‼️ IMPORTANT

The Important Tool is available only to customers on the Enterprise plan. Assistance from the Ventrata team with preparing, validating, or running imports may be subject to additional service fees.

Prerequisites:

Save the import file as a CSV with a header row.
Limit the number of lines to 50,000 to avoid any timeouts when creating the import.
Where possible ONLY use ids rather than names, for example, 'option_id' rather than 'option_name'. If you are using names these must match what has been set up 100%.
Remove any unnecessary columns from the CSV to simplify field mapping.

Step 1: Create Import File

Upload the prepared CSV import file in your Dashboard.

In the Ventrata Dashboard, go to Supplier Settings > Imports.

Imports
Press the + New Import button.

New Import
Enter a unique name for the import.

📗 TIP
A unique name for each import makes it easier to identify bookings that belong to the import
Press Browse to upload a file from your computer.
Enable 'Invoiceable' checkbox to include the bookings in this import in a reseller invoice.
Press the Create Import button to upload the file.

Create New Import

Step 2: Complete Field Mapping

After a validation of the format, a mapping form may be displayed if the column headers do not exactly match the system.

📗 TIP

Avoid this step by matching the naming of the file column headers to system headers.

Choose a system header (right) to match the file header (left).
Select 'ignore' to exclude the entire column from the import.

Column Map
Press the Create Import button to re-upload it.

Create Import
The system completes an initial validation of the fields and data. If the validation returns any errors, update the CSV file and reupload it, see Upload Import File.

Import Errors

Step 3: Validate Data

Validate data accuracy and mapping of the import file.

Once the fields are correctly mapped and the file is uploaded, press the Validate Data button.

Validate Data

📗 TIP
This validates that the IDs match those in the system, for example, the unit ID belongs to the correct product.
Wait until the progress bar reaches 100%.

Progress

📒 NOTE
If there are further errors, they will be listed in the window. You can download the list of errors into a CSV if there are more than 10 errors.

Download Errors

Press the Edit Import button to update the mapping or re-upload the corrected file.

Edit Import

📗 TIP

Press the Preview Data button to verify that fields are populating as required. This helps identify any issues with the data.

Preview Data

Step 4: Run Import

Import the error-free CSV file.

Press the Run Import button in the import window.

Run Import
Depending on the size of the import, it may start immediately or be added to the processing queue.

Import Queue

📗 TIP
Once the import has started, you do not need to wait until the progress reaches 100%. If you have other imports to complete, you can start processing those in the meantime.

Import Progress

Step 5: Check Data

Review the imported bookings in the Bookings table.

Once the import has finished successfully, press the Imported Bookings button in the import window.

Imported Bookings
A new browser tab opens with the Bookings table filtered to the imported bookings.

📗 TIP
You can also filter the imported bookings directly in the Bookings table by adding the 'Imported' and 'Import' columns and filter.

Filtered Bookings
Add columns to spot check the bookings to the import file to verify that the mapping and data have been imported correctly.

Rollback

You can roll back a completed import at any time to remove the imported bookings from the system.

📒 NOTE

Ventrata can roll back only a full import.

Press the Rollback button to remove all bookings imported using the same file.

Rollback
Press OK to confirm that you want to permanently delete X number of imported orders.

Confirm Rollback
Wait until the progress bar reaches 100%.

Progress

Use the Import Table

In the Imports table you will find all previous imports, where you can see the import progress and manage them individually.

📒 NOTE

The Imports table only shows imports done using the import tool. Imports performed by the Ventrata team are not listed in this table.

The default columns are:

Column	Description
Name	Name given when the import was created. This is the name populated in the 'Import’ column on the Bookings table.
Imported Orders	Current number of orders that have been imported. This will be different to the total orders if the job is still in progress.
Total Orders	The total number of orders included in the file, whether they have been imported or not.
Progress	Progress (%) of how complete the import job is.
Running	Yes - If the import is in progress or in the queue to be run No - The import has not started and is not in the queue, or is completed

In addition, you can also add:

Column	Description
ID	System generated unique identifier
Count	Number of files (always 1)
Import Date	Date the import was first created
Import Time	Time the import was first created
Import Date Time	Date and time the import was first created

Hints, Tips and Troubleshooting

Expand to learn more about importing open-dated bookings, booking pricing, and file specifications.

Import file

The import file must be a CSV file with a header row.

There is currently a limit of 50,000 lines per import to avoid any timeouts when creating the import.

Mapping columns

Where possible, use IDs rather than names, for example, option_id instead of option_name. If you use names, they must match the values configured in the system.

Importing open-dated bookings

To import an open-dated booking, use valid_from without a travel date. The expiry date will automatically be calculated from what is set as the validity in the product settings. To override this, expires_on can also be imported.

Importing booking pricing

You can import prices directly using fields adult_retail (and all other tier variants), along with strike, commission, wholesale, and cost versions.

For ticket-level imports, use ticket_retail and related fields.

All tickets with the same unit_id in a single booking must share the same rate. Retail values are applied before discounts or adjustments, and include/exclude taxes based on product configuration.

Importing paid amounts

You can import actual payment data by using:

order_paid – total value for the order
booking_paid – amount paid per booking
ticket_paid – amount paid per ticket

Import grouping

The import tool can group by booking or orders by importing booking or order references. If these are not included, the system will create each line as an order/booking and automatically generate the references.

The same booking_reference can only be used if the product, option and tour time are the same. If they are not, this needs to be imported as an order_reference to group them as different bookings under the same order.

Customer information

Customer information can be imported on an order or a ticket level. The mapping should reflect this by using customer_xxxx or ticket_customer_xxxx.

Mostly the field names are self explanatory, but a couple are named differently:

Phone number = mobile
Zip code = Postal Code

The Customer Country should be imported as the 2 letter ISO 3166 code - https://www.iban.com/country-codes can be used to check the accurate codes.

Date formats

Both EU and US date formats can be imported. It is important to select the correct fields within the data mapping to avoid any errors.

The standard date fields, e.g., travel_date, booking_date, etc. should be used for EU dates. The US dates should be imported with the mdy versions, e.g., travel_date_mdy, booking_date_mdy.

Sources

All imported bookings will show as Backoffice or Concierge/Direct API if there is a reseller. If sources are required to be different, these can be imported with one of the below:

checkout
dashboard
concierge
connect
kiosk
terminal

How to Import Bookings Using the Import Tool