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Troubleshoot: Leading 0 in an XLSX file - importing clients

When importing clients using the Import Client Template, entering a value beginning or ending with a 0 in a field will result in the 0 being removed after you move on to another field in your template.
For example, in the
Tax Client ID
 column enter
00123.0
, when you go to the next field Excel will automatically change the value to
123
.
Microsoft Excel offers possible solutions you can use to retain the 0 at the beginning of the field:
  1. Using a single quote
  2. Formatting the cell
  3. Saving as an XLSX format

Use a single quote

You can prefix the numeric value with a single quote. (For example,
'
0123.0), save the Excel file when you are ready to import the file.

Format cell

You can also format the row to automatically prefix all values with zeros(0) if they don’t meet the character count. For example, if your
Tax Client ID
 is supposed to be a fixed length with 5 digits, and your current
Tax Client ID
 is fewer than 5 digits, then you can automatically prepend the current value with leading zeros to have a 5 character length.
For Example
:
Before
After
1
0000
1
12
000
12
123
00
123
1234
0
1234
12345
12345
To format a column, select the column you want to format.
Right-click on any selected cell, then select
Format Cells
 on the context menu.
When the
Format Cells
 window appears in the
Category
 panel, select
Custom
.
Remove the text in the
Type
 field, then enter multiple zeros for each character count.
For example, if your column requires 6 characters then enter 000000 (6 zeros). As seen in the
Sample
 field, this will prefix leading zeros until the
Tax Client ID
 count has 6 characters.
Select
OK
 to confirm, or select
Cancel
 to close the
Format Cells
 window without confirming.
You will see leading zeros on the column you formatted. On the
File
 menu, select
Save
 when you are ready to import.

Saving as an XLSX format

Ensuring that you are saving your template as an .xlsx (Excel) file lets you preserve the document with any leading zeros that you added earlier. You can return later and continue working on the document without losing your changes.
To save the document as an Excel file, go to
File
, then select
Save As
.
Select a
Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)
 file format from the dropdown list, then select
Save
.

This article applies to:

  • Product: SurePrep
  • Sub Product: TaxCaddy
  • Subject: Clients

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