Pop Dispatch has an import profile for Towbook exports. It reads accounts, tow rates, customers, drivers, trucks, yard (impound) vehicles, open invoices and call history, and Towbook is the first choice on the Import data page when your file came from there.
The column names in the Towbook profile are a best guess. Towbook does not publish a column list for its exports, so the profile is built from the field names its help pages describe. Check the columns step on every file: change any choice from its list.
Before you start #
- You need the owner or manager role.
- Towbook does not publish the steps or the file types for a full export. The account holder asks Towbook support in writing for an export of accounts, rates, calls, invoices, payments and impound records, and asks which file type they send.
- If Towbook cannot send a full export, run each report you need with the widest date range and export it. Towbook's own blog described exporting reports in 2013, so check in your account which reports offer it.
- Towbook's help center is at intercom.help/towbook/en. The Import data page links to it.
- Pop Dispatch reads CSV and Excel (.xlsx) files. If a report only comes as PDF, ask for another form, because Pop Dispatch cannot read a PDF.
What to ask Towbook for #
- Accounts, with contacts, phone, email and payment terms.
- Rates by account and truck type: hook-up, included miles, per-mile, storage per day and free days, gate fee, winch and wait.
- Customers, drivers and trucks.
- Vehicles in the impound lot now, with date in, lot, storage start and daily storage rate.
- Open invoices with the balance owed and due date.
- Closed calls and invoices for the years you want to keep as history.
Steps #
- Open Settings, then Import data, and choose Towbook.
- Import in this order: accounts, tow rates, customers, drivers, trucks, yard, open invoices, call history. For each one choose the kind of data, choose the file and check the columns.
- Select Check the file and read the problems with their row numbers.
- Select Import.
- Open the lists in Pop Dispatch and compare a few records with Towbook.
Technical details
- Yard vehicles keep their original date in, so storage charges and lien clocks start from the day the vehicle came in. When the file has a storage start date, the days between the two become free days. Vehicles marked released or disposed are left out of the lot.
- A rate line for an account and truck type that already exists is left as it is. A row with no account name makes your standard rate.
- Call history keeps Towbook's call number, date and total as read-only history.
- Open invoices become open invoices for the balance owed, with the Towbook invoice number and due date, and no tax added.
- A history file with no kind column is read as tow calls for a Towbook import.
If something goes wrong #
- A column is missing from the mapping. Choose it from the list on the columns step.
- A row names an account with no record yet. Import accounts first.
- See Fixing import problems for every message.