Connecting Your Data
How your appointment and sales data gets into Nabu — via direct API connection or CSV file upload.
Why does Nabu need your data?
Nabu can't calculate your profit margins, provider performance, or service profitability without actual sales and appointment history. The more data you bring in, the more accurate and useful your financial reports become.
There are two ways to get your data in:
| Method | Best for | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Zenoti API | Zenoti users with API access | Nabu connects directly and syncs automatically |
| CSV Import | All platforms | You export a file from your software and upload it |
Option A: Zenoti API Connection
If you use Zenoti and have API credentials, this is the smoothest path. Once connected, Nabu can pull your setup catalog, clients, appointments, invoices, and sales evidence directly — no manual exporting needed for supported sections.
How to connect
- During onboarding, choose Zenoti as your platform and select "Yes, I have API access"
- Enter your Zenoti API key and base URL
- Nabu fetches a list of your Zenoti centers — select the one that matches this location
- Nabu starts syncing your data in the background
Where to find your Zenoti API key
- Log in to your Zenoti admin portal
- Go to Admin → API & Webhooks (the exact path may vary by Zenoti version)
- Copy your API key
If you don't see this option, contact Zenoti support and ask them to enable API access for your account.
What gets synced?
When Nabu connects to Zenoti, it pulls:
- Clients — names, emails, phone numbers
- Appointments — dates, services, providers, rooms when available
- Invoices and sales evidence — amounts, payment methods, discounts, taxes, tips, and redemption evidence
- Services — names, categories, duration
- Providers — names, roles
- Membership and package plans — plan definitions and benefits when available
- Gift card, prepaid, membership, and package activity — imported from Sales & Visit History when transaction evidence exists
Nabu does not scan every client during setup to look for hidden gift card, prepaid-card, membership, or package balances. Those records are enriched when Sales & Visit History shows real activity, or when you add known client-attached records manually.
Option B: CSV Import
If you don't use Zenoti, or don't have API access, you'll import data using CSV files (spreadsheet format). This works with any software that can export data — including Zenoti, Boulevard, Mindbody, Vagaro, Mangomint, Square, PatientNow, Meevo, and even plain spreadsheets.
What is a CSV file?
A CSV file is a spreadsheet saved in a simple text format. Every piece of software used by medspas can export data to CSV. You've probably seen them before — they open in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
The CSV templates
Nabu uses specific column formats for its CSV imports. Instead of guessing, Nabu provides downloadable templates — pre-formatted spreadsheets with the exact columns it expects.
You can find these templates inside Setup → [any setup section] → Download Template.
The key templates are:
| Template | What it imports |
|---|---|
| Sales & Visit History | Your appointment and invoice records — the core of your financial data |
| Clients | Client names, emails, phones |
| People & Payroll | Provider and staff names, compensation rules, productive hours |
| Services | Service names and pricing |
| Memberships | Membership plans you sell |
| Packages | Prepaid package plans |
The recommended import order
If you're starting from scratch with CSV imports, follow this order:
- People & Payroll — import your providers first, because sales records reference them by email
- Services — import your service menu, because sales records reference them by name
- Payment & Financing Fees — enter manual card, ACH, cash, and financing fee rules before importing payments
- Clients — import your client list
- Sales & Visit History — this is the big one; it references clients, providers, services, payment methods, memberships, packages, credits, and gift cards
How to export from common platforms
From Zenoti (CSV path): Go to Reports → Appointment/Invoice reports, set your date range, and export to CSV. Column names may differ from Nabu's templates, so you'll need to rename columns to match.
From Boulevard: Go to Reports → Appointments or Revenue. Export the date range you want. Boulevard uses slightly different column names — rename them to match the Nabu template.
From Mindbody: Go to Reports → Business Reports → Appointment and Sales reports. Export to CSV.
From a spreadsheet: If your records are already in a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel), you can format them to match the Nabu template and export as CSV.
Tip: Don't have clean historical data? That's okay. You can import what you have, even if it only covers the last few months. Nabu works with whatever history you provide and gets more accurate over time.
Uploading your CSV
- In Nabu, go to Setup → [the relevant section]
- Click Upload CSV or Import
- Select your CSV file
- Nabu validates the file and shows you a preview with any warnings
- Review the warnings (e.g., "Provider email not found" means a provider in the CSV isn't in your People & Payroll yet)
- Click Import to bring the data in
What if I get validation errors?
Validation errors or warnings during import just mean Nabu couldn't match something in your file to something in its database. Common ones:
| Warning | What it means | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| "Provider email not found" | A provider listed in the CSV doesn't exist in People & Payroll | Add the provider in Setup → People & Payroll first |
| "Service name not found" | A service name in the CSV doesn't match any service in Setup | Add the service in Setup → Services first |
| "Client not found" | A client in the CSV doesn't exist in the Clients section | Import clients first, or Nabu will auto-create them |
| "Invalid date format" | The date column is formatted incorrectly | Use YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g., 2026-03-15) |
Most warnings are non-blocking — Nabu imports what it can and skips what it can't match.
Can I use both API and CSV?
Yes. If you connect via Zenoti API but also have data from before your Zenoti days, you can import historical CSV data to fill in the gaps. Nabu merges them together.
What happens after data is in?
Once your data is imported, you'll start to see numbers appear in your financial dashboards. But the numbers won't be fully accurate until you complete the Setup sections — especially payroll rates, fixed costs, and service-level costing. That's covered next.