How to move your ISP billing from Excel or a notebook to billing software

Signs you have outgrown the sheet

• Customers argue about amounts and you cannot show them a proper invoice.
• More than one person collects cash and the totals never match.
• You find out a customer has not paid only when you check the sheet, weeks later.
• Expiry and reconnection are done by hand on the router.
• You cannot answer simple questions like how many customers you gained or lost this month.

Step 1: List your packages

Write down every package you actually sell: a clear name, its speed and its monthly price. Merge near-duplicates. If two customers on the same speed pay different prices, decide whether that is a separate package or a discount.

Step 2: Clean the customer list

• One row per customer, with full name and a working phone number. Phone numbers usually become the customer’s login, so each must be unique.
• The exact package name from your list in step 1.
• The customer’s current PPPoE (RADIUS) username and password, exactly as on the router.
• Remove customers who left long ago instead of importing them as active.

Step 3: Keep the existing PPPoE credentials

The most expensive migration mistake is giving everyone new usernames and passwords. Every customer’s router would need to be reconfigured, which means visits and calls. Import each customer with the username and password their router already uses and nobody notices the switch.

Step 4: Import, then fix the failures

Do not expect a big sheet to import perfectly the first time. Typical failures are duplicate phone numbers, a package name with a typo, and empty cells. Fix the failed rows and import them again, rather than editing customers one by one afterwards.

Step 5: Switch the router over

Once customers exist in the billing system and on RADIUS, the router has to stop authenticating them locally. Remove the local PPP secrets customer by customer, starting with a few test accounts, so each one is then controlled by the billing system.

Step 6: Run the first billing cycle carefully

• Set up the payment details customers will see: bank account, JazzCash and Easypaisa numbers.
• Tell customers how they will receive bills and how to pay, before the first invoice arrives.
• Record every payment in the system from day one, including cash. A half-used system is worse than the sheet.
• Keep the old sheet read-only for a month in case you need to check a past payment.

How ISPOpera handles the import

• One Excel template with two sheets: Packages (name, speed, price) and Customers (full name, phone, package name, RADIUS username, RADIUS password).
• Package names match without caring about spaces or capital letters.
• Rows that fail come back as a file with an Errors column, ready to fix and upload again.
• Imported customers start active, and their first portal login is their phone number with their RADIUS password.