# Import your products from an Excel file > Learn how to import products from Excel in Products > Import: choose the file, match the columns, check the rows, then import. Source: https://sellypos.com/help/products/import-products-from-excel/ Updated: 2026-11-03 This is how to import products from Excel into SellyPOS. Use it when your product list is already in a spreadsheet, so you do not have to type every product again. Nothing is written until you press **Import**. *Picture: The import screen at the Match columns step, with each column of the file matched to a product field. Match columns: each column of your file is matched to the product field it fills.* Importing products is in Basic and Professional. Lite does not have import. ## What you need - Basic or Professional. Lite does not have import. - Permission to import products. Without it, the import is not open to you. An import adds products. It does not change the ones your shop already has. - A workbook (an Excel file) or a CSV file with your product list. - The units your products use, already set up in the shop. SellyPOS never creates a unit from a file. ## Steps 1. **Open Import.** In the **Products** menu, choose **Import**. 2. **Choose the file.** To start from a template, press **Download workbook**, or **Download CSV template** for a plain file. The workbook has a Products sheet and a Rules sheet, and it is built from your own units, categories, brands and tax groups. Fill it in, or use your own list. Then press **Choose a file...** and pick the file. If the workbook has more than one product sheet, SellyPOS reads them together as one list. 3. **Match the columns.** Each column of your file has its own row, with up to three examples from the file. Columns SellyPOS knows are already matched. For any other column, choose the product field it goes into, or choose **Don't import**. Then press **Next: choose products**. 4. **Choose products.** Choose the categories and brands you want to import. The summary shows how many products and variants each one has. Anything you leave out is never written. Then press **Next: match names**. 5. **Match names.** A unit, category, brand, option value or tax group in your file that the shop does not have can be matched with one of your own. A suggestion is used only when you choose it. Then press **Next: check the rows**. 6. **Check the rows.** The Check step counts the rows that are ready, the rows that will be fixed, the rows that cannot import, and the rows already in the shop. Each problem names the cell behind it. Then press **Next: review**. 7. **Choose how to finish, then import.** Under **How do you want to finish?**, choose one of three ways. **All or nothing** is selected at first, and nothing is added unless every row is right. **Valid rows only** adds the rows that are right. **All rows, fixing what is wrong** adds every row and fills the gaps with defaults. Then press **Import**. A product saved with a default is marked incomplete. After the import, **View incomplete products** opens that list, so you can finish those products. ## If a product is already in the shop An import does not change products 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. To change products that are already in the shop, use [Bulk edit](/help/products/edit-many-products-at-once/). ## If something is not as you expect - **Nothing is imported.** If you choose no categories or brands, the import refuses and says why. - **A row is marked as a problem.** A SKU or barcode that appears twice in your file makes the later row invalid. - **Opening stock is not added.** A product that is not stocked cannot take an opening quantity. Nor can a product that tracks batches, expiry dates or serial numbers. - **A unit is missing.** SellyPOS never creates a unit from a file. Add the unit to the shop first, then import the products that use it. - **A sheet is greyed out.** A sheet with other columns cannot be joined with the first one. Import it on its own, in another run. ## Next Read [import products from Excel](/features/import-products-from-excel/) for the whole feature, or [how the import page works](/features/products-and-catalogue/import-products/) for each step. To change products after they are in the shop, see [edit many products at once](/help/products/edit-many-products-at-once/). Ready to try it? [Download SellyPOS](/download/) or [compare prices](/pricing/).