Import Master Items

This feature allows for the importing of Master Item information into the Unanet system. This import allows adding new items or updating existing items. Delete functionality is not provided in this import.  

Roles

This screen is available to users having any of the following roles: Administrator and P&R Administrator.

License

This feature is available with any Unanet edition.

Performance Tip Note:  Depending on the number of users in your installation and other factors such as the overall performance of your platform, the activity of importing one or many files may take up to several minutes.  Should this be the case with your installation, you may want to consider running these processes at non-peak times to minimize database contention.

 

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Topics covered on this help page include:


Import File Record Layout

IMPORTANT: Note that there are multiple places within this documentation that say you MUST use double quotes for the strings in your import. If you are working in Excel, Excel will provide the double quotes and thus you do not need to add them in manually. Manually adding double quotes within Excel would result in multiple sets of double quotes in the resulting .csv file and thus cause an error (should you attempt to import that resulting file). Please see Excel Tips for more information.

 

 

 

Field Header Name

Required/Comments

1

A

Item_Code

ALWAYS REQUIRED. This is the unique item code. You can use the Item import to change an item code for an existing item by supplying the following syntax in this field.

"!RENAME!,old_item_code,new_item_code"  -- this entire string must be enclosed in double quotes.

For example, if you were attempting to change:

1) Existing Item Code "Item_1" to "Item_One", the import file would include:
"!RENAME!,Item1,ItemOne"

See the Excel Tips regarding the use of double quotes and more.

 

Maximum Length: 25 characters

2

B

Item_Name

REQUIRED ON ADD. This is the name of the item.

Maximum Length: 128 characters

3

C

Description

This is the description of the item. You can use the special tag !BLANK! to remove an existing entry in this field.

Maximum Length: 128 characters

4

D

External_Code

This is a pay code that an external system understands. You can use the special tag !BLANK! to remove an existing entry in this field.

Maximum Length: 128 characters

5

E

Expense_Type

REQUIRED ON ADD. The expense type of the item.

6

F

Active

This field allows you to specify whether this Item will be available for use.  The valid values for this field include "Y" for yes, and "N" for no.  If you do not supply a value, the field will default to "Y".

7

G

Bill_By

This field indicates whether the billable amount for the item code will be calculated based on Bill Rates or Markup. The valid values are "R" (for Rates) or "M" (for Markup). The default value is "M".

8

H

UOM

This must be a valid, active UOM. You can include multiple UOMs (one line for each UOM per item).

9

I

Effective_Date

CONDITIONALLY REQUIRED. This field is required when inserting or updating rates. If not supplied when adding a new rate, it will default to BOT. This field represents the date a particular rate is to become effective. You can include multiple effective dates (for each UOM, one line for each date).  

Recommended date format:   yyyy-MM-dd    See Allowable Date Formats for more options.
You can also use the value  "BOT"   (beginning of time)

10

J

Bill_Rate

This is the bill rate field. It can be zero, positive, or negative. The default value is 0.

Format  NUMBER (15,5) -- for example "1234567890.12345 ".

11

K

Bill_Markup

This is the bill markup field. It can be zero, positive, or negative. The default value is 0. The allowed range of values is -999.99 - 999.99.

Format  NUMBER (5,2) -- for example "123.12".

12

L

Cost_Rate

This is the cost rate field. It can be zero, positive, or negative. The default value is 0.

Format  NUMBER (15,5) -- for example "1234567890.12345 ".

13

M

Inventory

Indicates that this item is used in inventory tracking. Valid values are "Y" or "N".

14

N

Manufacturer_Part_Number

String value that represents manufacturer's part number.

Maximum Length: 50 characters

15

O

SKU

SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit. If provided, it must be unique.

Maximum Length: 50 characters

 

Note: Check out the Unanet Data Model for specific field data types, lengths, and other attributes. Navigate to Unanet Support and search for "Data Model".


Import File Format

The file to import must be saved in a comma delimited format.   The fields can be enclosed in double quotes -- which would be particularly necessary should the data being imported contain commas.

Importing a Sub-Set of Columns using a Field Header Record

If you are not using the default column layout sequence as defined above, you must include a header record (prefixed with an asterisk *), containing the column Header Names for those columns you are including in the import file (to indicate what data is contained in each column).  The specific Header Names for each column are listed in the table above.

Example:

*Item_Code,Description,UOM,Effective_Date,Bill_Rate
item_1,"This is a description",DOZ.,2018-01-01,1230.10


Excel Template

You can create the comma delimited import file with any number of tools.  For those interested in using an Excel spreadsheet to create the file, you can download an Excel Template with predefined headers.  

See the Excel Tips regarding the use of double quotes and more.


Import Screen

The Import Master Items screen simply looks like:

 

Field Descriptions:

Field

Description

Type of Import

Select the appropriate import type from the list of available types of imports.

File to Import

Enter (or browse for) the file that you would like to import.

Output Options

Specify the level of detail included in the output.  

 

The import process is triggered by pressing the Import button.  All Warnings and Error messages are written to the screen and can then be saved if desired.  While some line items may be found invalid and rejected, the remaining line items will be successfully imported and saved in the database.  The rejected line items will be written out to a file on the Unanet server as well as displayed at the bottom of the Import results page. The rejected record file name will be the import name (from the Type of Import drop-down on the Admin>> Import page) , concatenated with a space and "Errors.csv" (e.g., Item - Master Errors.csv, Alternate.csv, etc.). The file will be placed in the Unanet temporary directory (which is defined by the Temp Directory (Fully Qualified Directory Name) (unanet.temp_directory) Unanet property). You can also click on the Download the error file link at the bottom of the Import results page (sample image follows).

 

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