Cost Control
You can bring a period of bookings out of accounting into the set, through the four steps the dialog uses.
Typing a month of bookings by hand is not the intended workflow. **Import Cost Items** takes them straight out of the production accounting system.
Open it from **Import Cost Items** in the toolbar. It runs in four steps: **File, Preview, Options, Matching.**
- **A mapping set**, so the import knows which column is which. Set it up once and reuse it every period — see [set up an import mapping set](/kb/article/set-up-an-import-mapping-set). - **A copy of the set**, which step 3 offers to make for you and recommends. Take it.
Drop the file or select it.
**Only `.xlsx` and `.csv`**, and **the data must be on the first sheet**. Legacy `.xls` is refused with an instruction to re-save: *Legacy .xls files are not supported. Please save the file as .xlsx or CSV and try again.*
Choose the **Import Mapping Set** here too.
The import shows what it read and what it could resolve — *N lines detected*, *N lines mapped*, and where it could not: **No such account**, **No such effect**, **No such company**, or a column it cannot read.
**Fix problems here, not after.** Correcting the mapping now is cheaper than moving hundreds of items afterwards — see [match accounts, effects and companies](/kb/article/match-accounts-effects-and-companies).
Three decisions:
- **Copy the cost control dataset first** — recommended, and the only way back. - **Add a tag to the imported data**, stamped with the date and time. It costs nothing and lets you filter this import out again later. Take it. - **Consolidate account predictions** — see [consolidate on import](/kb/article/consolidate-on-import) before ticking it.
The import matches incoming lines against cost items already in the set and shows each as **Existing**, **Matched**, **New** or **Replaced**. Anything already present is not imported again — see [re-import a period](/kb/article/re-import-a-period).
**One currency per file.** All the data in one import must be in **one currency**, and the currency is required before the import can run. A file mixing currencies has to be split — the same constraint the budgeting spreadsheet import carries.
**When it finishes.** **Import Completed** reports how many records landed. Then look at the **Unmapped** account: anything the import could not place is sitting there waiting to be moved — see [move cost items to another account](/kb/article/move-cost-items-to-another-account).
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