Welcome to the NZRT Wiki Podcast. Today we’re looking at Data Export & Import.

If you’ve ever needed to move data in or out of Dolibarr, this is the feature set you’ll be reaching for. Whether you’re migrating from another system, feeding data into a business intelligence tool, or just taking a snapshot of your records, Dolibarr’s export and import capabilities are built to handle the job. The supported formats are CSV, Excel, and XML, which covers most of what you’ll encounter in day-to-day business workflows.

Let’s start with exports. Dolibarr comes with a set of built-in export profiles, which means you don’t have to configure things from scratch every time you want to pull data out. These profiles cover the key data types you’re most likely to need. You can export your customers and suppliers, your product catalogue, invoices, sales and purchase orders, contacts, and even custom fields you’ve added to extend the standard data model. That last one is particularly useful if your organisation has tailored Dolibarr to capture information that doesn’t fit neatly into the default setup.

When you run an export, you choose your profile, select the fields you want included, and Dolibarr generates the file for you. The result is a structured, clean export you can open directly in a spreadsheet application or feed into another tool. If you’re connecting to a business intelligence platform, this is often your starting point for a data pipeline, at least until you set up something more automated.

Now let’s talk about imports. Importing data into Dolibarr is done through a CSV bulk import process, and there’s a field mapping wizard that guides you through it. That wizard is your friend, especially if you’re bringing in data from a third-party system where the column names don’t match Dolibarr’s internal field names. You map each column in your file to the corresponding field in Dolibarr, and the system takes care of the rest.

One thing worth knowing is that Dolibarr includes error reporting during the import process. If something in your file doesn’t match the expected format, or if a required field is missing, you’ll get feedback before the data is actually committed. That means you can fix issues and re-run without worrying that you’ve already created a mess of partial records. There’s also rollback support, so if something goes wrong mid-import, you’re not left with half a dataset loaded and half missing.

That rollback capability is especially important during migrations. If you’re moving from another CRM or ERP into Dolibarr, you’ll likely be running imports multiple times as you clean and reformat your source data. Being able to undo a failed run and try again is a significant time saver and keeps things predictable.

A quick note on field names. If you’re preparing an import file and you’re not sure what Dolibarr expects each column to be called, the Module List is your reference point. It documents the field names used by each module, and you’ll want to cross-check those against your mappings in the wizard. Getting the field names right upfront will save you a lot of back-and-forth during the import process.

Now, if you need to move data programmatically rather than through the user interface, you don’t have to use the export and import screens at all. Dolibarr has a REST API that gives you direct access to the same data in a code-driven way. That’s the route to take if you’re building an integration, scheduling automated data syncs, or working with a developer who needs to push or pull records without any manual steps. The REST API is covered in its own documentation, but it’s worth knowing it exists as a complement to what we’ve covered today.

To bring it all together. Dolibarr supports export and import in CSV, Excel, and XML formats. On the export side you get built-in profiles covering customers, suppliers, products, invoices, orders, contacts, and custom fields. On the import side you get a field mapping wizard for CSV bulk imports, along with error reporting and rollback to keep your data clean. If you need to look up field names to prepare your import file, check the Module List. And if you need any of this done programmatically, the REST API is the way to go.

That’s it for this episode of the NZRT Wiki Podcast. Thanks for listening.