Availability
Overview
You can import a list of expenses saved as a CSV file to Birdview using a wizard.
Expenses can be imported either as activity- or project-level expenses.
In this article
Requirements
The minimum requirements for importing expenses from a CSV file are the "Manage system settings" global permission and "Add expenses" permissions2) enabled in your project access level.
Important
It is not possible to update existing expenses during the import process; all imported expenses are added as new ones. For all imported expenses unique IDs are generated during import.
Import wizard
To be imported to Birdview, a CSV file should have values in their respective places and separated by a list separator (default is a comma).
A portion of a source CSV file might look like this:
Date,Amount,Billable,Project name,Task name,Planned
3/15/2026,123.45,Yes,Project A,Task A1,No
3/16/2026,67.89,Yes,Project A,,Yes
The first row must contain the names of fields the values correspond to. It is mandatory that your CSV file contains the heading row. It will be automatically skipped by Birdview during import.
Importing a list of expenses
To import a list of expenses, follow these steps:
- Click through Activity Center > More actions (
) > Import expenses from CSV.
- On the Step 1 of 4 screen, read the instructions and download a sample CSV file or a full template, if required.
- Prepare and upload your CSV file. Max size is 50Gb.
Important
"Amount" is a required field in the CSV file. It can be named differently but it must contain a value which will be used as the amount of an expense after the field has been mapped to Birdview field Amount used for expenses. See Step 3 of 4 below.
- Select the correct field separator. By default, a comma is used.
- Click Continue.
- On Step 2 of 4, select by which field a destination activity and/or project will be identified (Match activity by and Match project by). The rules are as follows:
- Birdview will match a selected field with the value in the same field in the CSV file to identify the destination activity or project. Failure to identify a destination activity/project will result in error.
- If the expenses are to be imported as activity-level expenses, a field must be selected in Match activities by.
- If the expenses are to be imported as project-level expenses, a field must be selected in Match project by.
- If a field is selected in both field, the project field is only used to help identify a destination activity. Failure to identify the activity will result in an error.Click Continue.
Matching fields
The table below details the values the matching fields can take:
| Match activities by | Match projects by |
| None | None |
| Native fields | |
| Task ID | Project ID |
| Task name | Project name |
| Custom fields4) | |
| Custom field 1 | Custom field 1 |
| Custom field 2 | Custom field 2 |
| ... | ... |
| Custom field N | Custom field N |
- Click Continue.
- On Step 3 of 4, perform field mapping, i.e. match fields in the CSV file being imported with Birdview ones. Required fields must be mapped without fail. This is indicated by a padlock icon (
), i.e. the rows thus marked cannot be deleted. Optional fields can be skipped. Use the X icon at the end of unwanted rows to remove them from the map.
Important
By default, expenses are imported as actual, billable and not invoiced. You can adjust that by mapping respective fields in the CSV file to Birdview fields Planned, Billable and Invoiced.
- When done, click Import.
- The next step is validation. If errors have been identified during import they are presented here. Example:
Now you can fix the errors and repeat the import process to get a successful result, which may like this:
Note
If you are planning to import a large set of data, it's always best to do a test import, with just a few lines of data and if it looks ok then do the rest. To do things this way, you will want to split your CSV into two files, 1st with just a few records and 2nd file with the rest. Do the test on the 1st file and then do the full import on the 2nd file.