Introduction

This Procedure takes you through the Procedure of importing Products. It will show you what type of file to import and how it should be set up. It will show you what prerequisites are needed fro successful import. It will show you what check boxes to tick to create the right outcome for your business.

We recommend you read the Import Products - Introduction before importing products to get a better understanding of what happens when you import products.

Prerequisites

1.      The related Supplier must already be set up in the AwardPro Data Base

2.      All components listed in the Product Import List must already be in the AwardPro Data Base. So import the component list first

3.      The excel file must be saved as an Excel 97-2003 Workbook (.xls) file

4.      Any Processes in the import file must already be in AwardPro and the spelling of the label must be exactly the same.

Procedure

·         Set up Product Import Files according to Instructions. (see instructions here) - Or use AwardPro supplied files
 

·         In AwardPro Go to Products Module > Import Product Catalogue
 

·         Browse to find the file to be imported. (must be Excel 97-2003 Workbook (.xls) file format)
 

·         Select the relevant supplier.

·         Select the Supplier Price List to be associated with the Import List.
- If it is not yet set up you can set it up by simply clicking the new button to the right of the drop down field.

·         Consider the check box options and tick or un-tick to suit your business. In most cases you will leave them all ticked

 - See below Check Box Explanation for details

·         Once you have made your check box choices - Press - Next

·         A products found report appears. Press - Next. The import will start.

·         Once completed you are provided with a success status report. You can print this report
- If there is an ***ERROR*** message on the screen it will tell you why.

- All errors will need to be dealt with & the list re-imported.

- If any products had a Sell Part of component included in it's break down they will be listed

Check Box Explanation

Because everyone is a little different we have added in some choices to make regarding importing products. You may have made changes to your data base that a new import list may remove these changes. So it is important to read this document thoroughly before importing data. Most of the time you probably would want all of these options ticked.

Lets take a look at these options.

Preserve the existing product processes.

1.      You may of made some changes to processes in your data base that the AwardPro import files do not have. So in this case you would want to preserve this information. Tick the box to keep your information

2.      You may have processes built into your system and are making up a new import file and do not want to bother with adding in the processes to your import file. If you tick the box then the original files will stay in the system and the charge will be added if you do not have a recommended retail price in the import list.

3.      You may have a new import file of previously imported products and you may be changing the way you process the goods such as change from Laser Engraving Glass trophies to the higher quality of Sand Blasting. Your new import file has the sand blasting process added to it but your existing data has laser process. If you un-check this box then the import action will replace the laser process with the sand blasting process

Preserve Existing Product Components

1.      You may of made some changes to components in your data base AwardPro supplied files do not have. Changes such as swapping components or adding other components. If you have made changes and want to keep them then you should tick the box.

2.      Generally speaking new import files that have previously imported products are likely to have exactly the same component make up.

Preserve existing product types.

1.      When we supplied AwardPro in the first place we set all products as certain product Types. You may have made changes to this and if so then you would want to preserve these changes so you will need to tick the box to preserve the changes.

2.      Perhaps your new import file has been set up to allocate products to different product types. For example. The AwardPro data base comes with all soccer trophies set as General Sports but you may want to change this. You may want to create a Product Type called Soccer Trophies and so you have changed the product type in the import file to soccer trophies. If you un-check the Preserve existing product type check box the your new data will override the old data on import.

Preserve the existing product description and size.

1.      By ticking this box the system will not over-ride descriptions and sizes of existing products. You may have manually changed these attributes at some point to make them nicer so you would not want a new import file to mess with that. So you tick this box to preserve your work.

2.      Alternately you may decide to re-write descriptions in the import file to tidy it up in the spread sheet before importing. This is when you would un-tick this option.

Add process charges to imported price

1.      It does not hurt for everyone to just leave this box ticked.

2.      If you use recommended retail price and you build in an engraving process to your prices on top of the recommended retail then you should always have this option ticked when you import the price. This activation will allow you to send the recommended retail price into the system and then add on top of the recommended retail price any built in process charge in the product.

3.      If no recommended retail price is in the import file (i.e. the price column is blank) then this check box is irrelevant but can be left checked as will have no effect either way.

This box, in most cases, should be left ticked because even if you do not use recommended retail the statement is correct for you too.