How to open your HirePOS items CSV in Excel without changing item codes or phone numbers

When you double-click a CSV, Excel tries to be clever and automatically changes things like long item codes, phone numbers, and numbers with leading zeroes. Importing the file properly lets you tell Excel to keep those columns as text, so nothing gets changed.

When Excel opens a CSV normally, it can automatically change some values by mistake.

This can cause problems like:

• long item codes turning into scientific notation

• leading zeroes being removed

• phone numbers being changed

• large numbers being rounded

To avoid this, please follow the steps below instead of double-clicking the CSV file.

Open Microsoft Excel with a blank workbook.

Do not open the CSV file by double-clicking it.

At the top of Excel, click the Data tab.

Click From Text/CSV.

Then browse to your exported HirePOS item CSV file and open it.

Excel will show a preview of the file.

At this point, do not just click Load if you have columns like:

• Item Code

• Barcode

• Phone

• Mobile

• Postcode

• any other long number or code

Instead, click Transform Data.

A new window will open showing your columns.

For any column that might contain long numbers, codes, phone numbers, or leading zeroes:

1. Click the column heading

2. Right-click the column

3. Choose Change Type

4. Select Text

Do this for any column where Excel might wrongly change the values.

Common examples:

• Item Code

• Barcode

• Serial Number

• Phone

• Mobile

• Postcode

Once those columns have been set to Text, click Close & Load.

The CSV data will now open in Excel without those automatic conversions.

You can now edit the file as needed.

Try not to add extra columns, remove required columns, or rename headings unless you have been specifically instructed to do so.

When finished:

1. Click File

2. Click Save As

3. Choose a location

4. In the file type dropdown, choose CSV (Comma delimited) or CSV UTF-8 if available

5. Save the file

If Excel gives a warning about CSV features, click Yes to continue.

Go back into HirePOS and use the item CSV import option to upload the edited file.

Important tip

Each time you need to edit the CSV, use the Data > From Text/CSV method again.

If you open the CSV by double-clicking it, Excel may change your data before you even start editing.