Importing your history
You can bring past invoices into WinchWorks from a spreadsheet, so your reports, aging and statements include work you did before you switched.
This is optional. You do not need it to start.
Before you decide
You do not have to import before going live. Set your starting invoice number when you set up your billing company, start working today, and import whenever the file is ready. Preparing the file takes a while and there is no reason to hold up using the software.
Only the account owner can run an import.
What gets imported
History is transcribed, not recalculated.
WinchWorks takes the totals you give it exactly as they were. It does not re-price old invoices against today's rate schedules, does not recalculate storage, and does not apply tax. What you charged in 2024 stays what you charged in 2024, whatever your rates say now.
Imported jobs come in closed, with storage waived, so nothing starts accruing on a vehicle that left years ago.
The file
Download the template from Settings → Data. One row per invoice line, so an invoice with four charges is four rows sharing an invoice number.
You will need the invoice number and date, the payer, the vehicle, each charge with its amount, and what was paid.
Check first, then import
Always run the check first. It reads the file and reports what it found without writing anything.
The check tells you:
- How many invoices it found and how many it will reject
- Any charge types it does not recognise
- Any invoice whose lines do not add up to its total
Invoices that do not balance are rejected. If the lines add up to $1,240 and the total says $1,305, WinchWorks will not guess which is right. Fix the row and check again.
Unrecognised charge types
If your old system called something "Gizmo handling" and WinchWorks has no matching service, the check lists it with a dropdown so you can map it to the right one.
Your choices stick between checks. Changing one means you have to check again before you can import — so the thing you import is the thing you reviewed.
Importing
Once the check looks right, import. WinchWorks writes the invoices and gives you a batch record.
Invoice numbering continues from the highest number you imported. Import invoices ending at 3200 and your next WinchWorks invoice is 3201.
That is usually what you want, and it is why importing before you issue your own invoices produces the tidiest result. If you have already issued invoices with lower numbers, importing higher ones will leave a gap in the sequence.
Undoing an import
Every import is a batch, and a batch can be removed. From Settings → Data, find the batch and delete it. Everything it created goes with it.
One thing does not come back: the invoice number. If the import moved your numbering up to 3200, undoing it leaves it at 3200. Your next invoice is still 3201.
Not harmful — invoice numbers are allowed to skip — but worth knowing before you import a test file with a large number in it.
Imported invoices and QuickBooks
Imported history is left out of QuickBooks exports.
Those invoices are already in your accounts from your old system. Sending them again would count the same revenue twice.