ElectricalBossPro Blog — Generator & Maintenance Plans

Moving Your Generator Customer List Off a Spreadsheet With CSV Import

Most electrical shops that sell generators have a list somewhere. Maybe it is a spreadsheet with customer names, addresses and install dates. Maybe it is a column of notes in an old accounting file, or a stack of install invoices in a drawer. That list is worth a lot, because every name on it is a generator that could be on a yearly plan. Getting it out of the spreadsheet and into a system that actually brings visits due is the first step.

A Spreadsheet Has No Memory for Dates

Photos and notes, covered in Photos and Notes From Generator Visits That Make Next Year Easier, give each visit a memory once you are running plans in ElectricalBossPro. A spreadsheet cannot do that. It holds names and addresses, but it never tells you who is due, it never sends a reminder, and it never shows the customers on a map.

CSV import is how you get your existing list into ElectricalBossPro without retyping it.

Step 1: Clean Up the List

Before importing, spend a little time on the spreadsheet. A few things make the import go smoothly:

• One row per client, with name, phone, email and address in their own columns.
• Full street addresses, including city and state or province.
• Remove duplicates, such as the same customer entered twice for two jobs.
• Keep any generator details, like brand, model or install year, in their own columns so you have them handy for the next step.

Save the file as CSV from your spreadsheet program.

Step 2: Import

ElectricalBossPro imports clients from CSV. Imported addresses are placed on the map automatically, so your generator customers show up as pins where they actually live. For many shops, seeing the whole customer list on one map for the first time is eye-opening: a cluster of generators in one subdivision, a few out in the country, more than expected in the next town over.

One client can have many addresses, so a customer with a home and a lake house, or a landlord with several rentals, can be set up with each address on the same client.

Step 3: Tag Your Generator Customers

Once clients are in, tags and custom fields help sort them. Tag generator owners, and use separate tags for those who are already on a plan, those who declined, and those you have not asked yet. Tags make it easy to send a text or email to a whole group later, such as every generator owner not yet on a plan before storm season.

Step 4: Add the Equipment

The real value of moving generator customers into ElectricalBossPro is equipment on the house. Each property can hold the generator with its brand, model, serial, year installed, kW rating, fuel, location and access notes, along with the transfer switch or interlock, main panel and anything else on site.

If your spreadsheet has generator details, add them to each property. If it does not, that is fine. The tech can capture the equipment on the first visit, and the record flows back to the house. By the end of the first year, every plan customer has a complete record. More on records in Generator Records on the House: Brand, Model, Serial, kW and Fuel in One Place.

Step 5: Put the Plans on the Properties

For customers already on a plan, add the yearly generator maintenance or safety inspection service to their property, with 365 days between visits. If you know roughly when they were last visited, you can schedule accordingly so they come due at about the right time. If you do not, their visits will show up on the Waiting List, and the office can work through them by area.

For customers not on a plan yet, leave the plan off and use the tags to offer it. Each one who signs up in the customer app or through your website sign-up form gets the plan added and lands on the Waiting List.

Bring in the Rest of the Business Too

Generator customers are often the first list shops move, because the plans make it obvious why. But the same CSV import works for every client: past service calls, panel upgrades, EV charger installs and commercial accounts. Having them all in one place means safety inspection plans can be offered to the whole list, not just generator owners.

Once everyone is in, the spreadsheet can retire. For how imported customers fit with plans, the Waiting List and billing, visit the ElectricalBossPro generator maintenance software page.