Import products from Excel, and choose what comes in

If your product list is in a spreadsheet, you do not need to type it in again. Import products from Excel: choose the workbook or CSV file, match its columns, check the rows, then import. Nothing is written until you press Import.

Start from the template

On the product import page, Download workbook gives you a workbook. It has a Products sheet with every column, a Rules sheet that says what each column accepts, and sample rows that show the layout. It is built from your own units, categories, brands and tax groups.

Read several sheets as one list

A workbook can have more than one sheet with product columns. SellyPOS reads them together as one list, joining the sheets by their column names. A sheet with other columns is greyed out. Import that sheet on its own, in another run.

Match each column to a product field

Each column of your file gets its own row, with up to three examples. Columns the program recognises are already matched. For any other column, choose the product field it imports as, or choose Don’t import.

Choose which categories and brands to import

You see a summary of the file first. It lists every category as a tree, and every brand, each with its count of products and variants. Anything you leave out is never written. If you choose nothing, the import refuses and says why.

Match names the shop does not have

A unit, category, brand, option value or tax group in your file that the shop does not have is offered a match with one of its own. A suggestion is used only when you choose it. Units are never created from a file, so add a unit to the shop before you import products that use it.

Add opening stock

Opening stock in the file is recorded as a stock adjustment when its product is created. A product that is not stocked cannot take an opening quantity. Nor can a product that tracks batches, expiry dates or serial numbers.

One file for prices, variants and stock

The products file has 54 columns. They cover prices, barcodes, categories, brands, tax group, reorder levels, batch, expiry and serial flags, pack levels, variants and opening stock. Only the name and the price are required.

Check before anything is saved

The Check step counts the rows that are ready, the rows that will be fixed with defaults, the rows that cannot import, and the rows already in the shop. Each problem names the cell behind it.

Then choose how the import finishes. All or nothing is chosen first, so one bad row stops the whole import. Valid rows only imports the ready rows. All rows, fixing what is wrong imports every row, with defaults for the gaps. A product saved with a default is saved as incomplete, and View incomplete products opens that list.

Skip products already in the shop

An import adds products and does not change the ones the shop already has. A row is skipped if its name, its SKU or its main barcode matches a product already in the shop. A variant of a main product already in the shop is skipped too. If the same SKU or barcode appears twice in your file, the later row is marked as a problem. To change existing products, use bulk edit products.

Add pictures from the same file

Add a picture column to the products file, with the path to each picture beside the file. A product that already has a picture keeps it, so an import never replaces one.

The products are imported first. Their pictures follow in the background, in batches, and you can pause or stop that run.

Next

A video walkthrough of the import is on the tutorials page. For the import page itself, see import products. To change products after they are in, see bulk edit products. The product list is on the products and catalogue page, and stock on hand is on the stock control page.

Ready to try it? Download SellyPOS or compare prices.