Move your clients and patients off Excel without losing data

Clients first, patients second

The order is not negotiable. A patient belongs to an owner, so importing pets before people leaves them with no owner assigned and you redo the work by hand.

In VeteApp patients are matched to their owner by the client's ID number, so that column has to exist in both sheets and match exactly. One extra space or a different dash breaks the link.

The columns the client file needs

The column headers must be exactly these — lowercase, unaccented, in Spanish, because that is what the importer matches literally. Name a column «phone» or «email» instead of «tel1» or «correo» and the file is rejected with a list of what is missing.

• nombre (first name)
• apellido (surname)
• direccion (address)
• cedula (national ID)
• correo (email)
• tel1 (primary phone)
• tel2 (secondary phone)

And the patient file

Pets go in a separate file with their own required columns. The «cedula» column is what links each pet to its owner, which is why clients have to be imported first.

• nombre (pet name)
• fechanacimiento (date of birth)
• sexo (sex)
• peso (weight)
• cedula (owner's national ID)
• especies (species)

Getting the spreadsheet ready

With the right columns in place, spend a while cleaning the contents. It is time well spent: anything wrong that gets in has to be fixed afterwards row by row.

• One row per client. No total rows, footnotes or merged cells.
• Phone numbers in a consistent format, with country code if you see clients from abroad.
• Empty fields genuinely empty, not a dash or «N/A».
• All seven columns present even if some are blank: a missing header rejects the whole file.

Duplicates: decide before, not during

Every spreadsheet with a few years on it has the same client two or three times, usually spelled differently. Import it as-is and the problem moves intact into the new system.

VeteApp automatically skips rows whose email, ID number or phone already exists, and tells you afterwards how many clients were imported and how many rows were skipped. Note that this arrives AFTER the import, not before: there is no review screen where you decide.

So do the cleaning in the spreadsheet, before uploading. Sort by ID number or email there, resolve the repeats, and upload a file that is already deduplicated.

Watch the skipped count too: it covers both duplicates and rows beyond your plan's client limit. If the number surprises you, check how many clients your plan allows first.

What about the old medical history

This is the question that stalls most migrations. The honest answer is that old clinical history can rarely be imported automatically, because it usually lives as unstructured free text.

The approach that works is not to try. Import clients and patients, start recording digitally from the switch date, and keep the old file for reference. Within a few months most active patients have a new history and the old one gets consulted less and less.

One note on timing

Do not migrate during your busiest week or the day before you go on holiday. The switch needs a week or two where somebody is available to fix whatever comes out crooked, and that somebody has to actually be there.

Frequently asked questions

Which columns does the Excel file need?

The client file needs nombre, apellido, direccion, cedula, correo, tel1 and tel2. The patient file needs nombre, fechanacimiento, sexo, peso, cedula and especies. Headers are matched literally, so they must be lowercase and unaccented.

What if the same client appears twice?

Rows whose email, ID number or phone already exists are skipped automatically, and you are told afterwards how many were imported and how many skipped. That notice arrives after the import, not before, so deduplicate in the spreadsheet first.

Can I import my previous medical history?

Free-text history cannot be imported automatically. The usual approach is to import clients and patients, start digital records from the switch date, and keep the old file for reference.