---
id: "import-past-sales"
lang: "en"
title: "Import past sales"
summary: "Bring past sales in from a spreadsheet (invoices, customers, products and sellers), with a preview first and an all-or-nothing import."
area: "Getting started"
kind: "task"
url: "https://zeropos.shop/help/import-past-sales"
alternate: "https://zeropos.shop/help/import-past-sales?lang=es"
markdown: "https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/import-past-sales.md"
screens: ["/backoffice/settings/import"]
where_to_find: ["MANAGE › Settings › Import history"]
related: ["guided-setup","import-products","reports-overview","find-an-invoice"]
updated: "2026-10-16"
---

# Import past sales

Bring past sales in from a spreadsheet (invoices, customers, products and sellers), with a preview first and an all-or-nothing import.

For owners moving in from another till or from paper. Nothing is written until you confirm: choosing a file only shows you what it contains.

Use it for sales history. Setting up the shop itself comes first ([Set up a new shop: guided setup and the settings tour](https://zeropos.shop/help/guided-setup)); for the product list on its own, use [Import your product list](https://zeropos.shop/help/import-products).

Where to find it: MANAGE › Settings › Import history.

## Before you start

- Your shops already exist, with the names the spreadsheet uses. See [Add a shop or storage location](https://zeropos.shop/help/locations).

## Steps

1. Open [MANAGE › Settings › Import history](https://app.zeropos.shop/backoffice/settings/import).
2. Build the spreadsheet as **The file we expect** shows: .xlsx or .csv up to 4 MB, one row per sale line, the column headers in the exact order listed (always in English).
   - A .csv that Excel saved in Spanish, with semicolons between cells and decimal commas, imports as it is.
3. Give every row of the same sale the same “Invoice Group” number. The first row of a group carries the date, shop, customer and payments.
4. Tap **Choose file**. **What this file contains** lists the invoices, customers, products, sellers, dates and total revenue. Nothing is imported yet.
5. Read the warnings under “Things to check” and **Before you apply**. If something is wrong, fix the spreadsheet and tap **Choose another file**.
6. Tick **I understand this adds … invoices to this shop**, then tap **Import … invoices**.

## What happens next

- Everything goes in together or not at all. When it finishes you see **Import complete** and what was added.
- Imported invoices are numbered IMP-…, so they never clash with the till's own numbers.
- They carry 0% VAT and write no money movements: sales reports, dashboards and customer files show them; cash and bank reports don't.
- Products and customers the shop didn't have are created. Seller names that match nobody become inactive sellers, so commission splits are kept.

## Common questions

### What happens to a sale with no payment in the file?

It is recorded as paid in cash, and the preview says how many. When payments add up to less than the lines, the difference is saved as a discount.

### Can the same file be imported twice by mistake?

No. Each file can be applied once, so a double tap or a second try can't duplicate your history.

### What price do new products get?

The price seen most often in the file. Check them afterwards in [Products and stock](https://zeropos.shop/help/products-and-stock).

## If you see this

- “**This file was already imported. Nothing was added — each file can only be applied once.**” — What to do: That history is already in. To add more sales, put only the new rows in a new file.
- “**That file is over 4 MB. Split it into smaller files and import them one by one.**” — What to do: Split it by date range, keeping every row of a sale in the same file.
- “**The first row doesn't match the expected columns. Check the header row against the list above.**” — What to do: Copy the column names from **The file we expect** into the first row, in that order.
- “**That doesn't look like an .xlsx or .csv file.**” — What to do: Save the spreadsheet as .xlsx or .csv and choose it again.

## Good to know

- Write dates as DD/MM/YYYY and sellers as name and share, for example “Ana 60%, Luis 40%”.

## Related guides

- [Set up a new shop: guided setup and the settings tour](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/guided-setup.md)
- [Import your product list](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/import-products.md)
- [What each report answers](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/reports-overview.md)
- [Find an invoice](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/find-an-invoice.md)