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Importing contacts from your mail client

FreshBooks can import your clients from any Microsoft Outlook–compatible CSV file. In case you don’t know where to get this, here you’ll find detailed instructions on how to export this file from a few of the most common e-mail clients.

See instructions for:

Microsoft Outlook

  1. From the “file” menu, choose “import and export.”
  2. Select “export to a file” and click “next.”
  3. Choose CSV format for Windows and then click “next.”
  4. You’ll want to pick the folder containing your contacts. This is probably the folder shown below. Click “next” once you’ve chosen the right one.
  5. Go ahead and choose a place to put the exported file. Your desktop is usually a good option. Then choose “next.”
  6. If everything looks okay, hit “finish” and away you go!

Google Mail

  1. Over in your left navigation, choose “contacts.”
  2. Now, there are two different versions of Google Mail. One has the “export” link at the top-right, and the other has it at the bottom-left. Wherever yours is, you’ll want to click it to continue.
  3. On the following page, choose Outlook’s CSV format. You may also be able to choose to export only a specific group of contacts; again, this depends on what version of Google Mail you’re being served.Once you’ve chosen the right format, hit “export.”
  4. You’ll be presented with a dialog something like this one. Save the file wherever you like — your desktop makes a good choice. All done!

Yahoo! Mail

Please note import/export functionality isn’t yet available in the new Yahoo! Mail. You’ll need to switch to the classic version first before you proceed; you can do this via the “options” menu at the upper-right corner of the new interface.

In the classic interface, here’s what you’ll need to do:

  1. From the tabs in the upper-left corner, choose “contacts.”
  2. Now look at the upper-right corner, and select “import/export.”
  3. Toward the bottom of this page, you’re presented with a few different options. The one we want is “Microsoft Outlook.” Press the “export now” button next to it.
  4. When this dialog, or one like it, appears, go ahead and save the file to your desktop, or somewhere else handy. That should do it!

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