Importing Projects

Bring your existing records into DrillerDB instead of retyping them. Upload PDF well reports and DrillerDB reads each one and builds a project for you to review. Contacts, equipment and your price list come in from a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file, and each import page has a template you can download.

Importing is free. There is no per-page charge and no page limit.

Quick Start

Open the Import page to reach all four import options.

Step-by-Step: Import well reports from PDF

1. Open the Import page, then click New Import
2. Add your files. You can pick individual files, a whole folder, or a folder whose files all belong to one project
3. The import starts. There is no payment step
4. Wait while DrillerDB reads the documents. Large batches take a while and you can leave the page. When the import finishes, DrillerDB emails the person who started it with how many projects were created, how many wait for review and how many failed
5. Open the review queue and check each project it built
6. For each project, choose an existing customer if a match is listed, or Create new (see "Choose the customer for each project" below)
7. Approve the ones you want, skip the ones you do not
8. Approved projects appear under Projects with the source PDF attached

The wizard shows you where you are: Upload, Processing, Review, Results.

What documents work best

Clear, high-resolution PDFs need the fewest corrections. If you have a mix, import the clean ones first.

What gets read out of the document

DrillerDB looks for the things you would otherwise retype:

The customer and the site

• Well owner name, phone, email and mailing address
• Site address, city, state, ZIP and county
• GPS coordinates and legal description when the document has them

The well log

• Total depth, static water level, pumping water level
• Yield test duration and results
• Formation layers with from and to depths
• Casing, liner and screen rows with diameter, material and depths
• Grout and sealing rows

The pump log

• Install date, pump and pressure tank details
• Water test type, yield, drawdown and test hours
• Bacteria and mineral results when they are on the page

Paperwork

• Drilling start and completion dates
• Permit numbers
• Separation distances where the form asks for them

It also picks up line items and notes it finds, so a report that doubles as an invoice brings its charges across.

Reviewing what it found

Nothing is created until you approve it. In the review queue you can:

• Click Edit on a project to correct its extracted fields before approving
• Choose the customer for each project (required before you can approve it)
• Approve projects one at a time, or use Approve All
• Skip a project you do not want

Fields carry a confidence indicator. Check the low-confidence ones first, and always check depths and the site address.

Choose the customer for each project

Every project still awaiting review has a Customer for this well log box. DrillerDB does not pick the customer for you. Open Choose a customer action. The choices are:

• Use existing customer #...: ...: shown when DrillerDB finds possible matches in your company. Each match lists its name, address and reasons for matching. Pick the one that is the same person. If no matches are found, no existing-customer option appears.
• Create new: the document's owner is not in your customer list yet.

Approve stays greyed out until you choose. Check the matches carefully to avoid adding the same person twice under a slightly different spelling.

If you use Approve All, any project that still needs a customer choice stays in the queue, and the page tells you how many (for example, "2 projects still need a customer choice"). Choose a customer and click Approve on each remaining project.

Step-by-Step: Import contacts, equipment or your price list

These three come in from a CSV file or an Excel workbook (.xlsx), each from its own page.

1. Go to Contacts, Equipment, or Products & Services
2. Click Import CSV. On a narrower window it is under More
3. On the Upload step, look at Expected Columns under the upload box. Click Download the template (CSV) to get a sample file with the column headings the import reads and two example rows. Click Show the N columns to see, for each column, what it fills, the values it accepts, and an example. The list starts closed, and Hide the columns closes it again
4. Upload your file. A CSV or an Excel (.xlsx) file works, and it needs a header row and at least one row of data
5. On Map Columns, check the match DrillerDB suggests for each of your columns, and set any column to Skip
6. On Review, check the preview, then import. The last step shows what happened

Your own column names are fine. DrillerDB matches them to the right field, including the headings in QuickBooks and ServiceM8 exports.

The upload box states the file limits. For Excel, DrillerDB reads the first sheet. Equipment and Products & Services take up to 1,000 rows and 5 MB per file. Contacts take up to 1,000 rows and 5 MB from an .xlsx file, or up to 20,000 rows from a CSV, so save a larger contact file as CSV. Older .xls files are not read: in Excel choose File > Save As > Excel Workbook (.xlsx), then upload that file.

Importing contacts

A Contact Type column sets the contact's Customer, Vendor and Subcontractor switches and its roles. Words it reads include Customer or Client, Vendor or Supplier, Subcontractor, Builder, Pump Installer, Owner, Municipal and Property Manager. Combine words with commas, such as "Builder, Vendor". A row is a Customer unless its type says Vendor or Subcontractor without Customer.

DrillerDB skips a row that matches a contact you already have, or an earlier row of the same file. A match is the same business name, or the same first and last name together, ignoring capitals. Email and phone do not decide a match. When a row matches on name alone and both contacts have an email or a phone that differ, the skipped line adds "email/phone differ, may be a different person", so you can check whether they are two people.

The Review step lists the rows it will skip under Skipped (already in your contacts), with the row number, the name, and the existing contact it matched. Rows that cannot be imported appear as Check before importing lines: an unreadable row, or a row with no business, first or last name. Those rows are left out.

The result screen counts Imported, Skipped, Not imported and Errors, and lists each skipped and not-imported row by number. A note says how many blank rows were ignored. Imported, skipped, not imported, errors and blank rows add up to the rows in your file. Errors is only for rows the save itself refused.

Tracking your imports

The Import page lists your imports with their status. From there you can:

• Watch progress on an import that is still running
• Jump back into the review queue for anything waiting on you
• Open a finished import to see what it created

There is no bulk undo. To remove something an import created, delete those projects individually.

If an import stops

An import ends as Failed in two cases: none of its files could be turned into a project, or processing stopped with an error partway through. On the import screen the heading then reads Import Stopped. When no project was made, the email subject reads "Bulk Import Failed - No Projects Created".

To try again:

1. Click Resume Import on the Import Stopped screen, or open the import from the Import page and click Resume.
2. DrillerDB runs the files that failed or did not finish again.

Files you skipped in review stay skipped, and a file that already made a project is not run again. If Resume cannot run, it says why:

• "This import is still running. Resume it after it stops if any files did not finish."
• "This import was cancelled. Start a new import to try these files again."

If a file is a printed spreadsheet

Some files look like well reports but are a job list or customer list from your old software, printed or saved as a PDF. Each page holds rows of dates with phone numbers or email addresses.

When DrillerDB finds a file like that, it does not put the few rows it could read into review as if they were the whole file. The file fails with this message:

"This file looks like a spreadsheet export, not well logs or job documents. Send the original CSV or XLSX file to support@drillerdb.com and we will import it for you."

The email you get when the import finishes gives the same reason.

Spreadsheets of past projects

The new console does not read a spreadsheet of projects. It reads PDF well reports, and CSV or Excel files for contacts, equipment and products.

If your project history is in a spreadsheet, send the original CSV or XLSX file to support@drillerdb.com and we will import it for you. Send the file your old software exported, not a PDF printout of it. You can bring your customer list in yourself through Contacts first. A spreadsheet project import also exists in the classic app under File Import, which accepts Excel or CSV files up to 25MB and maps your columns for you.

Who can import

Import is available to Admin, Office and Technician users.

Field Supervisor, Accountant and Customer accounts do not have it. If you cannot open the Import page, check your role with your administrator.

Troubleshooting

A PDF will not upload. Confirm it is a valid PDF and try a different browser. Very large scans are the usual cause.

An import says Failed and created no projects. Click Resume to run the failed files again. See "If an import stops" above.

The extraction missed data. The page may be unclear, or the data may not be on it. Open the project in the review queue and type the missing fields in before you approve.

A CSV or Excel import fails. Check that the file is a real CSV or .xlsx file with a header row, is not password protected, and has no blank rows at the top. An older .xls file must be saved as .xlsx first. If the file is over the limits above, split it, or for contacts save it as a CSV.

Customers came in twice. In the review step, check the Customer for this well log box on each project. Choose Use existing customer when the person is already in your list, and Create new only when they are not. Projects imported before this choice existed can still show the owner twice. Bring your customer list in first through Contacts, then see Consolidating Duplicates.

I cannot open Import. Check whether your role includes it. See "Who can import" above.

Related Topics

• Creating Projects - entering a project by hand
• Well Log - importing one report onto an existing project
• Adding Contacts - the contacts side in more detail
• Search & Filters - finding what you imported
• Users & Access - what each role can do