Venue Account Owners and Venue Administrators can import bookings from an Excel spreadsheet. This is useful for loading booking data in bulk, or to migrate bookings from your old system.
To access the Import function, choose Bookings from the main navigation bar at the top of the page, then click the Import button.
You need to prepare your data in a spreadsheet prior to import. The spreadsheet should have a single worksheet (tab) only, and must be saved as a .XLSX or .XLS file.
The first row of the spreadsheet is for column headers. These must be as shown in the table below. The remaining rows contain the data for your bookings – one row for each booking. You are allowed to import up to 100 customers at once – if you need to import more, please split your data across multiple spreadsheets.
The spreadsheet should have the following columns. You will notice that these are the same fields as you complete when adding a New Booking manually.
| Heading | Mandatory / Optional | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | Mandatory | Name of the customer. The customer must already have been set up in your system, and the name in your spreadsheet must exactly match the name on the Customer record. If you are importing bookings from your old system, you should therefore make sure you have imported your customers first. |
| Name | Mandatory | This is the name of the booking as shown on the calendar. Often it will be the same as the Customer name, but this does not need to be the case. |
| Booking Date | Mandatory | This is the date of the booking. Note that HallWizard cannot load bookings before 1 January 2019. |
| From | Mandatory | This is the start time of the booking |
| To | Mandatory | This is the end time of the booking. It must be after the start time. |
| Rooms | Mandatory | The names of the rooms being booked. The names must match exactly the room names set up in your system. If you are booking just one room, just give its name. If you are booking several rooms, separate each room with a comma (e.g. Main Hall, Side Room) |
| Extras | Optional | The names of any extras needed. The names must exactly match the extra names set up in your system. If several extras are needed, separate each with a comma (e.g. Projector, Use of kitchen) |
| Privacy | Optional | Private or Public. If no value is given, the booking will be public. |
| Attendees | Optional | The number of attendees at this event. |
| Details | Optional | This is a detailed description of the booking displayed publicly in the calendar |
| Admin Notes | Optional | This column can be used for any notes you wish to keep on the booking, but which are not to be made public. For example, you might want to make notes about any special arrangements you have made with the customer for this booking. |
| Price | Optional | The price agreed with the customer for this booking. Give this just as a number, not as currency. For example, 13.50. If you set Price to 0, then the booking will be marked “Do not invoice”. If you do not provide a value for Price, the system will calculate the price of the booking using the Price List which applies for the Customer. |
Any additional columns in your spreadsheet, or columns with different heading names, are ignored.
Here is an example spreadsheet containing 3 bookings.
| Customer | Name | Booking Date | From | To | Rooms | Extras | Privacy | Attendees | Details | Admin Notes | Agreed Price |
| Art Group | Art Group | 28/04/2020 | 14:00 | 16:00 | Main Hall | Projector, Use of kitchen | Public | 15 | An agreed price of 12.00 will be placed on this booking | 12 | |
| Art Group | Art Exhibition | 09/05/2020 | 08:00 | 19:00 | Main Hall,Side Room | Use of kitchen | Public | The Art Group are putting on an exhibition of their work at the Village Hall all day on Saturday 9 May. Entrance £5 including catalogue. Everyone is welcome. | This booking will be marked as “Do not invoice” | 0 | |
| Jack Winters | Yoga | 29/04/2020 | 16:30 | 18:00 | Main Hall | Private | 10 | The price for this booking will be automatically calculated by HallWizard |
Repeat Bookings: You cannot import Repeat Bookings from your spreadsheet. If you have repeat bookings, you can either import each individual booking from the spreadsheet. Alternatively, enter the repeat booking manually.
Once you have prepared your spreadsheet, use the Browse button on the Import Customers page to load the spreadsheet then press the Import File button.
If there are any errors in your data, these will be displayed on the screen. Errors may be because of the format of your spreadsheet or your data, or may be because a room you wish to book is not available, either due to an existing booking or because you tried to book the same room twice at the same time in your spreadsheet. Please go back to your spreadsheet and correct the errors, then try again.
Finally, if you get stuck or you need help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact our Support Team, attaching your data file for their information.