GarageHQ
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Bulk importing vehicles from CSV

When you're onboarding a workshop's customer base or migrating a fleet from another system, entering vehicles one by one gets old fast. The CSV import takes a spreadsheet and creates up to 200 vehicles in a single request.

1. Open the import modal

From the dashboard, click Import CSV in the top-right (appears only for eligible plans + roles). A modal opens with a template download link and a file drop-zone.

Dashboard with the Import CSV button top-right
The Import CSV button, visible only to owners/admins on Garage, Garage+, or Enterprise plans.
Import modal with template download and file drop-zone
The import modal, download the template, fill it in, drop the saved CSV on the zone.

2. Download the template

Either click Download template (CSV) inside the import modal, or grab it directly here:

Download vehicles-import-template.csv

The template has the correct column headers and one example row. Using it saves a lot of time because GarageHQ is strict about column names.

Required columns

  • reg, UK registration (e.g. AB12 CDE, ab12cde, whitespace and case normalised on save).

Optional columns

  • make, model, year, colour
  • nickname
  • mot_expiry, tax_expiry, insurance_expiry, all dates in YYYY-MM-DD format
  • notes
  • owner_email, links the vehicle to a customer record at import time

Any column GarageHQ doesn't recognise is ignored (doesn't cause a failure).

3. Fill in the spreadsheet

Open the template in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, whatever you use. Add one row per vehicle, save as .csv (UTF-8 encoded, the default in most spreadsheet apps).

4. Upload

Drag your saved CSV onto the modal (or click to browse). GarageHQ validates every row before writing anything to the database:

  • Dates must match YYYY-MM-DD
  • Regs must be unique within your organisation
  • Years must be plausible (1900-2030)
  • Rows exceeding 200 are rejected

If validation passes, all vehicles are created in a single atomic batch. The modal shows a success message with the row count and closes.

If validation fails, the modal shows a per-row breakdown, "Row 4: reg field is required", "Row 11: mot_expiry must be YYYY-MM-DD". Fix your spreadsheet, re-upload; no partial writes happen from a failed attempt.

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