Import and Export Purchase Orders as CSV

If you've ever copied purchase order data from one spreadsheet to another — or worse, re-typed it line by line into a new tool — you already know how much time that costs. Whether you're migrating from another system, consolidating orders from a subsidiary, or just backing up your data for the finance team, the task is the same: get purchase orders from A to B without losing detail or introducing errors.

Appcrual now supports CSV import and export for purchase orders, so you can move order data in and out of the system in a format that works with virtually any spreadsheet tool or accounting package.

What this gives you

Export lets you pull your purchase orders out of Appcrual as a CSV file — either a summary (one row per order) or a detailed breakdown (one row per line item). Both formats respect whatever filters you've applied, so you can export precisely the subset you need.

Import lets you upload a CSV of purchase orders into Appcrual. The system matches suppliers and projects automatically, flags duplicates, and gives you a review screen before anything is committed. You stay in control throughout.

Why it matters

Most businesses don't start with a blank slate. You might have months or years of purchase order history sitting in Excel, Google Sheets, or another procurement tool. Manually re-entering that data is the kind of work nobody wants to do — and it's the kind of work where mistakes creep in.

CSV import means you can bring that history into Appcrual in minutes rather than days. And because the export format matches the import format, you can round-trip data: export, adjust in a spreadsheet, and re-import the changes. That's useful for bulk edits — updating delivery dates across dozens of orders, for instance — without clicking through each one individually.

For finance and reporting, export gives you a clean dataset you can drop into Excel, Power BI, or whatever your team uses. No screenshots, no copy-paste, no reformatting.

How it works

Exporting purchase orders

1. Go to the Purchase Orders screen.

2. Apply any filters you need — by supplier, status, date range, project, or any combination.

3. Click Export and choose either Summary Export (one row per order) or Detailed Export (one row per line item).

4. Your CSV downloads immediately, named with a timestamp (e.g. purchase_orders_export_20260204_150816.csv).

The Summary Export includes order number, date, reference, supplier, project, delivery date, status, payment status, currency, totals (net, VAT, total), notes, terms, and delivery address.

The Detailed Export includes all of the above, plus line item columns: description, item type (hours, units, days, or weeks), unit price, quantity, VAT rate, item-level totals, and any additional item descriptions.

Importing purchase orders

1. Go to Purchase Orders and click Import.

2. Upload your CSV file (up to 10 MB). The only required columns are Order Number, Order Date, and Supplier — everything else is optional.

3. Appcrual shows you a review screen before anything is saved:

- Supplier matching — Appcrual looks up suppliers by organisation name, email, or contact name. Matched suppliers are highlighted in green.

- Project matching — if your CSV includes a project column, Appcrual matches it to existing projects scoped to the relevant supplier.

- Duplicate detection — if an order number already exists, you'll see a blue Update badge. New orders show a green Create badge.

- Checkboxes to include or exclude individual rows.

4. Review, adjust, and click Complete Import.

If your CSV has multiple rows with the same order number, Appcrual treats them as line items on a single purchase order — so you can import detailed, multi-line orders in one go.

When this is useful

Migrating from spreadsheets. If you've been managing purchase orders in Excel or Google Sheets, you can bring your full history into Appcrual without re-entering it. Map your columns to the expected format, upload, and review.

Consolidating from multiple sources. If different teams or departments track orders in separate files, you can combine them into one CSV and import them together. Appcrual's duplicate detection means you won't accidentally create duplicates if some orders overlap.

Bulk updates. Need to change the delivery date on 40 orders? Export them, update the column in your spreadsheet, and re-import. Appcrual detects the existing order numbers and updates them — and if you use the summary format, existing line items are preserved.

Finance reporting. Export a filtered set of orders — say, all approved orders for Q1 — and hand it to your finance team in a format they can work with directly.

Backups and audits. A periodic CSV export gives you an offline copy of your purchase order data. Useful for compliance, audits, or simply peace of mind.

Tips for getting it right

- Start with an export. If you're preparing a CSV for import, export a few orders first and use that file as your template. The column names and format will match exactly what the importer expects.

- Date formats are flexible. Appcrual accepts YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, and MM/DD/YYYY — so you don't need to reformat dates in your spreadsheet before uploading.

- Use the review screen. Check that supplier matches look right and duplicates are flagged as expected. You can exclude any rows that need attention before completing the import.

- Filter before exporting. Both export types respect your current filters, so narrow down to the data you actually need rather than exporting everything.

Who can use it

CSV import and export is available to anyone with an Employee, Manager, or Owner role. It's included in every Appcrual account at no extra cost — the same £8/month + VAT that covers everything else.

Get started

Head to the Purchase Orders screen and look for the Import and Export options. If you're migrating from another system and want a hand mapping your columns, contact us at support@appcrual.com — we're here to help.