Mapping Customer Names Into QuickBooks From Excel

Ask the Accountant…

Question: I have been trying to load customers into QB Premier from an Excel file, but I keep getting error messages about duplicates. How can I fix that?

Answer: Here’s the fix: QB Premier runs on lists. Once you enter data into lists, you can use that list entry over and over again. However, QB does not allow you to use the same name twice. This can pose problems when you have a customer list with multiple contacts or locations. For instance, ABC Company can only be in your customer list once in QB, although you may have it listed multiple times with various contacts or locations in your Excel list.

The simplest fix is to rename the customer name to make it unique. If you have multiple “ABC Company,” you might expand their name to be “ABC Company Jane Doe” Or “ABC Company Atlanta.”

This differentiation allows QB to recognize these customers as separate and unique.

Set up the unique name in the "Customer Name" field, and leave it as "ABC Company" with its contact name and address in the "Company Name" field.

Please email your questions to Harriet at Ask The Accountant.

QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at hgatter@accountingsupportllc.com.