Creating a Noko import CSV file

Do you have historical time tracking data you want to import into Noko? Perhaps you have an internal tool and occasionally need to move entries into Noko? Whatever the reason, here's how you create a CSV file for importing your data.

Noko can also automatically convert and understand CSV files from other time tracking apps, namely Harvest, Basecamp, Freshbooks, Tempo, Toggl and Tick. If you have a CSV export from on of these apps, please read our article on importing time tracking data from other apps.

Noko CSV format fields

Field name Type Example Required Description
date Date 2015-08-09 required Date the entry is logged for.
While Noko automatically detects and understands various date formats, we recommend using ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD). 
person String "Thomas Fuchs" optional* The name of the person the entry is for. This tries to match the name given with a person in your Noko account. If you also give an email address, we try to match the email address first. You must supply either the person or the email field (or both).
email String thomas@slash7.com optional* The email of the person the entry is for. Giving an email adress takes precedence over the person field. You must supply either the person or the email field (or both).
group/client String "Slash7 LLC" optional If the project given doesn't exist yet, and the option to automatically create projects is turned on for the import, this project group name will be set for the new project.
If multiple different project group names are given throughout the import file, the first one found will be used.
The project group name will be ignored if the project already exists in Noko.
Project group names can be up to 255 unicode characters in length.
project String "Noko" optional The project the entry is assigned to. If the project given doesn't exist yet, and the option to automatically create projects is turned on for the import, this project will be automatically created.
Project names can be up to 100 unicode characters in length.
minutes Number 120 optional* The amount of time the entry is for in minutes. If both the minutes and hours field is given, minutes takes precedence and the hours field is ignored. If neither minutes or hours is given, the entry will be set to 0 (zero) minutes.
hours  Number
Time  		4
4:30 		optional* The amount of time the entry is for in hours. The hours field can either a number (4 for four hours, 4.5 for 4 hours, 30 minutes, etc) or a time given as hours:minutes.  If both the minutes and hours field is given, minutes takes precedence and the hours field is ignored. If neither minutes or hours is given, the entry will be set to 0 (zero) minutes.
tags String "#importing, #data" optional The tags used in this entry. If no description field is given, the description for the entry will be made up of the tags in the tags field in the given order. Noko will automatically create new tags if the tags given in the entry don't exist in Noko. If a description is given, the tags field will be ignored.
description String "Trying out #importing some #data" required The description for the entry. If this field is given, the tags field will be ignored. Noko will automatically create new tags if the tags given in the description don't exist in Noko.
billable String yes
no 		optional Whether or not the entry is billable. Defaults to yes. 

Noko CSV files should be in Unicode (UTF-8) format, with commas (",") as delimiters and quoted strings when necessary.

To export a CSV file from Excel, simply do Save as… and select Comma Separated Values (.csv) as the file format:

Here's a simple example of a CSV file with a few entries:

date,email,project,minutes,description
8/9/15,thomas@slash7.com,Noko,120,Trying out #importing some #data
8/7/15,unknown@email.com,Internal,60,"Getting down to #inbox zero, setting up some #email rules"
8/6/15,devon@slash7.com,Internal,30,Creating #chaos

Note that Excel saves the date in American short format, something that Noko will recognize. While ISO format, e.g. 2015-08-09, is preferable because it's unambiguous you only need to fix it up if your dates aren't imported correctly.

Importing this file into Noko (assuming you have corresponding people in your account) will create three new entries.

Always double-check the created entries after importing your file. If your data wasn't imported correctly (for example, the dates are not correct), undo the import and edit your CSV file accordingly.

If you run into any issues importing your CSV file, please contact Noko support and we'll get it sorted out! Please attach the CSV you want to import and tell us as exactly as possible what errors you ran into, or what wasn't imported correctly.

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