Send spreadsheet data into Zoho Books

Use Zapier + EasyCSV to get spreadsheet data into Zoho Books

CSVs are one of the most common data formats for transferring information from one program to another. They can be used in many different ways, but a lot of people only know how to use them with Excel. But what if you want to move that same data into your CRM, bookkeeping app, or mailing list client.

Using Zapier and EasyCSV, you'll learn how easy it is to process CSV files automatically and send that data where it needs to go.

What is Zapier?

Zapier is a web app which allows you to move data from one app to another. More specifically, it helps you automate tasks so that when something happens in one app (a trigger event), something automatically happens in another (and action).

What is EasyCSV?

EasyCSV is your Swiss Army Knife for handling CSV data. Convert from CSV files or Google Sheets to any app, API, or FTP server with ease. And for everything else, they have a Zapier integration.

A use case - sending invoice data to Zoho Books

Imagine you have a few invoices that need to be sent over to your bookkeeping app. If it's Xero, then EasyCSV has a direct integration. But, if you're using Zoho Books instead, this is where you'll need to go EasyCSV involved.

Assuming you have a CSV file representing a single invoice, and each row representing a line item - we're going to build a workflow that creates an invoice for us as soon as the CSV file is imported to EasyCSV.

Getting started - triggering your zap with a new CSV file

First, go to Zapier and click "Make a zap" in the top left corner. Next, select the EasyCSV app and "New CSV File Generated via Import" as the trigger event. You'll then be prompted to select/connect your EasyCSV account and test the trigger.

Processing the CSV file

All being well, Zapier will pull through a recent CSV file from your account. This will come in the form of a URL pointing to where the file is stored.

Before we can do anything with this, we need to parse out the rows. This can be done using a Zapier Formatter step.

Click the '+' symbol to add a new step in your zap. Select "Formatter" as the app and "Utilities -> Import CSV file" as the action type. Then map the CSV URL from the trigger step into the "CSV file field".

Test this step and the output will be rows from your CSV (up to 50 in this sample, but as many as 1,000 when running live). You now have everything you need to create the invoice in Zoho Books.

Creating the Zoho Books invoice

Add a new step in your zap. Select "Zoho Books" as the app and "New Invoice" as the action type.

Fill out all other fields according to what is needed, paying special attention to the indented box of fields representing the invoice line items. This is where you need to map the extracted CSV data as so:

Conclusion

With just a short amount of work, we created a zap that exports data from EasyCSV and creates a Zoho Books invoice, using just the Zapier Formatter app to parse the CSV into rows of data.

Simple to implement, and at scale a way to save potentially hours of time for your business every week.

This post was written by Andrew Davison, founder of Luhhu - an automation agency helping small businesses save money with tools like Zapier.

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