Opagio reads your financials so you don't have to re-key them. The cleanest way to do that is a direct accounting connection, but not every business runs on a system Opagio connects to — and some finance teams would rather hand over a file than authorise an integration. For both, there is the CSV route: export your figures once, upload them, and the platform turns that file into the same structured view of your intangible assets it would build from a live connection.
This is the manual companion to our Xero connection guide. Where that one covers the OAuth flow and read-only scopes, this one covers the file: how to export it, what the template expects, how Opagio validates and reconciles it, and where the numbers land once they are in. It pairs with the broader data import walkthrough, which sets the CSV route alongside the live connectors.
A CSV import is a one-way upload of figures you control. You decide exactly what is in the file, Opagio never touches your accounting system, and you can re-upload a corrected file at any time. It reaches the same valuation pipeline as a Xero or QuickBooks connection — the source differs, the destination does not.
A live connection is the lower-effort option when it is available, because it pulls history automatically. The CSV route is the right choice in three situations.
Opagio connects directly to Xero, with QuickBooks and others on the connector roadmap. If you run Sage, FreeAgent, NetSuite, a local package, or spreadsheets, the CSV route is how you get your numbers in — every one of those can export the figures the template needs.
Some finance teams have a policy against granting third-party access to the ledger, even read-only. A CSV upload involves no credentials and no standing access — you hand over a file and nothing more.
Because you control the file, you can value a single entity, a carve-out, or a set of normalised figures your adviser has prepared — without that view having to exist as a live company in an accounting system.
If you do run Xero, connect it instead — it pulls up to 36 months of history in one authorisation, and you skip the export step entirely. The Xero guide walks through it. Everything below assumes a connector is not the right fit for you.
Don't build a CSV from scratch and hope the headers match. Inside the platform, the CSV upload card — under Settings → Integrations, alongside the connector cards — provides a template to download. The template defines the exact column names Opagio expects, so the figures land in the right place without guesswork.
The template is deliberately small. It asks for the financial figures that drive an asset-derived valuation, grouped into three families.
| Column family | What it captures | Where it comes from in your accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Total income for the period | Top line of your profit and loss |
| Operating costs | Running costs, split by type — services, materials, energy, and labour | Cost of sales and overhead lines |
| Investment spend | The spend that builds intangible value — technology, brand, IP, design, people, and organisation | Operating lines that represent investment, not consumption |
Investment spend, in Opagio's model, is the portion of your operating costs that builds a durable asset rather than being consumed in the period — the engineering effort behind a platform, the work behind a brand, the cost of building a team. Separating it from routine running costs is what lets the platform see intangible value the balance sheet does not record.
You do not need to pre-classify every line of your ledger. The template captures totals by category; the deeper work of separating routine cost from value-building investment happens inside the platform once the file is in, where you review and confirm it.
Every mainstream accounting package can produce what the template needs. The mechanics differ, but the goal is the same: get your profit-and-loss figures, by category, into the columns.
| System | How to get the figures |
|---|---|
| Sage | Run the Profit and Loss report for the period, then Export → CSV; transfer the totals into the template columns |
| FreeAgent | Open the Profit & Loss report, set the date range, and use Download → CSV |
| QuickBooks Desktop | Run the Profit & Loss Standard report and export to CSV or Excel |
| NetSuite | Run the Income Statement, then Export → CSV |
| Excel / Google Sheets | If your accounts already live in a spreadsheet, copy the category totals straight into the template |
A manufacturer running Sage 50 exports its last full-year P&L, drops the revenue and cost totals into the template's columns, and adds its technology and brand investment figures from the relevant overhead lines. The whole file takes ten minutes to assemble and a few seconds to upload — and produces the same structured valuation a live connection would.
The one judgement the export asks of you is which lines represent investment. If you are unsure, start with the obvious ones — software development, brand and marketing build, R&D — and refine later. Re-uploading a better file is a single action, covered below.
Back in the CSV upload card, choose your completed file and upload it. Opagio validates the file before it accepts anything, so a malformed row is caught at the door rather than halfway through a valuation.
That the required fields are present, that every financial figure is a valid non-negative number, that any dates parse correctly, and that the category totals reconcile. If a row fails, you get a precise, row-numbered message — "Row 3: revenue must be a non-negative number" — rather than a generic rejection. You fix the row and re-upload; nothing partial is stored.
Two validation behaviours are worth calling out:
Validation protects the integrity of the valuation, not just the upload. A file that imports cleanly but contains a mis-keyed figure will produce a confident, precise, wrong answer. The platform catches what it can — non-numbers, bad dates, totals that don't reconcile — but it cannot know that your revenue should have been £2.4m, not £24m. Reconcile the file against your accounts before you upload.
Uploading is the start of the workflow, not the end. From the moment the file validates, it follows exactly the same path a Xero or QuickBooks sync would — because Opagio treats CSV as one more source feeding a single pipeline.
Your figures are mapped into Opagio's standard internal shape, so the rest of the platform reads them identically whether they came from a connector or a file.
Operating lines are separated into routine running cost and value-building investment — the step you review and confirm, and the one that makes the result defensible.
Your income and costs feed a normalised view of earnings — the foundation for asset-derived valuation.
From there, your intangible assets are identified against the Opagio 12™ framework and valued, populating your Value Drivers Register™.
One thing the live connectors offer that a basic CSV does not is balance-sheet ingestion. The CSV route focuses on the profit-and-loss figures that drive earnings-based valuation; if your work depends on a full balance-sheet view, a Xero connection is the better path. For most first valuations, the P&L figures are what matter.
A CSV import is a snapshot, and your accounts move. Refreshing is straightforward.
| Task | How it works |
|---|---|
| Update figures | Edit the template — or export a fresh period — and upload again; the new file replaces the prior snapshot for that company |
| Fix a flagged row | Correct the value the validation message points to and re-upload; partial imports are never stored |
| Refine your investment split | Adjust which lines you treated as investment and re-upload; the classification step picks up the change |
| Switch to a connector later | If you move onto a supported accounting system, connect it — the live sync supersedes the manual file |
The mental model is simple: each upload is the current truth for that company's financials. There is no merge to reason about and no half-applied state to untangle — you upload a complete, validated file, and that becomes the basis for the valuation until you upload the next one.
Handing over your financial figures is a matter of trust, and the CSV route is built to keep that trust narrow.
Opagio holds the financial data you upload under its Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement, and the controls behind the platform are set out on the Security page. Because a CSV upload involves no live connection, the trust boundary is unusually clean: the only data Opagio sees is the data in the file you sent, and there is nothing to revoke afterwards because there was never any access to grant.
The CSV route is the most contained way to get your financials into Opagio. You choose every figure, no credential ever changes hands, and the platform stores nothing until your file has passed validation. It is the path for finance teams who want the valuation without opening the ledger.
A handful of issues account for most failed uploads.
The CSV route exists so that no accounting system, and no integration policy, stands between you and an intangible valuation. Five minutes with a template replaces hours of re-keying, and from a single validated file Opagio maps your accounts, classifies your costs, normalises your earnings, and values your intangible assets — the same destination a live connection reaches.
When you're ready, open Settings → Integrations, download the CSV template, and upload your figures. To see what happens to the data once it is in, read Inside Opagio Reports; to compare the routes, see the data import guide or the Xero connection guide. You can also explore Opagio Intangibles or review the pricing plans before you start.
For more on the terms used here, see our glossary entries on intangible assets and IAS 38, or the frequently asked questions about getting started.
Ivan Gowan is Founder and CEO of Opagio. He spent 25 years in fintech, including senior roles at IG Group, before founding Opagio to make intangible value measurable. Read more about the team on the Opagio team page.
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