Bring records in from a file

What can be brought in

A firm moving to Docavra brings its old registers in from files: first its parties (clients, other sides, witnesses and everyone else the firm deals with), then its matters, which name their clients. The import screen also brings in a company's registers (see Importing company registers) and the values of the firm's custom fields on records already in Docavra (see Custom fields).

Bring a file in

1. Open your profile, Imports, and choose Bring in a file.
2. Choose what the file brings in. Download the template shows the headings Docavra reads; your own file does not have to use them (see "Your file's own layout").
3. Choose the file, saved as CSV (comma separated). It can be up to 25 MB.
4. Under How the file reads, check that every column it needs is found, or teach the layout.
5. Leave Try it first on, and choose Try it.

The file goes straight to the firm's store. It is scanned for viruses and every row is checked; on a try, nothing is written. The import's page shows how far it has got, and you are told when it finishes.

When the try reads right, open the import and choose Bring it in. The same file is checked again and the right rows are written, a batch at a time.

Your file's own layout

An export from another system rarely carries Docavra's headings: one says "Client Name", another "CLIENT", a third prints two title lines above the headings. Teach the file once:

1. Under How the file reads, choose Teach a new layout.
2. Headings are on: the line that names the file's columns. Docavra picks the likeliest; each line is shown so you can see.
3. For each of Docavra's columns, choose the file's heading that holds it, or Not in this file. A column marked needed must be found.
4. Keep it as: a name, such as "PracticeOld clients", then Save layout.

The next file of the same shape is read by choosing that layout. Change and Remove sit beside it. Removing a layout leaves what earlier files made as it is.

The parties file

Each row is one person or one organisation:

• Reference: the party's code in your previous system. Keep it: a matters file names its client by it.
• Type: Person or Organisation.
• A person: First name and Last name, and Other names and Title where you have them.
• An organisation: Organisation name, and its Organisation kind (company_limited_by_shares, company_limited_by_guarantee, partnership, sole_proprietorship, ngo, government, trust or other) and Registration number where you have them.
• Email and Phone, where you have them; each is kept as the party's main one.
• Tags, separated by semicolons.

A row whose email belongs to a party already on file is not added again.

The matters file

Bring the parties in first. Each row is one matter:

• Reference: the matter's number in your previous system. The matter takes a new Docavra number and keeps this one as its former reference, shown on the matter and found by search.
• Name and Matter type (the type's code or name, as Settings lists it).
• The client: Client reference (the Reference from the parties file), or Client, the party's exact name where it had no reference.
• Responsible partner: the partner's email in Docavra, where you have one.
• Opened on, Status (Open or Closed) and, for a closed matter, Closed on: days as 2019-03-04 or 04/03/2019.
• Description, where you have one.

A matter brought in keeps the standing it had: open since its day, or closed on its day, with "Brought in from the firm's previous system" in its history. It was opened in your previous system after your own checks, so it does not go through Docavra's opening checklist again; your KYC and conflict reviews take it up from here. A reference already on file is not brought in twice.

What came in

Once a file is brought in, its page lists What came in: every record made, the file's line it came from and its old reference, each opening its record. Search the list by name or reference.

Rows to fix

A row that cannot be written (a missing name, an email that is not an address, a client not found, a matter type Docavra does not have) is listed with the reason. Rows to fix on the import's page gives a CSV of those rows with a column saying why and the line each was on. Correct them there and bring that file in.

Stopping an import

Stop on the import's page halts it after the batch in hand. Rows already written stay written.

Who may bring records in

Bringing records in needs data.import, which the firm administrator and the managing partner hold, and the permission each record needs: party.manage for parties, matter.open for matters.