Moving to Plutio from another tool

What can Plutio import?

Plutio imports six kinds of records from a CSV file: contacts, companies, projects, tasks, invoices and transactions. Each one is imported from its own page, through the Import / Export button above the list. Proposals and contracts have the same button, but most tools don't export those, so this guide sticks to the six below.

Record	Where to import it	Column every row needs
Contacts	Contacts > People	First name
Companies	Contacts > Companies	Company
Projects	Projects	The project name
Tasks	Tasks, or the tasks inside a project	Task title
Invoices	Invoices	The invoice name
Transactions	The Transactions tab next to Invoices	Transaction

Every other column is optional. Here's what each import can fill in, besides any custom fields made for that record type:

• Contacts: last name, role, companies, date of birth, timezone, address, country, emails and phone numbers. The contact import guide lists every contact and company field.
• Companies: Description, Industry, Address, Country, emails and phone numbers. Industry has to be one of the industries Plutio lists.
• Projects: Project client, Contributors, a status, Start date, Deadline, Currency, Billable project, Hourly rate, Budget, Color and a description.
• Tasks: Task description, Start date, Due date, Assignee, Followers and Color. Inside a project, the project, Task board and Task group columns show up too.
• Invoices: Project client, Issue date, Due date, Currency, Reference, the project, Invoice number (ID), Amount, Status, Payment date and the cancelled date.
• Transactions: the client, Issue date, Currency, Project, Transaction number (ID), Amount and Status.

Values Plutio checks

• Status on invoices and transactions must be one of draft, pending, paid, overdue, cancelled or refunded, written in lowercase exactly like that. A row with any other word, like Paid or Sent, gets an error. An empty cell makes the record a draft.
• Payment date is only kept on rows whose Status is paid and whose date has already passed. The date on its own doesn't mark an invoice paid, so the Status column has to say paid. The cancelled date works the same way with cancelled.
• Currency takes a three-letter code like USD or EUR. Leave the column out and records use the workspace currency.
• A project's status must match the name of one of the workspace's project statuses, otherwise the row gets an error.
• Color takes a hex code like #2F80ED.
• Amounts can include a currency symbol and thousands separators, like $1,250.50. Plutio reads them with the decimal separator from your own format settings.
• Several values in one cell, like two clients on a project or two phone numbers on a contact, are separated with | (space, pipe, space).

What order should records be imported in?

Import contacts and companies first, then projects, then tasks, then invoices and transactions. Later imports link to records already in Plutio by name, so the names need to exist before the rows that point to them.

• Clients on projects, invoices and transactions are matched to an existing contact's full name (first and last name) or a company's name. Capital letters don't matter. A client name with no match is left empty, and the record still imports.
• Projects on tasks, invoices and transactions are matched to an existing project's name. A task row naming a project that doesn't exist gets an error. On invoices and transactions, the project is left empty.
• Assignee, Followers and Contributors are matched to the full names of people already in the workspace.
• Companies on a contacts import work the other way round: a company name that isn't in Plutio yet gets created during the import.

To put tasks into a project, open the project's tasks and import from there. The tasks land on the board and group that's open, and a Task group column sorts them into groups by name, creating any group the board doesn't have yet. The main Tasks page doesn't offer the project, Task board or Task group columns.

Each new project gets an empty New task board with a New task group, ready for its tasks.

Exporting from 17hats, Bonsai and Todoist

Each of these tools exports a CSV file from its own menus. Menus in other tools change from time to time, so each tool's own help page has the latest steps.

17hats

In 17hats, contacts export from the Contacts or Leads page: click the gear icon at the top right and pick Export Contacts. 17hats' export guide notes that only contact details export this way, so project details, documents, emails and time logs have to be saved one by one. The contacts file goes into Plutio through Contacts > People.

Bonsai

In Bonsai, the data export sits in the account settings, under a menu that has been called Data or Import/Export. Clients, projects, invoices, expenses and time each download as a separate CSV file, and Bonsai's export guide has the current steps. Import the clients file as contacts or companies first, then projects, then invoices. Expenses fit the transactions import, which brings records in as expenses. Plutio has no import for time entries, so those stay in the Bonsai file.

Todoist

In Todoist, each project exports on its own: open the project, click the three dots at the top right, choose Manage data, then Export as CSV. Todoist's CSV guide notes that completed tasks aren't in that file. In Plutio, create the project, open its tasks, import the file there and match the CONTENT column to Task title. Todoist puts sections and comments on rows of their own, marked section or note in the TYPE column, and Plutio turns every row into a task, so delete those rows before importing.