Exporting/Importing Discounts

This import allows you to quickly import discounts. This can help get you up and running in Fishbowl if you have these values already available in a spreadsheet. It will be necessary to restart your Fishbowl Client in order to see discounts updated/created via an import.

Formatting the Data

You use a CSV file formatted in a way that Fishbowl knows what to do with the data. This is easiest to do with a spreadsheet program.

Each row of data should look like this:

Name, Description, Type, Amount, Percentage, Taxable, IncomeAccount, ExpenseAccount, Active

There must be a header row detailing which columns have been specified so we know which columns were entered.

All fields will be one of two types:

Text - A textual value. May contain any character, but if it contains a line break, comma or double quote, it must be wrapped with double quotes on both ends. If a field is wrapped, all text must be inside the double quotes. Double quotes in the text value must be doubled to import properly
Numeric - A decimal number greater than or equal to zero with up to four digits after the decimal point. The number must not have thousands' separators in it - 1234.56 is a valid number, while 1,234.56 is not.

CSV Fields Used to Import Discounts

Column Name	Type	Description
Name	Text (31 chars)	The name of the Discount to create or update. *Required*
Description	Text (256 chars)	The description of the discount.
Type	Text	The discount type. It must be one of the following: "Amount" or "Percentage". *Required*
Amount	Numeric	When Type is set to "Amount" this represents the dollar amount discount.
Percentage	Numeric	The percent to use for the discount.
Taxable	Text	Specifies whether the discount is taxable or not. The value should be "TRUE" or "FALSE".
IncomeAccount	Text	The name of the account to use when a discount is used for Income.
ExpenseAccount	Text	The name of the account to use when a discount is used as an Expense.
Active	Text	Specifies whether the discount is active or not. The value should be "TRUE" or "FALSE".

Format of the CSV file

In order to import your data, you must first export it to a comma separated values (CSV) text file. All major spreadsheet programs can export data in this format. If you do not know how to export your data to a CSV file, please refer to the documentation of your spreadsheet program.

When exporting to CSV format, make sure to verify the following:

The data is formatted properly (see the first section)
The file must contain column names in the first row, using the column names in the table above.
Commas are used to separate fields
Text values are surrounded by double quotes