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Use this guide when you are moving to Car Storage Software and already have customers on monthly, quarterly, or yearly storage plans. Instead of setting up each plan by hand, you upload one spreadsheet and the app creates all of them at once. The import lives in the setup wizard, on the Recurring plans step: Setup Guide > Recurring plans.

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What you will accomplish

  • Upload one sheet with an amount, billing interval, and future start date for each customer.
  • Link each plan to the right customer using their email address.
  • Choose, row by row, whether the app asks the customer how they want to pay or charges a card already on file.
  • Preview everything, including duplicates and errors, before any plan is created.
Expected outcome: Each imported plan appears on Recurring billing and starts billing on the start date in your sheet.

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Before you start

1

Import your customers first

Plans link to customers by email. Every email in your plan sheet must already belong to a customer in the app. If it doesn’t, that row is blocked.Finish the Customers step of the setup wizard, or see Load customers, cars, and plans during onboarding.
2

Connect billing

Finish the Billing step (Stripe) so the app can send payment requests and charge cards. See Connect payment processing.
3

Create a recurring product

The import attaches every plan to one recurring product, such as “Monthly indoor storage”. Create it in Payments > Products if you don’t have one yet. See Manage products and services.Why this matters: If you have no active recurring product, the step shows a message asking you to create one, and the upload area stays hidden.
4

(Optional) Set up tax rates

If you charge tax on storage, add your tax rates first so the import can match them by name or percentage.
Different products for different plan typesYou pick one product per upload. If you sell several plan types, such as indoor and outdoor storage, split your sheet into one file per product and run the import once for each.

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Get the example sheet

Download the example sheet and use it as your starting point:

example-recurring-billing.csv

Two sample rows showing every column the import understands.
You can also click Download example sheet on the Recurring plans step.

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Columns

Your column names don’t have to match exactlyThe import recognizes common names automatically. For example, Email, Price, Rate, Frequency, Period, Qty, Coupon, and Anchor date all map without help. Any column it can’t place, you match by hand.

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Import your plans

1

Open the Recurring plans step

Go to Setup Guide > Recurring plans.Expected result: You see a page titled Recurring billing with Product and Default tax rate (optional) pickers.
2

Choose the product

Under Product, choose the recurring product these plans belong to. If you only have one, it’s already selected.
3

Choose a default tax rate (optional)

Under Default tax rate (optional), choose a rate to use for rows that don’t set one in the Tax Rate column. Leave it on None if storage isn’t taxed.
4

Upload your sheet

Drop your CSV or Excel file on the upload area, or click it to browse.Expected result: A message confirms how many rows loaded, and a grid of column pickers appears. Required fields have an asterisk (*).
5

Check the column mapping

Each picker shows which spreadsheet column feeds that field. Fix any that are wrong. Choose — for fields you don’t use.Customer email, Amount, Billing interval, and Start date must all be mapped before you can preview.
6

Click Preview import

Click Preview import. Nothing is created yet.Expected result: A summary row of badges, such as 12 rows · 11 included · 9 ask · 2 charge · 1 duplicate, and a table with one line per plan.

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Review the preview

Each row in the preview table shows:
  • Include: a checkbox. Unchecked rows are not imported.
  • Customer: the email from your sheet, with a Duplicate badge if that customer already has an active plan on this product.
  • Plan: amount × quantity and the interval, plus any commitment and promo code.
  • Start: the start date, plus the first billing date (Bill) and rate anniversary (Anniv) if you set them.
  • Collection: how the first payment will be collected (see below).
  • Est.: the estimated amount per billing period, including tax.
  • Notes: errors in red, and warnings in gray.

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Blocked rows

Rows with a red error can’t be imported, and their checkbox is turned off. Common errors: Fix the sheet, upload it again, and click Preview import.

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Duplicates

If a customer already has an active plan on the same product, the row gets a Duplicate badge and is unchecked by default. This protects you from billing someone twice. Check the box only if the customer really should have a second plan, such as a second car in a second space.

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Choose Ask or Charge

The Collection column controls how each customer starts paying.
  • Ask for payment method (the default): the customer gets an email asking them to choose how to pay, by card or bank account. Nothing is charged until they choose.
  • Charge followed by the saved card or bank account: the plan bills the payment method already saved on that customer’s account. You can only pick this when the customer has a card or bank account on file.
To switch every eligible row at once, click Ask all with PM or Charge all with PM. “PM” means a payment method on file.
When to charge directlyCharging a saved card is fastest, but use it only when the customer agreed to keep paying that way. When in doubt, choose Ask. The customer confirms how they pay, and nothing is charged by surprise.

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Import the plans

1

Click Import selected rows

Only checked rows without errors are imported.Expected result: A green message says, for example, Imported 11 plans. If some rows failed, it shows how many.
2

Continue the setup wizard

Click Continue to move on to the Team step. Or click Skip for now if you’d rather import plans later.

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What happens next

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Troubleshooting

The step says to create a recurring productYou don’t have an active recurring product yet. Open Payments > Products, create a recurring product, then come back and refresh the page. Statement-style products don’t appear in this list.
Every row says “No customer with this email.”Your customers aren’t in the app yet, or the Customer email picker points at the wrong column. Import customers first, then check the mapping.
The Charge option isn’t available for a customerThat customer has no saved card or bank account. The row uses Ask, and the customer adds a payment method from the email.
Dates are being misreadUse YYYY-MM-DD, such as 2026-11-01. It’s the one format that can’t be mistaken for a different day.