ElectricalBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Importing a Property Manager's Address List: CSV Import for Commercial Electricians

The day a property manager hands you their whole portfolio is a good day. It is also the day someone in your office faces a spreadsheet with forty addresses on it and wonders how long it will take to type them all in. With CSV import, the answer is not long at all.

When a List Shows Up

Organizing vans around commercial work is covered in A Van for the Buildings: Splitting Commercial and Residential Routes by Van. Before any van can visit those buildings, the buildings have to be in the system.

Lists arrive in all kinds of situations:

• A property manager adds you as their electrician for every property they manage.
• A retail chain sends a list of stores for a lighting maintenance program.
• A landlord sends every rental they own.
• You are moving your own customer list off spreadsheets and paper.

In each case, the information is usually already in a spreadsheet, and a spreadsheet can be saved as a CSV file.

How CSV Import Works

ElectricalBossPro brings in addresses and clients from a CSV file. Once the file is imported, the imported addresses are placed on the map automatically. There is no separate step to look up each one. They show up on the map where they belong, ready to appear on the Waiting List and dispatch board when jobs are created for them.

That matters for commercial accounts, because the map is how the office plans routes. Forty buildings imported and placed on the map can be grouped into routes the same day.

It also changes how you look at the account. Seeing every property as a pin on one map shows you where the manager's buildings cluster, which ones sit near your existing residential routes, and which outliers will need their own trip. That picture helps when you price recurring work and decide which van should own the account.

Start With a Small Test

If the list is long, it can be worth importing a handful of rows first. Check that the addresses landed where you expected on the map and that the names read the way the manager uses them. Once the test looks right, import the rest with confidence.

Getting the File Ready

A little cleanup before import saves time afterward. When you get a list from a manager, check a few things:

• One row per address. Each building, unit or store should be its own row.
• Full addresses. Street, city, state or province, and postal code, so each one lands in the right spot on the map.
• Clear names. If the manager calls a property “Building C” or “Store 14,” keep that name in its own column so it can become part of the address name.
• Units. Apartment and suite numbers should be clear, so units at the same street address do not get mixed up.
• Extra details. Store numbers, property IDs or region names can go into custom fields.

Address names matter later, because they become the labels on the monthly statement lines. More on that in Address-Labeled Statement Lines: Making a Commercial Electrical Bill Easy to Approve.

After the Import

Once the addresses are in, the office finishes the setup for the account:

• Make sure all the addresses sit under one client, the management company or chain.
• Set the client's billing to Monthly if they want one statement.
• Add tags, such as “commercial” or the account's region.
• Put recurring plans on the addresses that need them, like relamping every 30 days or a yearly inspection.
• Add access notes for the buildings you already know.

Equipment records and measurements can fill in over time as your techs visit each building. Nobody expects a complete record for every building on day one.

Ask the Manager for More

Managers often have more information than they think to send. When you ask for the address list, also ask whether they have notes on access, contacts at each property, or anything else that would help your techs. Some will send a second sheet with that information. It can go into access notes and custom fields, and your techs will benefit on the very first visit.

If you plan to send customer texts to the account, check that the phone numbers are current too.

Bringing Over Your Existing Customers

CSV import is not only for new commercial accounts. If you are moving off spreadsheets and paper, you can bring your existing residential and commercial customers in the same way. Their addresses land on the map automatically, and you can start scheduling from day one instead of rebuilding your customer list by hand.

From Spreadsheet to Schedule

The faster a new account is set up, the sooner its work is on your schedule. CSV import turns a manager's list into mapped addresses in minutes. For how those addresses fit into the rest of commercial work, see the commercial electrical software overview.