How to transfer your clients and cost catalog from Excel and Word to Billdr PRO?

Written By Francois Jullien

Last updated Over 1 year ago

Transferring your clients

While there is no magic button yet to 'add all your customers' at once, you will need to create a project to add your customers to the list of contacts.

As you add projects, the related contacts under 'Clients' will appear on the list. We suggest gradually adding your clients as you need to send them quotes or invoices while keeping your existing database in an Excel file for the time being for reference purposes.

We are working on a simpler and more elegant solution to make the import function a breeze for you.

Related feature request:

Client Import Options

Transferring your cost catalogue and templates

STEP 1 - Transfer Your Cost Catalogue (Price Book)

As a first step, we recommend importing your cost catalogue before creating templates. A cost catalogue is essentially a list of descriptive tasks with associated prices, whether for materials or labor. You can choose to manually add these tasks one by one in Billdr PRO, but if you already have a list prepared, you can easily import it by following our import template instructions.

  1. Click on "Templates and Costs" from the left side menu.

  2. Open the "Cost-Catalog" tab.

  3. Click on “Import.”

  4. Download the "Cost-Catalog Template" and open it.

  5. Read the instructions.

  6. Open your personal cost catalogue.

  7. Copy your categories.

  8. Paste your categories into the "Categories" column on the Billdr PRO template.

  9. Copy your tasks and paste them into the "Task" column on the Billdr PRO template.

  10. Copy your prices and paste them into either the "Material" or "Labor" column.

  11. Add a default markup if needed.

  12. Once done, click on File > Export > CSV.

  13. Upload the CSV file into Billdr PRO.

Congrats! 🙌 your cost-catalog is done!

STEP 2 - Create your templates

Creating Billdr PRO templates will save you a ton of time whenever you need to send out a quote that shares similarities with previous jobs. If you followed the instructions in STEP 1, you can use your cost catalogue to organize tasks into “groups” or what we call categories. Here’s how Billdr PRO templates are organized:

  • TEMPLATE NAME

    • CATEGORY

      • TASK + PRICE

Example

  • BATHROOM REMODEL

    • DEMOLITION

      • Remove and dispose ceiling, drywall l in bad condition with asbestos $22.25/sqft