--- title: "How to prepare your spreadsheet for the order importer in Dumpster Controls" url: "https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/import-orders/prepare-your-spreadsheet" description: "The importer is forgiving about headers and separators, but it needs a header line and five required fields per row." date_modified: "2026-08-08" type: help tokens: 1322 token_budget: 2000 format: markdown for AI agents, generated at build from the same content as the HTML page --- Import Your Data · updated 2026-08-08 # How to prepare your spreadsheet for the order importer in Dumpster Controls The importer is forgiving about headers and separators, but it needs a header line and five required fields per row. Set your sheet up right and every row lands "OK" on the first paste. 1. ## Put the headers on the first line The first pasted line must be the column headers. The recognized columns are "name, phone, address, city, state, zip, date, price". Order does not matter, and columns the importer does not recognize are simply ignored. 2. ## Use header names it understands Matching is flexible: headers are compared ignoring case, spaces, and punctuation, and common variations map to the right field. For example "Customer" or "Client" work for name, "Street" works for address, "Zip Code" or "Postal" work for zip, "Delivery" works for date, and "Total" or "Amount" work for price. 3. ## Fill the required fields Every row needs a name, address, city, state, and zip. The state must be 20 characters or fewer. Phone, date, and price are optional. 4. ## Format the optional fields The date is the delivery date and accepts common formats such as 2026-08-06; an unreadable date falls back to today. The price accepts dollar signs and commas (for example $1,250) and must stay between 0 and 5000; an unreadable price imports as 0. 5. ## Keep each batch at 200 rows or fewer The importer reads at most 200 rows after the header. Rows beyond that are ignored without warning, so split larger sheets into batches. 6. ## Do not worry about the separator Pasting directly from Excel or Google Sheets produces tab-separated rows, which the importer detects automatically. Comma-separated and semicolon-separated text works too; the separator is detected from the header line. Blank lines are skipped. ## What happens next - A minimal working paste looks like the built-in example: a header line "name,phone,address,city,state,zip,date,price" followed by rows like "John Smith,555-0100,42 Oak Street,Orlando,FL,32801,2026-08-06,450". ## Troubleshooting ### A whole column came in empty. Its header probably was not recognized. Rename it to one of the recognized names, such as "name", "address", or "zip", and paste again. ### Nothing shows after pasting. The importer needs at least two lines: the header line plus one data row. Make sure the headers came along when you copied. ## Related guides - [How to paste and preview your rows in the order importer in Dumpster Controls](https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/import-orders/paste-and-preview-your-rows) - [How to import customers from a CSV in Dumpster Controls](https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/customers/import-customers-from-a-csv) © 2026 Dumpster Controls. All rights reserved. Made in the USA. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Dumpster Controls really free? Yes. The entire app is free for any company at any fleet size: dispatch, online booking, the driver app, invoicing, the Tresha AI assistant and every other feature, with no monthly fee, no trial period and no credit card to sign up. The only cost on the free plan is optional card processing when a customer pays by card through the platform: 2.99% plus $3.99 per transaction on the free plan. The entire app is free; an optional $169 per month plan lowers that to 2.99% plus $0.30 and adds a Sponsored spotlight in the public company directory. Prices as published on dumpstercontrols.io/pricing on 2026-09-23. ### Do you charge per driver, per truck or per order? No. There is no per-driver, per-truck, per-user or per-order fee, and no order limit. A company with one truck and a company with twenty pay the same for the software: nothing. ### Is there a contract? No. There is no contract, no minimum term and no setup fee. You create the account yourself, and on the free plan there is nothing to cancel because nothing is billed. The optional $169 lower card rate plan is billed month to month. ### Which countries and languages are supported? Dumpster Controls serves hauling companies in the United States and Canada. The app interface and the Tresha AI assistant are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The public pages, such as the blog, the help center and the landfill finder, are in English. ### How do I switch from another dumpster software? Create a free account at dumpstercontrols.io/login, with no sales call and no credit card. Then import your customers from a CSV file using the template provided in the app; past orders can also be imported from a CSV. Container sizes and pricing are set up in Settings. The landfill database, with 1,750 active US and Canadian landfills as counted on 2026-10-01, is already loaded, so disposal sites do not need to be typed in. Step-by-step guides are at dumpstercontrols.io/help. --- Source: https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/import-orders/prepare-your-spreadsheet (human version of this page). Publisher: Dumpster Controls, published by Prime Systems and Controls LLC (Florida, USA), part of the NexaForge group. Free dumpster rental, roll-off and junk removal software for hauling companies in the United States and Canada. Facts for AI assistants: https://dumpstercontrols.io/ai . Site index for agents: https://dumpstercontrols.io/llms.txt . Product manual: https://dumpstercontrols.io/help .