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Import items

Add or update many items, variants, barcodes and store settings at once from an Excel workbook, checked before anything is written.

What this page is for

Import items loads many items at once from an Excel workbook (.xlsx), instead of adding them one by one on New item. The workbook holds four sheets: items, recipes, barcodes and store_settings. Every row in every sheet is checked first, and nothing is written until the whole file passes: if even one row is wrong, nothing is imported.

An import creates the item categories and revenue categories your sheet names that the business does not have yet, and switches back on an archived one it names, so a new menu section does not have to be added by hand first. Names are matched ignoring capitals, so juices uses an existing Juices. It never creates units, tax classes, stores or prep stations, and it never sets prices, costs, stock or suppliers. Everything else it names must already exist, by its code or name; prices are set afterwards with a price change, and stock is loaded on Stock → Opening stock.

Only people whose role can manage the catalogue see this page, and only where imports are part of your plan.

How to…

How to import a workbook

  1. Press Download template to get a blank workbook in the right shape, or use one from a previous export. The first row of its items sheet is an example (Supa Loaf White Bread, 400 g) matching the examples on the Guide sheet: left exactly as it is, it is skipped when you import, so delete it or overwrite it with your own item. Columns with a fixed set of answers, such as kind, unit, category or the true-or-false columns, offer a drop-down list in each cell, so pick from it rather than typing; the category, unit, revenue category and tax class lists show what your business has active on the day you download the template. The category and revenue_category lists only warn when you type a name that is not in them, so you can keep a new name to create that category; unit and tax_class refuse a value outside the list.
  2. Choose, beside When a row matches something already in the catalogue, whether a matching row should Update it, be left alone (Leave it alone), or Stop and list it as a problem.
  3. Under Workbook, choose your file. It is checked straight away; nothing is written yet.
  4. If the check finds problems, press Download copy with problems marked to see exactly which row, column and value failed, fix the workbook, and choose it again.
  5. Once the check passes, review Rows read, To add and To update, and, where the sheet names categories the business does not have, Will create and Will switch back on, then press Import workbook. Reverting the import later archives those categories again, unless an item outside the import uses them.
  6. The import opens its own page, Catalogue import, where you can watch it finish and see the counts.

How to choose what happens to a matching row

  • Update it: changes the existing item to match the sheet. An empty cell leaves that value as it is; writing [clear] in a cell empties it.
  • Leave it alone: keeps the existing item exactly as it is, and only the genuinely new rows are added.
  • Stop and list it: treats every match as a problem, so nothing imports unless every row is new.

A new variant whose sku cell is empty is given the next SKU in the business's series, such as SKU-0001, exactly as on New item. An empty sku cell on a row that matches an existing variant leaves its SKU as it is.

Worked examples

Supermarket

Tumaini Supermarket's head office sends a workbook of 3,000 products ahead of opening a new branch. The buyer downloads the template, fills in the items sheet with each product's code, name, category, revenue category, kind, unit, pack size and tax class, and the barcodes sheet with one row per barcode. She chooses Update it so a later re-upload corrects mistakes rather than failing, uploads the file, checks the counts (3,000 to add, 0 to update) and the new categories under Will create (Juices, Household), and imports.

Butchery that also roasts meat

Mama Njeri's Butchery uses the recipes sheet to load nyama choma's recipe lines alongside the items sheet that creates the item itself, so the whole thing is set up in one import rather than built by hand afterwards on Recipe.