Importing Orders
Import many orders at once from a spreadsheet — including multi-waypoint and multi-entity orders — using the Order Import wizard.
Importing Orders
For high-volume operations it isn't practical to create orders one-by-one in the console. Fleet-Ops includes an Order Import wizard that ingests .xlsx or .csv spreadsheets and creates orders, waypoints, entities, customers, and drivers in a single pass. This page walks through the import flow, the spreadsheet shape, and the row-grouping rules that drive multi-stop and multi-item orders.
When to Use Import
- Onboarding a backlog of orders from another system
- Loading the day's batch from a dispatch sheet maintained externally
- Scripted exports from a WMS, ERP, or e-commerce platform that produces a per-line spreadsheet
For ongoing automated integration, prefer the REST API — import is best for one-shot or periodic loads.
Starting an Import
Navigate to Fleet-Ops → Operations → Orchestrator (or the orders list).
Click Import Orders. The import modal opens with a file-drop area and a queue list.
Drop or pick one or more files. Accepted formats: .xlsx, .xls, and .csv.
Click Start Upload. Files are uploaded, parsed, and processed into orders, waypoints, entities, customers, and drivers as appropriate.
The Spreadsheet Template
Download the canonical template from the import modal — Fleetbase_Order_Import_Template.xlsx — and fill in the Import sheet starting at row 2 (row 1 is the header).
Required columns
Three columns are required on every row:
| Required column | Purpose |
|---|---|
Order Ref * | A reference shared across all rows that belong to the same order. The first row carrying a given Order Ref defines the order; subsequent rows with the same Order Ref append waypoints and entities to that order. |
Pickup Name * | The label or business name of the pickup location |
Dropoff Name * | The label or business name of the dropoff location |
Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*) in the template's header row.
Optional columns
The template includes 44 columns covering everything an order can carry:
| Group | Columns |
|---|---|
| Order metadata | Order Type, Scheduled At, Notes |
| Pickup location | Pickup Name *, Pickup Street, Pickup City, Pickup State, Pickup Postcode, Pickup Country, Pickup Lat, Pickup Lng |
| Dropoff location | Dropoff Name *, Dropoff Street, Dropoff City, Dropoff State, Dropoff Postcode, Dropoff Country, Dropoff Lat, Dropoff Lng |
| Payload summary | Payload Type, Payload Weight (kg), Payload Volume (m³) |
| Customer | Customer Name, Customer Email, Customer Phone, Customer Type |
| Facilitator | Facilitator Name, Facilitator Email, Facilitator Type |
| Driver & vehicle | Vehicle Plate, Driver Name, Driver Email, Driver Phone |
| Entity (item-level) | Entity Name, Entity Type, Entity SKU, Entity Description, Entity Weight (kg), Entity Length (cm), Entity Width (cm), Entity Height (cm), Entity Declared Value, Entity Currency |
Hover over any header cell in the Import sheet to see a tooltip describing the field.
Columns can appear in any order — the import wizard maps headers to Fleet-Ops fields automatically. Extra columns the wizard doesn't recognise are ignored, so you can keep your own spreadsheet conventions intact.
Row Grouping — One Order Across Many Rows
The Order Ref column is the anchor that ties rows together. The wizard uses it to decide whether each row creates a new order or extends an existing one:
- First occurrence of an Order Ref — creates the order. Order-level fields (pickup, dropoff, customer, facilitator, driver, vehicle, scheduling) come from this row.
- Subsequent occurrences of the same Order Ref — append a waypoint and/or an entity to the order created on the first row. The pickup/dropoff fields define an additional waypoint; the entity fields define an additional item.
This means one order can occupy any number of rows depending on how many entities and stops it has.
Example — multi-entity order
The same Order Ref ORD-001 appears on two rows. Row 1 sets up the order with a laptop box; row 2 adds a phone charger as a second entity:
Order Ref | Pickup Name | Dropoff Name | Entity Name | Entity SKU
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ORD-001 | Fleetbase HQ | Customer A | Laptop Box | SKU-001
ORD-001 | Fleetbase HQ | Customer A | Phone Charger | SKU-002Result: one order from Fleetbase HQ → Customer A with two entities attached.
Example — multi-waypoint order
The same Order Ref appears across rows with different dropoff locations, which the wizard reads as additional waypoints:
Order Ref | Pickup Name | Dropoff Name | Entity Name
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ORD-007 | Fleetbase HQ | Customer A — North | Package 1
ORD-007 | Fleetbase HQ | Customer B — East | Package 2
ORD-007 | Fleetbase HQ | Customer C — South | Package 3Result: one multi-waypoint order with three stops and three entities — each entity routed to its own waypoint.
You can combine the patterns: multiple entities at a single waypoint, multiple waypoints with one or many entities each, all under the same Order Ref.
Field Tips
- Dates and times — ISO 8601 (
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM) is the most reliable format. The parser accepts other formats but ISO eliminates ambiguity. TheScheduled Atfield on the first row of an Order Ref sets the order'sscheduled_at. - Country codes — use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes (
SG,US,GB). - Coordinates —
Pickup Lat/Pickup LngandDropoff Lat/Dropoff Lngare optional. If supplied they pin the location precisely; if omitted the wizard geocodes the address fields. - Order Type — free-form string that Fleet-Ops uses to match an Order Configuration. Common values:
transport,delivery,pickup,multi_waypoint. If no matching config exists the order falls back to the default Transport config. - Customer / facilitator / driver — if a contact, vendor, or driver with the supplied email or name doesn't already exist, the import creates one and links it to the order. Existing records are matched and re-used.
- Vehicle Plate — when supplied, the wizard looks up the matching vehicle and pre-assigns it. If no match is found, the order is created without a vehicle and can be assigned later by the Orchestrator or manually.
After Import
Once the import finishes:
- A summary shows the number of orders, waypoints, entities, customers, and drivers created or updated
- The new orders appear in Operations → Orders with system status
created, ready to be dispatched manually or picked up by the Orchestrator - Any rows the wizard couldn't process are returned in an error report so you can fix them and re-import
Imported orders behave identically to console-created orders from this point — they participate in Order Configurations, the Orchestrator, and tracking.