Your JobFlow customer list, brought in with its Eircodes.

Irish addresses, read part by part

Import is in Settings, and a customer file goes in there as Customers. A row’s address is filed as a site of its customer. A customer on several rows is filed once, with every address as a site.

• An Eircode column filed as the Eircode
• An Eircode in a postal code column moved to the Eircode, and Dublin 8 there left as written
• A whole address in one cell split into lines, a town, a county and an Eircode where it names them
• In that one cell, Co. Kerry or County Kerry after the street and the town read as the county
• Ireland, Éire, IRL or ROI in a country column read as Ireland
• A row naming a country other than Ireland or the United Kingdom not brought in
• A BT postal code placing the site in Northern Ireland, and a row naming Ireland beside one not brought in

Every column shown, and the rows counted

Check this file opens Which column is which. Each of your columns is shown with its first value, and a line names the columns nothing reads. Any match can be changed, and Check again runs the whole file once more.

What this would do counts the rows. Each row listed carries a badge such as New, Already here or Not brought in, and a row not brought in says why. How the file was read counts each value worked out or left out. Bring it in then writes what the check showed.

• Up to 2,000 rows and 480 KB at a time
• An Excel workbook refused until it is saved as CSV

Phone numbers Excel has changed, and fadas kept

Excel stores a phone number as a number. A mobile that lost its leading 0, such as 871234567, is filed as 0871234567. A number that lost its +, such as 353871234567, gets the + back. Each is counted under How the file was read. An 1800, 1850 or 1890 number has no 0 to lose, and is kept as written.

A number Excel turned into 3.53871E+11 has lost its digits for good. It is left out and counted, never guessed.

A file Excel on Windows saves as CSV (Comma delimited) is read as Windows-1252, and one saved as CSV UTF-8 is read as UTF-8. Either way Seán, Siobhán and Ó Briain keep their fadas.

Customer types, principal contractors and VAT numbers

What are most of these? files each new customer as one of Households or Businesses, unless a column matched as Business or private says otherwise for that row. A column matched as Classification sets each new customer’s type from words such as Domestic, Commercial, Landlord or Managing agent.

RCT, Principal contractor or Main contractor in the column matched as Classification gives a new customer the type Principal contractor. That type needs a VAT number here, and Revenue requires a principal contractor operating RCT to register for VAT whatever its turnover. A row for a new customer of that type with no VAT number is Not brought in.

• VAT Number, VAT No or VAT as the customer’s VAT number

Parts, their costs and the two-thirds rule

A price list comes in as Parts. A column matched as What it costs the firm files what each part costs you, and a cost of zero is filed as not costed.

A quote line priced from a part carries that part’s cost. The two-thirds rule weighs what the materials cost against the price of the work before VAT. A part with no cost is weighed at its price, so it is never weighed as free.

A reduced rate such as 13.5% in a column matched as VAT rate is left for each job to decide. A part marked zero rated or exempt is filed that way.

Balances still owed and appliances due a service

Invoices still unpaid on the day you move come in as Open balances. Each row needs a customer already in your book, the invoice number, the invoice date and what is left to pay including VAT. Each row becomes a sent invoice under that number and date, and no email goes out when it comes in.

While Chase an unpaid invoice is on, a balance already past its due date is chased once in place of the reminders it missed, where its customer has an email address.

Where one of your kinds of work covers appliances, a service book comes in as Appliances. Each appliance goes to a site its customer already has, found by the Eircode, else by the first line, else as the customer’s only site. Where that type of appliance has a service schedule, its next service is the file’s date, or worked out from its last one.

While Remind a customer a service is due is on, a customer with an email address on file whose appliance is already overdue is emailed once about it.