# General Business Category > Accounting Forum >  Import Excel into pastel Cash book

## ultramel123

Hi :-)

I would like to find out whether it is perhaps possible to type out the entries for the cashbook into excel, and then import them into Pastel?
I am using PastelStartup V12.

Thank you

Regards

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## Neville Bailey

Yes, it is possible, but you will need to save the Excel file in CSV format and the data must be arranged in a particular format.

I have attached the format requirements.

To import the CSV file, open a blank cashbook journal. Then click on the Batch button, and then the Import option. You can then browse for the CSV file.

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Dave A (28-Feb-13), ultramel123 (28-Feb-13)

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## ultramel123

Thank you very much Neville.  This is going to make my life sooooooo much simpler,as I have tons of months to still capture.

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## Neville Bailey

Have you considered getting the Bank Manager module? Makes life even easier!

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## ultramel123

I have heard about it... would you perhaps know roughly what the cost is?

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## Neville Bailey

There is an initial cost of R2,550.00 incl VAT, and thereafter an annual Cover fee of R2,059.00 incl VAT.

I can supply you with the module if you are interested.

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## ultramel123

let me discuss it with my client, and I will get back to you :-)  Thank you very much. 
That would really make life easer :-)

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## Neville Bailey

Bear in mind that the quote I gave you is based on the assumption that you are using Xpress V12 Xpress Startup (single-user, single-company).

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## ultramel123

ok great. thank you. I will hear what the "boss" says :-)

One more thing - if you wouldn't mind assisting please  :Smile: 

when importing the csv into the cash book - (payments) - must I include the "tax" amount in the column, or leave that column blank for pastel to calculate?

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## Neville Bailey

I have always included the VAT amount in the "Tax" column, but I think Pastel will automatically calculate it by virtue of the Tax Code that you will have in the CSV file.

Perhaps do a test import without the VAT amount and see what happens.

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ultramel123 (28-Feb-13)

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## ultramel123

Thank you .  
When capturing the "Payments" in the cash book, must they be a "-"negative value in excel for importing? and the "Receipts" be a positive value?

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## ultramel123

Thank you. 

Are the "payments" in the cash book a (-)negative value, and the "receipts" a (+)positive value? :-)

Thank you for your help

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## Neville Bailey

No, not necessary. All the values must be positive.

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ultramel123 (28-Feb-13)

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## jhodgson

I have set up a system which generates invoices, and stores these in the pastel csv structure format for import into pastel.
The import, general leger-cutomers-receipts-batch-import works fine.
the result is a credit to the customer and a debit in cash control 0850000.

Now if I do an identical invoice, through the Pastel receipting module,I end up with a duplicate credit to the customer and a duplicate in the cash control, however with a different receipt number.

I now go to the deposit assistant, create a new session, and then make a deposit slip etc.
The deposit slip ONLY contains the receipt entered through the pastel receipting module.

Please note that: The upload file works whether it has a suffix csv or txt as long as the format is right. My filename is simply Receipt.txt.

The reason for using .txt is that it opens automatically in Notepad. CSV opens in excel, and when excel closes and saves it the format is wrong for pastel. As the users doing the work are not very skilled this cuts down on the errors.

What must I do to get the Deposit assistant to recognize the imported receipt and include it in the session and deposit slip?

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## Neville Bailey

Before I attempt to answer your questions, I have a question of my own.


You mention that you import invoices into the Receipting module, and that it credits the customer account and debits the cash control account. This confuses me. An invoice normally debits the customer account and credits sales. Are you sure that you are importing invoices and not receipts? Receipts would make more sense, as that would credit the customer account and debit the cash control account.


Please clarify this for me and also please send me a sample of the file that you import.

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## simonj

I provide Document Imaging Solutions and today I met with a client who wants to scan Creditor invoices and have them  allocated to the relevant expense account.
That's not a problem for me at all. My software will use OCR to extract various data and write it to a table and use the index data to generate folders, sub folders and file names for the scanned image. Where the challenge comes in is where he wants the table data delivered to Pastel. He already has the expense accounts set up in Pastel and currently has the data manually captured. Although I regularly employ Pastel reports to gather index data, I have never had to do it the other way round. I personally don't have any experience using accounting software of any sort, but I instruct my clients on what reports they need to set up so that I can find index data in the resulting spread sheet.
So. My question is simply; how do I format the data and what are the steps required to pass it to the various expense accounts in Pastel? I do understand from other posts that it needs to be in CSV format. 

Thanks in advance. Understanding this will add a whole new dimension to my solutions as most of my clients appear to be using Pastel.

Simon Jooste.

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## Neville Bailey

Hi Simon,

I would be happy to work with you on this project. Hopefully we can both benefit from the exercise! Drop me an email and we can take it from there. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## simonj

Thanks Neville.

My process would be something like this:
1.User scans multiple invoices from assorted creditors to a set folder.

2.System displays the scans one at a time and prompts for various data. (Where possible, the fields will be prefilled via OCR for validation by the user)

3.The data is written to an Access table. An internal query will find the relevant data to be exported. An external (.csv as per your layout) table will be linked to it.

There you have the data ready to go to Pastel!

From here I'm in your hands as I am completely unfamiliar with accounting systems of any sort.......

Thanks Neville

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## Neville Bailey

Hi Simon,

Can you email me at neville@accountingsoftwaresupport.co.za and we can proceed from there?

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## Yeukai

Hie, i am Yeukai i am a junior accountant, im still learning a 
lot of accounting staff. Iam sure this forum will be of great assistance, thank you.

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## Andria_Bee

Hi I use Pastel Bank Manager to import our petty cash expenses from excel to pastel, I use three columns date description and amount (all in Text format).
This always worked fine but recently excel has confused I save the worksheet in csv close it when I try to import it I get this bizarre error msg about file format is invalid. When I re-open the excel file the date column automatically changed to date and not text.
All other bank statement imports work fine.....
What am I doing wrong?

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