# Importing and Exporting Data

Import clients, pets and products from a spreadsheet, and export your clinic's data to Excel.

Two jobs sit at opposite ends of a clinic's life with Veterian: getting your existing records in at the start, and getting your data out whenever you want it. Both live under **Clinic Admin**.

## Importing

You can import three things — **Import Customers**, **Import Pets** and **Import Products** — and the flow is the same for each.

### The Steps

1. ****Download Template**.** *Download our template file to ensure your data is formatted correctly.* Take the **Download Excel Template** or **Download CSV Template**.
2. ****Prepare Your Data**.** Fill the template in without changing its columns.
3. ****Upload File**.** *Drag & drop your file here or click to browse* *Supported: .xlsx, .csv (max 5MB)*
4. ****Validate & Continue**.** Veterian checks the file before importing anything.
5. ****Review & Select Data**.** *Review the imported data and select which rows to import.*

> **Note**
> The file has limits: *File is too large. Maximum size is 5MB.* and *File contains too many rows. Maximum is 2500 rows.* A larger client list is imported in batches, not in one file.

### Getting the File Right

Most failed imports are formatting, not data. Three rules cover almost all of it:

- **Dates** use `DD.MM.YYYY` — *Use DD.MM.YYYY format (e.g., 15.03.1990)*
- **Phone numbers** carry no country code: *Do NOT include country codes. Use only the local phone number (e.g., 0612345678 for Netherlands, 26123456 for Latvia - no +31 or +371 prefix)*
- **Required columns** must be filled on every row. For clients, *Name, Surname, and Phone are mandatory fields*. For patients, *Customer Name, Surname, Phone, Pet Name, and Type are mandatory*. For catalogue items, *Name, Type, and Category are mandatory fields*.

### Review Before You Commit

Validation does not import anything. It shows you every row sorted into **Valid**, **With Warnings** and **With Errors**, and you choose what to bring in — **Select All Valid** is the usual answer.

Rows with errors are reported by row number, so you can fix the spreadsheet and import the remainder afterwards. Once the import finishes you can also take the **Download Error Report**.

### Import Options

Each import offers the same three switches, and the middle one matters most:

| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Skip duplicate phone numbers** | On by default. *Duplicate customers (same phone number) will be skipped by default. You can change this option above.* |
| **Send welcome email to customers** | Emails every imported client |
| **Enable notifications by default** | Leaves the notification channels on for imported records |

> **Caution**
> **Leave the welcome email off for a migration.** Importing your existing client list with it on emails every one of them at once, which is rarely what a clinic intends on its first day. The same caution applies to the notification switches. See [Notification settings](/settings/notifications).

### Patients Attach to Their Owners

*Pets will be matched to existing customers by phone number*. So import your clients first and their patients second; a pet whose phone number matches no client has nothing to attach to.

Duplicate handling differs per type: clients match on the phone number, patients on microchip or card number, and catalogue items on code or name.

### Import History

**Import History** keeps every import with its file name, **Completed**, **Partial** or **Failed** status, row counts and duration. When someone asks why a client is missing, this is the first place to look.

## Exporting

**Export Data** answers a fair question: the records are yours, and you can take them out.

*Email a secure link to download your data as an Excel file. The link is sent to your clinic admins.*

### How It Works

1. Choose the dataset: **Customers**, **Pets**, **Appointments**, **Medical Records**, **Vaccines**, **Invoices**, **Payments** or **Products**.
2. Click **Email link**.
3. Open the link from the email and download the *Excel (.xlsx) download link*

The file is not produced in the browser and the link is not public: it is emailed to the clinic's administrators, which is what keeps a full client list from being one click away for anyone who happens to be signed in.

> **Note**
> The link expires. If it has, request the export again rather than looking for the old email.

### Export History

**Export History** lists every request with **Dataset**, **Requested By**, **Requested Time**, **Expires Time** and the **IP** it was requested from.

Worth knowing it exists: exporting the clinic's data is recorded, and the record says who did it.

## Related

- [Your first week on Veterian](/getting-started/first-week) — where importing fits in setting a clinic up
- [Add a client](/patients/add-a-client) — the record an import creates, field by field
- [Notification settings](/settings/notifications) — why the welcome-email switch matters during a migration