Import entries from CSV

What is this?

With CSV import you read entries from a spreadsheet file into your cashbook. Useful for initial setup, back-filling historical data or batch-importing larger lists. Chorilo supports CSV files from most bank online portals, from Excel or from old accounting systems.

Typical use cases:

• Initial setup — switch from an Excel cashbook to Chorilo, including old entries
• Back-fill bank transactions — older than 90 days, therefore no longer available via PSD2
• Donation batch import — e.g. after a crowdfunding campaign with an external platform
• Account without PSD2 — load transactions manually downloaded from online banking
• Data migration — switch from old club software to Chorilo

How to import a CSV file

1. Prepare the CSV — preferably with columns date, amount, purpose, recipient.
2. Open Administration > Cashbook > Import.
3. Choose the account to which the entries should be written.
4. Upload the CSV file (or drag and drop it in).
5. Map the CSV columns to Chorilo fields (date → date, amount → amount, etc.).
6. Choose the date format of the CSV (DD.MM.YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD or others).
7. Click Preview.
8. Check the preview — Chorilo shows detected entries, marked duplicates and any errors.
9. Click Start import when everything fits.
10. Wait for the confirmation — you see how many entries were imported and how many skipped.

Column mapping

Required fields:

• Date — when the entry took place
• Amount — positive for income, negative for expense (or separate columns)
• Purpose/description

Optional fields:

• Recipient/sender — member name, supplier, bank
• Category — Chorilo automatically suggests if the value matches an existing category
• Bank reference — on bank exports for duplicate detection

Multiple accounts and transfers

If your file has a column with the account, Chorilo assigns every row to the matching cash book account — a bank account and a cash box in one file are no problem. Important: create the accounts first. Otherwise rows with an unknown account end up in the default account you picked in step 1. The preview warns you when that would happen.

Transfers between your own accounts — cash taken from the cash box to the bank, for instance — are not imported. Such rows show up as errors in the preview and are skipped. Enter them by hand after the import: an expense on the account the money leaves and income of the same amount on the account that receives it.

Duplicate handling

Chorilo automatically detects when a row already exists as an entry (same day, same amount, same purpose). In the preview you see:

• Green — new entry, will be imported
• Yellow — suspected duplicate, you decide
• Red — error in the row (e.g. invalid date or a receipt number already used on this account), will be skipped

Permission

You need Create & edit transactions to perform imports.

Tips

• Before big imports, run a test with only 5 to 10 rows to check the column mapping.
• Recalculate the balance after import — that way you spot deviations from the real bank balance immediately.
• For bank CSV files check your online banking export settings — some offer clean standard formats, others need preparation in Excel.
• Do not import entries from closed periods — that does not work. First do the current period, then close it if needed.
• On migration from an old system: for safety take the last balance of the old system as the opening balance of the account in Chorilo and import only entries from the switch date — that is cleaner than copying the whole history.