.
Memo	No	Your own note.