TreeBossPro Blog — Tree Service Software

Importing Your Customer List Into Tree Service Software

The thought of moving to new software stops a lot of tree companies cold. Hundreds of customers, years of addresses and phone numbers, and the idea of typing all of that in by hand is enough to make anyone stay with the spreadsheet.

You don't have to type it. A CSV import brings your existing customer list over in one go, and a little preparation makes it go smoothly.

Start With What You Have

In Reports a Tree Company Owner Should Check Every Week, the weekly review depended on having your customers and jobs in one system. Getting them there starts with the list you already have. Most tree companies have customers in at least one of these places: a spreadsheet, an accounting program, an old field service app or the contacts on someone's phone.

Pick the most complete source and export it as a CSV file. Most programs and spreadsheets can save or export to CSV. If your data is split across several places, start with the biggest list and add the rest later.

Clean the List Before You Import

A little cleanup before the import saves a lot of cleanup after. Open the file and look for the obvious problems.

Duplicates are the big one. The same customer entered twice with slightly different spellings, or once under the husband's name and once under the wife's, turns into two records with split history. Merge them in the spreadsheet first.

Put addresses in separate columns — street, city, state, ZIP — if they aren't already. Make sure phone numbers and emails are in their own columns. Delete customers you know are long gone, or at least decide whether you want them in the new system.

Map Columns to the Right Fields

During the import, each column in your file gets matched to a field in TreeBossPro: name, phone, email, address and so on. Take your time here. A phone number imported into the email field or a street address split wrong makes for a messy start.

If your spreadsheet has information that doesn't fit a standard field — a customer type, a referral source, a note about the property — consider whether it belongs in a custom field or a tag. Don't import junk columns just because they're there.

Do a small test first if you can: import a handful of customers, check that they look right and then import the rest.

Decide what to do about old balances and old history before you start. Most companies are better off finishing open invoices in the old system and starting fresh in the new one, rather than trying to import years of past jobs. Keep the old records somewhere safe so you can look something up if a customer asks, but don't let old data hold up the move.

Clients, Properties and What Comes Next

Remember that in TreeBossPro a client can have multiple properties. If your spreadsheet has one row per address and some customers own several addresses, decide how you'll handle that. You can import the main address and add the others as properties afterward.

Tree details — number of trees, DBH, height — and crew notes like gate codes and drop zones often aren't in the old spreadsheet at all, or they're buried in a notes column. Don't let that hold up the import. Fill them in as you work: the estimator adds tree numbers at the next site visit, and the crew adds notes and photos on the next job.

Check Addresses After Importing

Once customers are in, scan the property addresses. Missing ZIP codes, misspelled street names and old addresses from customers who moved are common in older spreadsheets. Fix them now, before a crew follows one, and before the route map and auto-routing depend on them.

This is also a good moment to tag customers you want to treat differently: commercial accounts, HOAs, PHC program customers, the storm list.

Then Start Scheduling

Once the list is in, you can start putting real jobs on the board the same day. History builds from here: every estimate, job, photo and invoice is added to the right customer and property as you go.

CSV import is the bridge between the spreadsheet and TreeBossPro tree service software, and it's included on every plan. The next article looks at what happens after the switch, as the company grows from one crew to several.