The following example csv files match the Import templates provided in version 5.1+.

• Example Outlook example_outlook_20032007.csv
• Example UTF-8 file example_utf8.csv
• Example CSV 1example1.csv
• Example CSV 2example2.csv
• Example CSV 3example3.csv
• Example CSV 4example4.csv

Run this sql to empty all Contacts/Companies/People from the BrowserCRM database:

TRUNCATE TABLE `Contact__item`; 
TRUNCATE TABLE `Contact__item_seen`; 
TRUNCATE TABLE `Contact__item_custom`; #only if you have custom fields

TRUNCATE TABLE `Company__item`; 
TRUNCATE TABLE `Company__item_custom`; #only if you have custom fields 

TRUNCATE TABLE `Person__item`; 
TRUNCATE TABLE `Person__item_custom`;  #only if you have custom fields 

TRUNCATE TABLE `Note__item`; #notes
TRUNCATE TABLE `Note__item_seen`; 

The following SQL queries will erase the Person, Company and Contact data from an import.

Each import creates an import id. This is stored in the import_id column of the Contact item table.

You can find the import_id by browsing the Contact item table.

In the following queries, replace [import_id] with the your own value.

  DELETE FROM p USING Person__item p, Contact__item c WHERE p.contact_id = c.id
  AND c.import_id = [import_id];
  
  DELETE FROM co USING Company__item co, Contact__item c WHERE co.contact_id = c.id
  AND c.import_id = [import_id];
  
  DELETE FROM Contact__item WHERE import_id = [import_id];

Is there a quick fix for the fact that an excel exported CSV does not have the correct line separators and thus will not import? All my clients lists are in xls.

Excel does a bad job of creating a valid CSV file. We recommend you download OpenOffice (free), load the file in that and save as CSV. This is what we do if we are doing the import.