Guide
How to Prepare CSV and Excel Customer Data for Revenue Analysis
Good analysis starts with a clean file. This guide covers the columns you need, the formatting problems to fix and how to get a CSV or Excel export ready to upload.
Start With a Transaction-Level Export
The most useful format is one row per order or transaction. Customer-level summaries can work, but they lose the detail of individual purchase dates. Most stores, billing and accounting tools can export orders as CSV or Excel.
Required Columns
Customer identifier
A name, email or customer ID that stays the same across all of a customer's orders.
Order date
The date of each order, in one consistent format throughout the file.
Revenue
The order amount as a plain number, without currency symbols or text.
Optional Columns
Email, order ID, product and currency add useful context. Include currency if you sell in more than one.
Example Transaction Table
| Customer | Order Date | Revenue | Order ID | Product | Currency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acme Ltd | 2026-03-02 | 240.00 | buyer@acme.test | 1001 | Refill pack | USD |
| Acme Ltd | 2026-04-11 | 180.00 | buyer@acme.test | 1027 | Refill pack | USD |
| J. Smith | 2026-04-15 | 65.50 | 1031 | Starter kit | USD |
Notice that Acme Ltd appears twice: multiple purchases from the same customer should stay as separate rows.
Illustrative data.
Common Formatting Mistakes
- Mixed date formats (03/04/2026 and 2026-04-03 in one column)
- Revenue stored as text, such as "$1,200 USD"
- Totals, subtotals or blank rows at the bottom of the sheet
- The same customer spelled several ways
- Several header rows or merged cells
Preparing the Upload
- Keep a single header row with clear column names.
- Remove summary rows and empty rows.
- Standardize customer names or use a stable ID.
- Save as CSV or XLSX.
Revenow detects the file format and suggests the column mapping for you to confirm. See revenue recovery software for what happens after upload, or browse supported integrations and exports.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I include refunds?
Ideally remove them or keep them as negative rows consistently, so totals reflect real spend.
How much history should I export?
As much as is reliable; twelve months or more gives a clearer picture of repeat behavior.
Does it need to be one file?
Combining all orders for the period into one file is simplest and avoids duplicate customers.
Related: how to identify inactive customers.