[RetailEdge Moderator]

The CSV file format can be useful for new users trying to import data into RetailEdge from another POS program or for simply doing price updates from Vendor files.

This help topic describes in detail how to do this.

http://retailedge.com/help/index.html?importingdata.htm

Here are some things that customers have had trouble with when importing CSV files.

1. All the data does not import (Imports X of Y records). Most of the time this is because the fields that are required for import have not been filled out in the CSV file. These include, Stock Number, Description, VendorID, DepartID, Price and Taxable (true/false). RetailEdge will allow you to start the import process without having these fields filled in, however it will not bring in you data since without this data, RetailEdge can't create the item.

2. The data does not import as anticipated. When importing data looks different than you thought it would. Here is what you should do.

a. On the import screen when selecting the file, RetailEdge has two options, View as Text and View as CSV. This will allow you to see what the data is going to look like BEFORE you bring it in. Scroll through and if you want you can edit the file (for small changes for larger changes you might want to us a program like Excel or Open Office or do a search and replace in a text editor). Oh yeah if you have not read the help file above, make a backup before you try an import.

b. Import one record. This will allow you to see what the data looks like when it gets imported. The you can see if there are any problems.

3. Check that Excel did not change the data format. This is probably the most common. Opening the file in Excel can make modifying your data quick and simple. However it can lead to the following common problems. Here are some Excel Gotchas:

a. RetailEdge is expecting a CSV file format file. This looks like "Stock Number", "Description", "VendorID",..... The quotes around the fields are critical to a proper import. If your file does not have these you could information coming in incorrectly. You need to make sure that when you save the Excel (or Open Office, Keynote, etc.) that you make sure that the data is saved in this format. Excel will allow you to save as a MSDOS CSV Text file and some programs will give you options to include the quotes (") as field delimiters. Also some programs will save the file with Tabs between the fields and not commas. Open your file in Notepad or some other text editor before importing it into RetailEdge. This will allow you to quickly see if the CSV format file you created meets the requirements.

b. Make sure that Excel is not doing any formatting. When importing data into Excel, you need to specify that certain fields are to be treated as Text. Usually you can specify this during the import process by right clicking no the columns to be imported and selecting it to be imported as a text field. If you don't do this, Excel and most spreadsheets will treat them as General fields and format them accordingly. For instance if you pull in a UPC that looks like 092345678987, Excel will think this is a number and bring in 92345678987.

Hope this helps but if other people have seen other Excel conversion issues or import limitations, let us know.

[RetailEdge Moderator]

We spent some time with a vendor file to allow us to see what types of problems we would have with the typical file. Besides the usual:

1. Departments don't exist. RetailEdge needs department information with each inventory item. If you don't categorize your inventory it is pretty much useless (what departments are selling what aren't, do I have too much stock in a particular area, etc.). Vendors don't typically have a concept of departments and you will usually need to add this to the import file.

2. Prices. Many vendor files won't have a suggested price or may have a price that does match what you want it to be. You will most likely need to massage the data before you import it into RetailEdge.

3. Duplicate Stock Numbers or UPCs. We see this all the time. Even when importing files with UPC codes that should be unique, they will have duplicates. One trick that can help is to open the file in Excel, add a column after the UPC or Stock Number, and copy this formula into the column cells

=IF(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$9999;A1)>1;"Duplicate";"")

This assumes that the UPC field is column A and there are only 9999 records. You should modify it to meet your needs. This will quickly identify which records are duplicates.

If you find duplicates what should you do? Just put another character on the end of the code. This will allow it to be imported. You can then determine the best way to deal with the item once it is in RetailEdge.

If you are dealing with UPCs, you can map your stock number to a UPC1 or UPC2 field. These fields will allow duplicates. Then you can create your own stock number for these items, but since UPC1 will allow the duplicates, when the item is scanned, RetailEdge will pop up a list of items and allow the sales associate or clerk to choose which one they are selling.

[RetailEdge Moderator]

We do that as a conservative way of preventing people from making mistakes. Typically inventory imports are done either to get the inventory in for the first time or for pricing updates. We really feel that people should be recording why changes are made to inventory quantities. Although you can make a change to an inventory quantity directly through the inventory editor, it is much better to make adjustments through receiving, PICS (Physical Inventory Collection System) updates, Purchase Orders, etc. That way you can see why your inventory quantities are what they are (Qty History Tab on the Inventory Manager).

To get inventory quantities into RetailEdge, it is pretty simple. Once the items have been imported into RetailEdge, just take the original import file, strip out every column except SKU and Quantity and import this into RetailEdge PICS List. Then you can perform a PICS Update to get the inventory quantities into the inventory.

Doing it this way also has the added benefit of giving you information about what items might have been missed during the initial import. When you import items into the PICS list, RetailEdge will check the inventory to see if it exists. If it does it will pull in the description from the inventory. So if something was not imported initially you will find a blank description.