Application record import file format

Importing application records from a file is available to selected accounts. If you don't see these features, contact your FarmQA representative.

This article lists the columns, accepted values, and failure reasons for the application record CSV import. For the import steps, see Import application records from a CSV file.

Some requirements depend on whether your account has compliance checking turned on. Where that matters, it's called out below.

Column names are matched without regard to spaces or capitalization, so Application ReferenceId, ApplicationReferenceID, and application referenceid all work. Every column below must be present in the header row unless it's marked optional, even when you leave the values blank. If any are missing, the file is rejected before any rows are read and the errors page names the missing columns.

Columns

Column	Value required	Notes
Application ReferenceId	Yes	Groups rows into one application. Rows with a blank value are skipped.
Field ReferenceId	Yes	Must match the reference identifier on a field assigned to the growing season you're importing into.
Field name	No — column optional	Use it when two fields share a reference identifier, such as split fields. Ignored otherwise.
Applicator name	Only with compliance checking	Must match an applicator in the field's organization or one above it.
Applicator license	Only with compliance checking	Used to tell two applicators apart when they share a name.
Application started	No	Local time.
Application completed	Yes	Local time.
Application method	Only with compliance checking	See Application methods below — the accepted list differs by account.
Method type	Only with compliance checking — column optional without it	`Soil` or `Foliar`.
Band pct	When the method is Band — column optional	Whole number, 0–100.
Applied area	No	Leave blank to record the application against the whole field.
Applied area unit	When Applied area has a value	`ac`, `acre`, `ha`, or `hectare`.
Water rate	No	A rate of 0 is treated as no water and needs no unit.
Water rate unit	When Water rate is above 0	`gal/ac` or `l/ha`.
Instructions	No	Free text.
Application period	No	See Application periods below.
PHI (days)	No	Whole number, 0 or greater.
REI (hours)	No	Whole number, 0 or greater.
Rainfast (hours)	No	Whole number, 0 or greater.
Wind speed	No	Left blank, it's filled from the field's weather station.
Wind speed unit	When Wind speed has a value	`mph`, `km/h`, or `m/s`.
Product registration number	Yes	Matched first. See Product matching below.
Product name	No	Used to break a tie when the registration number matches more than one product.
Rate	Yes	Number.
Rate unit	Yes	See Rate units below.
Target	No	Target pest or disease.

Product details on the finished record — type, active ingredients, intervals — come from the catalog product, not from the file.

Rows and applications

One row is one product. One application is every row sharing an Application ReferenceId, anywhere in the file.

All the application-level values — field, applicator, dates, method, area, water, weather — are read from the first row of the group. Values on later rows in the same group are ignored.
The product order on the record follows the row order in the file.
If any row anywhere in the file fails, the whole file is rejected and nothing is imported.

Applicator matching

With compliance checking on, both Applicator name and Applicator license need values. Without it, you can leave both blank and the record imports with no applicator.

Matching is on name. The license is only used to narrow the result when two or more applicators share a name — so a wrong license passes unnoticed when the name is unique, and two same-named applicators with no license to separate them fail as an ambiguous match.

Product matching

FarmQA looks for catalog products whose registration number matches Product registration number exactly.
If more than one matches, it narrows by exact Product name.
If exactly one product remains, the row uses it. Otherwise the row fails.

Fertilizers and other products without a registration number are matched on name alone, so give the exact catalog name for those.

Application methods

With compliance checking on — a value is required:

Ground · Band · Aerial · Fumigation · Other

Unlike the other value lists, these are matched exactly apart from capitalization — spaces aren't ignored. Band also requires a Band pct between 0 and 100.

With compliance checking off — the value is optional:

Aerial spray · Banded · Broadcast · Chemigation · Drone · Dust · Fertigation · Granule · In canopy · In furrow · Liquid · Seed treatment · Sidedress · Spray · Spray boom · Streambar · Y drop

Spaces are ignored in this list, so Seed treatment and SeedTreatment both work.

Application periods

Pre plant · At plant · Pre emergent · Post emergent · Pre harvest · Post harvest

Spaces and hyphens are ignored, so PreHarvest, Pre-Harvest, and Pre Harvest are the same value. Planting is accepted in place of At plant.

Rate units

Singular and plural both work, and spaces are ignored — lbs/ac, lb/acre, and LB / AC are the same unit.

Imperial: bag/ac · bu/ac · fl oz/ac · fl oz/cwt · fl oz/100gal · gal/ac · gal/100gal · lb/ac · lb/cwt · lb/100gal · oz/ac · oz/cwt · oz/100gal · pt/ac · pt/100gal · qt/ac · qt/100gal · seed/ac · ton/ac · tote/ac · unit/ac

Metric: g/ha · g/100l · kg/ha · kg/100l · l/ha · l/1000l · ml/ha · ml/100l

Canadian: g/ac · kg/ac · l/ac · l/100gal · mg/ac · ml/ac · mt/ac

With compliance checking on, chemical products — desiccants, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, miticides, and products typed Other — accept a narrower set, because countable and per-hundredweight rates can't be reported for compliance. These are not accepted for those products:

bag/ac · seed/ac · tote/ac · unit/ac · lb/cwt · oz/cwt · fl oz/cwt

Everything else in the lists above is accepted. Fertilizers, adjuvants, biologicals, seed, and blends are unaffected — they take any unit in the lists.

Failure reasons

Any one of these stops the entire file. Each row that caused the rejection appears on the Application import errors page with a reason. Fix them in your original file and import it again. What each reason means:

The reason mentions	What happened	Fix
Missing columns	The header row doesn't have all the required columns. The file is rejected before any rows are read, and the message names the columns.	Add the named columns to the header row.
Field ReferenceId	The value is blank on the first row of an application.	Supply the field's reference identifier.
Field not found	No field in this growing season matched the reference identifier, more than one matched and the name didn't narrow it, or you don't have access to the field.	Check the reference identifier, confirm the field is assigned to this season, and add Field name if two fields share the identifier.
Permission	You can't create application records in that field's organization.	Ask an administrator for access, or have someone with access run the import.
Field locked	The field is locked because of where it sits in the harvest review process.	See Review and approve fields for harvest.
Applicator required	Compliance checking is on and the name, the license, or both are blank.	Supply both.
Applicator not found	No applicator available to that field matched the name.	Match the name exactly to the applicator record.
Multiple applicators	Two or more applicators share that name and the license didn't narrow it.	Supply the license that belongs to the applicator you mean.
Application completed	The value is missing or isn't a date FarmQA can read.	Supply a local date and time, for example `7/30/2026 15:37`.
Application started	The value isn't a date FarmQA can read.	Correct it or leave it blank.
Applied area	The value isn't a number, is negative, or its unit is missing or unrecognized.	Use a positive number with `ac`, `acre`, `ha`, or `hectare`.
Water rate	The value isn't a number, is negative, or its unit is missing or unrecognized.	Use a positive number with `gal/ac` or `l/ha`, or use 0 with no unit.
Wind speed	The value isn't a number, is negative, or its unit is missing or unrecognized.	Use a positive number with `mph`, `km/h`, or `m/s`, or leave both columns blank.
Method type	Compliance checking is on and the value is blank, or it isn't `Soil` or `Foliar`.	Supply one of the two values.
Application method	Compliance checking is on and the value is blank, or the method isn't in the accepted list for your account.	Use a value from Application methods above.
Band pct	The method is Band and the percentage is missing or outside 0–100.	Supply a whole number between 0 and 100.
Application period	The value isn't in the accepted list.	Use a value from Application periods above.
PHI, REI, or Rainfast	The value isn't a whole number, or it's negative.	Use 0 or a positive whole number, or leave it blank.
Product not found	No catalog product matched the registration number and name, or more than one did.	Check the registration number, and add the exact catalog product name to break a tie.
Rate	The rate is blank or isn't a number.	Supply a number.
Rate unit required	The rate unit is blank.	Supply a unit from Rate units above.
Rate unit unknown	The unit isn't recognized.	Use a unit from Rate units above.
Rate unit not valid for the product	The unit is recognized but can't be used for a chemical product under compliance checking.	Use a unit outside the excluded list above.

The errors page shows three columns: the row number, the application reference identifier, and the failure reason.