# Importing past appointments and colour formulas > Bring past visits, upcoming appointments, colour formulas and notes across from CSV or Excel files, matched to your clients, team and service menu. Source: https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/import-appointments After your clients are in FullColumn, bring their history across: past visits become their visit history, upcoming appointments go on the calendar, and colour formulas and notes go on their cards. Import your clients first ([bringing your clients across](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/import)), so everything joins up with the right person. These imports need the permission "Import, export, merge and remove clients". Owners have every permission. On a shared device set to Front desk, it asks for your password first. ## Importing past visits and upcoming appointments 1. Open **Clients**, press **Import** and choose **Appointments** (or **Settings → Import & export → Import appointments**). 2. Under **Which system is the file from?**, choose your old booking system, or **Something else**. Choose the same one as for your clients. Below it, the import says how to export your appointments from that system. 3. Press **Choose a CSV or Excel file**, or drag the file onto the box. 4. Check the columns, grouped under **When**, **Client** and **Appointment**. Each box shows an example from your file. Choose **— Not in this file —** for anything your file doesn't have. 5. Check **Which system is the file from?**, and **Dates in this file are written**: **Day/Month/Year** or **Month/Day/Year**. FullColumn guesses the date order from the file. 6. Look over the **Preview**, including **Will be** (the status each appointment will have), and any rows that can't be imported. Press **Next**. 7. Check the clients, team, services, **Messages to clients** and reminders, then press **Import**. 8. Keep the window open until it finishes. The file needs a date column and a client column. Rows with no client details come in as walk-ins: the preview shows them as "Walk-in". ## How the appointment import reads your file - **Dates and times** can be in one column or two, written as 5/2/2024, 2024-02-05, 5 Feb 2024 or Feb 5, 2024, with times like 9:30am, 14:30 or 0930. - **No time**: past visits without a time go in at 9am. An upcoming appointment without a start time can't be imported. - **Length** comes from the end time or a duration (60, 1:30, 1h 30m, 90 mins, 1.5 hours). Without either, it's the service's usual length on your menu, or an hour. - **Price** comes from the file. With no price, services matched to your menu take its price, and others come in at no charge. - **Status**: past appointments become completed visits, unless the status says they were cancelled or a no-show ("cancelled", "no show", "did not attend", "DNA" and the like). Upcoming ones are **Confirmed** if the status says so, otherwise **Booked**. - **Several services**: rows that share an **Appointment ID** become one appointment with several services (up to 12). Without an ID, each row is its own appointment, and identical rows go in once. - **Appointment notes** are kept on the appointment. Rows that can't be read are listed with why, such as "Can't read the date" or "Upcoming appointment with no start time", and skipped. ## Matching imported appointments to clients, your team and services After **Next**, FullColumn matches everyone in the file. **Clients**: by their number in your old system (if you imported **Old system ID** with your clients), then email, then mobile. Email, mobile and ID matches also need the first names to agree. Someone with no email or mobile in the file is matched by their exact name, when only one client has it. A client with a different number in the same old system is never matched, however alike their name, email or mobile. Clients you've removed (archived) are found too, after anyone on your client list, and their history goes on their record: they stay archived, and aren't added again. **Add the 25 clients who aren't here yet** (with your number) is ticked to start with; untick it and their appointments are skipped. **A name more than one client has**: when a row has only a name and more than one client has it (two Sarah Smiths, say), FullColumn doesn't guess. The check lists those names, and their appointments, formulas or notes are skipped, not added to a new client ([what to do when more than one client has the name](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/import-appointments#what-to-do-when-more-than-one-client-has-the-name)). **Team**: by full name, or a first name only one team member has ("Mia" or "Mia T" for Mia Thompson). Names that didn't match are listed first. Choose a team member, or **Leave unassigned**: those appointments show in an "Unassigned" column on the calendar. Only team members with a calendar column can take appointments; former team members are listed "(no longer on the team)" for past visits. If someone not on the calendar has upcoming appointments, you're warned that they won't show until you choose a current team member. **Services**: by name, ignoring capitals, punctuation and "&" or "and". Choose a service from your menu, or **Keep as written**: the appointment keeps the name and price from the file. ## Reminders for imported appointments **Send reminders for imported upcoming appointments** is off to start with. Leave it off while your old booking system is still sending its own reminders, so clients don't get two. Turn it on once you've switched over. Confirmations are never sent for imported appointments, and nothing else is sent to clients. While your salon is setting up, or will be from this import (**Only to your team for now** under **Messages to clients**), it's on to start with: nothing goes to clients until you start sending to clients, and then these reminders go as they come due ([trying FullColumn before you switch over](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/getting-started/setting-up-before-clients-hear)). ## What imported appointments do to your history and takings - **Past visits** go into each client's history with what they had, who with, and what it cost, so their visits, last visit and spend carry over. They don't create sales, so your takings and cash-up aren't affected. - **Upcoming appointments** go on the calendar like any other, with your menu's processing time for matched services. - **Cancellations and no-shows** are kept for the record. When the import finishes, it lists what came in and what was skipped. Upcoming appointments that overlap another booking for the same team member are imported anyway and listed: tap one to open it on the calendar and move it if needed. ## Importing colour formulas and notes 1. Open **Clients**, press **Import** and choose **Formulas & notes** (or **Settings → Import & export → Import formulas & notes**). 2. Under **Which system is the file from?**, choose the same system as for your clients. 3. Choose the CSV or Excel file, and check the columns: **Date**, the client, **Colour formula**, **Note**, **Team member**, **Record ID** and **Type (formula or note)**. 4. If the file has one text column and no type column, choose what it holds (**The “Notes” column holds**, with your column's heading): **Notes** or **Colour formulas**. FullColumn guesses from the file's name and heading. 5. Look over the **Preview** and press **Next**. 6. Check the clients and who wrote each one, then press **Import**. Formulas and notes go on each client's **Formulas & notes** tab with their original dates (midday when there's no time). With no date column, everything is dated today. A row with both a formula and a note becomes two entries. With a **Type** column, words like formula, colour, tint, toner, bleach or foil make a formula; anything else is a note. Clients are matched the same way as for appointments, and any team member can be chosen as the writer ([recording colour formulas](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/colour-formulas)). ## Running an appointment or formula import again It's safe to import the same file again, or a newer export from the same system: anything already imported is skipped, and the summary says how many. - **Appointments** are recognised by their Appointment ID, or by their time, client, service and team member. **Formulas and notes** by their Record ID, or their date, client, type and text. - These imports only add. They don't change or remove anything an earlier import brought in, so if an appointment has moved in your old system since, move it in FullColumn too. Without an Appointment ID, a moved appointment has a new time, so it comes in again as a new one. - If an import stops partway (the connection drops, say), you'll see **Import stopped**. Everything up to that point was saved: run it again to finish. ## Common questions ### Will clients get texts about imported appointments? No, unless you turn on **Send reminders for imported upcoming appointments**, and then only reminders. Confirmations are never sent. ### What to do when more than one client has the name When a row in an appointment or formula import has only a client's name, and more than one client in FullColumn has that name, FullColumn doesn't guess which one it is: their rows are skipped, and the import lists the names, before you press **Import** and again when it finishes. - **If they're the same person on file twice**, merge the records ([merging duplicates](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/duplicates)). - **If they're different people**, bring your clients across with their **Old system ID** ([bringing your clients across](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/clients/import)), and match **Client ID (from the old system)** in this file too, so each row says who it is. Then import the same file again: anything already imported is skipped, and the rows that were left out come in. ### Why did some appointments come in as walk-ins? Their rows had no client details in the columns you matched. The preview shows these as "Walk-in", so check the **Client** columns and the preview before you press **Import**. ### Do imported past visits show in my reports? They count in each client's visits, last visit and spend. They aren't sales, so they don't add to takings or the cash-up. ### Can I undo an import? No, so check the columns and the preview before you press **Import**, especially that the dates read the right way round. ### How long does an import take? It goes in small batches, with a progress bar showing how far it's got. Keep the window open until it finishes: closing it stops the import, and you can run it again to finish.