Importing your data

Switching to Kaalchakra doesn't mean retyping your history. Export spreadsheets from your previous software and bring them in — masters first, then transactions. Imports are designed to keep your history as it was: invoice numbers, quantities, prices and tax rates come from your sheet, and each line's tax is worked out from the rate your sheet gives it — never from an item's rate in your masters.

Order of work

1. 1

   Import masters first

   Accounts (Masters → Account → Import), then items (Masters → Item → Import / Export). Item groups, account groups, and discounts have their own import pages too.

2. 2

   Then import transactions

   Open Transactions → Import/Export, pick what you're importing (sale, purchase, estimate, order), and upload your sheet. Not sure how the file should look? Use Download template to start from one with the right columns and an example row.

3. 3

   Let it map your columns for you

   As soon as you upload, Kaalchakra reads your columns and matches them to the right fields — no matter whether they came from Busy, Tally, Vyapar, or your own Excel. Each column is marked Matched, Likely, or Please check.

4. 4

   Confirm the highlighted columns

   Everything Kaalchakra is not certain about is listed at the top for you to confirm — both the columns it could not place and the ones it had to guess. Pick or correct the field from the dropdown for each. Only columns marked Matched are treated as settled, and those stay folded away below. Need to see every column at once? Open Advanced mapping.

5. 5

   Say how the dates are written

   05/04/2026 is 5 April in India and 4 May elsewhere, and nothing in the cell says which. So the first time, choose Day/Month/Year, Month/Day/Year or Year-Month-Day under Dates in this file — the page shows a date from your own file read that way (01/04/2025 = 1 April 2025) — and your choice is kept for the next file. If a file's dates show they are written another way, you are asked again before anything is checked. A date written year first — 2026-04-05, with or without a time — and a date cell your spreadsheet already knows as a date can only be read one way, so they never decide the question or reopen it. If a file writes dates in more than one way, choose the way most rows use: every date is then read only that way, and a row whose date can't be read that way is listed for you to fix.

6. 6

   Check what the file will do

   Before anything is written, the file is checked: rows are validated, documents already in your books are recognised, and every party, item, charge and transporter is matched against your masters. Anything that needs you is listed — documents to update or leave as they are, and names that are not in your masters — and Import stays off until each one has an answer. On a large file the page reads what the check found in parts and says how far it has got; Import waits until it has read all of it. If a check can't finish — the connection dropped, say — press Check again: your answers are kept, and so are your choices — a Leave as is always, and an Update wherever the document is listed again the same way, for the same reason.

7. 7

   Import and watch progress

   Large files process in the background with a live progress view. If the connection drops while an import runs, the import carries on: the page keeps checking on it, and Import stays off until it has finished. When it finishes you see how many documents were Created, Updated, Already in your books, Left as is, Can't update or Failed. Up to 50 of the documents that were left as they are or couldn't be updated are named with their reason (the list says when there are more, and the counts give every total), and the reasons rows failed are listed too — so you can correct just those and re-run. Your column choices are remembered for next time.

We map your columns for you

You don't have to know what the fields are called. Kaalchakra recognises the common names other software uses — “Party”, “Ledger”, “Customer” all become the party; “Qty” and “Quantity” both become quantity — and it even reads the actual values (a GSTIN, a date, a Dr/Cr column) to get the match right. Take the built-in Guide for a quick walkthrough, or press Ask Kaalchakra any time you're stuck.

A guess is always shown to you

There is a real difference between a column Kaalchakra recognised and one it guessed. A recognised column is marked Matched and needs nothing from you. A guess is marked Likely and is put in front of you to confirm — even though we have already filled in our best answer, so confirming is usually one glance. The count at the top tells you how many columns still want your eye, and it counts the guesses. If it says nothing needs checking, nothing does.

One invoice can span several rows

If an invoice has more than one item, put the party and bill number on the first row and leave those cells blank on the rows just below it — those blank-header rows are treated as the same invoice's extra items. Leave them truly empty: a dash is a value, so a row with a dash in its party or number cell starts a new invoice. The downloadable template shows exactly how.

Blank cells and dashes

Many older programs print a dash (-) instead of a zero. In the Tax %, Discount % and Discount Amount columns a dash — or NA, nil or none — is read as 0, so a line with no tax can show “-” in its tax column. Elsewhere a blank cell is simply empty:

• Tax % — a blank cell is a row to fix: a missing rate is never taken as 0% GST on its own. If your file has no Tax % column at all, the page asks under Auto-Calculation Rules: keep Require in Excel to be told about each line, or choose Default 0% — which means 0% on every line: the item's own tax rate is not used. That choice applies only while the file has no Tax % column: once one is mapped, a blank cell in it is a row to fix again.
• Price, List Price and Amount — a blank or a dash leaves that cell out. Each item line needs at least one of them; a 0 is fine.
• Discount — a blank is worked out from List Price and Price when the line has both; otherwise there is none.
• Quantity — blank, a dash, 0 or less, and that item line is set aside (see below). On a new invoice the rest of it comes in; an invoice with no usable item line is set aside whole. An invoice already in your books with a line set aside is left as it is if the file would change its items or charges (listed under Can't update); a change only to its other details is still written.
• CGST, SGST and IGST amounts and the GST totals — not used: each line's tax is worked out from its Tax %. The page notes these columns but does not check them.

When you bring in a file again, a blank cell on a document already in your books keeps what your books hold — see Importing a file again.

If a row needs a look

Nothing is saved until your file passes a quick check. Messages are grouped in plain language into three calm sections so you always know what to do:

• Please fix these to import — what must be sorted before anything is imported, such as telling us which column is the date or the party, or a line with no tax rate. Each one names the row or the column and the fix. While any are listed, Import stays off for the whole file, and the documents in it are compared with your books once they are fixed.
• We handled these for you — lines we set aside, such as an item row with no quantity or a charge with no amount. They're listed by row so you can fix them.
• Good to know — small notes that don't need any action.

Importing a file again

You can bring the same file — or a fresh export of the same months — in as often as you like. Every document in it is compared with your books first, and the check tells you what each one will do:

• New — not in your books yet. It is created.
• Already in your books — the same document, unchanged. It is left exactly as it is and not added a second time. Blank cells, columns you didn't map and details that only your masters hold never count as a change.
• Changed — in your books, but something the file states is different. It is updated in place and keeps its number; you can switch any one of them to Leave as is before you import, or use Update all / Leave all.
• To decide — it matches a document in your books, but something suggests it may be a different one. It is left as it is unless you choose Update on that row (Leave all reaches these rows, Update all does not) — an Update chosen while it was listed as Changed is not carried over. Each says why: the number belongs to another party's document (sales, sale estimates and sale orders); a purchase in your books that has no supplier bill number was found only by its number in Kaalchakra (giving it its supplier's bill number settles it); the date in your books is the file's date with the day and month swapped; the date and the total differ and most of its items are not in the file; or a GST return file has already been made for its period (sales and purchases).
• Can't update — a file can't change it, so it is left as it is, and each one says why: for example its period is locked, an e-invoice has been issued for it, you cancelled it here, returns were made against it, the order has already been delivered or received, you can't edit that kind of document, more than one document in your books fits it, or a line of it in the file was set aside. A new document that appears twice in the file is listed here too, as Repeated in the file: only its first copy is created.

Numbers are compared the way people write them: capital letters, spaces at either end and extra spaces don't matter, and a number made only of digits ignores leading zeros — 0342 is the same number as 342. A single space or a punctuation mark inside a number does count, so INV 12 is not INV12: write a number the same way in every file. The file's number is matched both against the number Kaalchakra gave a document and against the number it was brought over with. The series is not part of it, so a document keeps matching however it first came in. Documents that are in your books but not in the file are never touched — a file can cover part of a period.

How a changed document is updated. Only what the file states is compared and written. A blank cell keeps what your books hold — a narration, a transport, a line's HSN, unit or discount — and a column you didn't map is never read. Item lines are paired by item: a paired line keeps everything the file doesn't state, a line the file adds is created, and a line in your books that the file no longer has is removed. Money is compared as the file states it — the amount, the list price, the discount — to the paisa, and a line whose price includes tax (Paid Tax) is compared that way. If writing a change would move tax the file didn't change, the document is left as it is and says so.

About new documents. A document with no number is created every time the file comes in — there is nothing to recognise it by later — so give every document a number. A new document the file marks as cancelled is created as a cancelled document. A document you deleted counts as new again, and one that uses a name you chose to leave out is not imported.

Take the quick tour

First time here? A short guided tour walks you around the page — choosing what to import, uploading, checking the column matches, and bringing it in. Step through it with Next and Back, or press Skip. You can reopen it any time from the Guide button, and Ask Kaalchakra is there for anything else.

What each sheet should contain

You don't need every column — only a party and at least one item line (with a quantity) are essential. Everything else simply adds detail. Here's what each kind of document expects:

Columns worth knowing

Names that are not in your masters

No master is created behind your back. Every party, item, charge or transporter name in the file that is not one of your masters is listed under Names not in your masters, with the rows that use it and their dates. (With Import from Busy 21, names that don't match a master are created as before.) For each one you choose:

• Same as … — it is one of your masters under another name, for example an item renamed in your old software between two exports. The masters offered are the ones whose name is spelled almost the same way, and each says what else agrees (the same HSN or GSTIN, or the old item last used just before the new name first appears).
• Create new — it really is new, and it is created when you import.
• Leave these documents out — the documents that use it are not imported this time.

A name with nothing similar in your masters or among the file's other new names is set to Create new for you; anything with a suggestion waits for your answer, and Import stays off until every such name has one. A master renamed to something spelled quite differently is not recognised this way, so its new name is set to Create new too. To keep it as one master, rename it in Masters to the name the file uses — or add that name as its alias — before you bring the file in; or choose Leave these documents out. Some names can't be created again — such as the name a party was first created under before it was renamed — and for those only Same as or Leave these documents out is offered. Names matched in a way worth knowing are listed too, folded away: matched by GSTIN, by alias, by an earlier name, to the item it was merged into, or by your earlier answer (someone who can't see that list of masters is shown the names only, without how they were matched). On the Transactions page each one matched by GSTIN, alias, an earlier name or a merge has a Change button: keep it as that master, or choose Create new or Leave these documents out, and this file follows your answer. A match by your earlier answer is changed by removing that answer under Remembered names.

A name is matched once for the whole file, using every row that carries it. If its rows disagree — some rows carry a GSTIN that belongs to one of your parties and the rest carry none, or two rows carry the aliases of two different items — the name is asked about once, naming each master its rows point to, and your answer applies to all of its documents. A name is never split, with some documents going to one master and the rest to another or to a new one. If you choose Create new for such a name, it is created without an alias from the file, since its rows did not agree on one.

If you answer Same as and that master is removed before you import, the name is asked again with the reason, and its documents wait — a new master is never created in its place.

Sometimes neither name is in your masters yet: the file calls an item Steel Bolt 10mm in April and Steel Bolts 10mm from May. Then Same as also offers, after your masters, a new name of the file that is spelled almost the same way and only starts once this one has stopped, as a name this file creates: Steel Bolts 10mm (from 1 May). Names used side by side, such as sizes of one shirt, are never offered for each other — unless they carry the same alias, which marks them as one thing renamed: two new names with the same alias are always offered for each other, whatever their spelling and dates. Choose it for Steel Bolt 10mm, and Steel Bolts 10mm is set to Create new in the same click: one item is created, named Steel Bolts 10mm, the documents of both months use it, and Steel Bolt 10mm is remembered for next time. If the name you pointed to is left out, can't be created, or has no answer yet — or the answers point at each other in a circle — the check names the one to answer first.

An import never changes your masters

Importing documents never edits a party, an item, a charge or a transporter you already have. Where the file's details differ from a master — another HSN, another state, another spelling of a name — the check lists them under Different from your masters for your information, and your master stays exactly as it is. An item line keeps the file's HSN and unit. A document's party is always your master as it is now: it carries the master's current name, and its tax follows the master's details — the file's own party details are not stored on the document. If the list shows a master is out of date, edit it in Masters, before you file your returns.