Setup & Importing Data

The Setup & Data Imports hub is a guided checklist of every dataset the system needs. It is the best place to start with a brand-new install, and a good health check later on. You will only see it if you are an administrator or have the Setup permission.

The work is organized into five numbered phases: Foundation (who can log in and where things live), Inventory Catalog, Shop Floor, Production, and Sales & Quality. The ring at the top shows how many core datasets have data — optional ones do not count against you.

Each step shows one of four states:

• Loaded — it already has data; a View button takes you to the list.
• Ready — you can work on it now. The next required step is tagged Up next.
• Waiting — it depends on another dataset that is still empty. A needs … chip tells you what to load first (for example, Products wait for Suppliers, and Assets wait for Site Locations).
• Skipped — you told the hub you do not use this. Only steps tagged Optional can be skipped, with the Skip — not used link; Unskip brings one back.

For every step you can Import from a spreadsheet (see Importing data from a spreadsheet) or Add records by hand. Loaded steps also run small health checks — for example, products without a supplier link, machines missing a location, or finished goods without a BOM — so you can spot gaps worth fixing.

Most datasets — Site Locations, Suppliers, Customers, Workers, Assets / Machines, Spare Parts, Tool Assemblies, PM Schedules, Finished Goods, Operations, Bills of Materials, FG Routing and more — share one import wizard, reached from the Import buttons on the Setup & Imports hub. It accepts .xlsx or .csv files up to 5,000 rows, and nothing is written to the database until the final confirmation.

The four steps

1. Upload — drag in your file, or click Template first to download a ready-made spreadsheet with the right headers and a sample row.
2. Map Columns — each file column is matched to a system field. Columns named like the template map themselves; anything else you pick from a dropdown or leave as ignore. Required fields are marked with * and must be mapped before you can continue.
3. Review — every row gets a badge: New, Update, Check (needs attention), or Rejected. Updates show exactly what will change, old value → new value. If a row mentions something the system does not recognize — say a misspelled location — a dropdown appears right in the table so you can pick the correct one; your choice is applied to every row with the same value.
4. Confirm — a summary of how many records will be created and updated, then Execute Import. The whole import runs in a single transaction, and rejected rows are simply skipped.

The wizard matches rows to existing records by a key field (shown on the upload screen, e.g. Supplier Name or SKU). Matching rows become updates, so re-importing a corrected file is safe. Afterwards you can Download Log to keep a record of what happened.

Import Products loads your inventory catalog from an Excel file (.xlsx, up to 5,000 rows). Click Template to download a spreadsheet with every supported column and an example row.

Only two columns are required: productcode (the unique code you will scan and search by) and productName (the description). Everything else is optional: brand, selling price, product type (standard or gauge), supplier details (name, part number, unit cost, lead time, minimum order, unit of measure, preferred flag), up to four categories, reorder point and quantity, a storage note, and a comma-separated list of site locations the product belongs to.

After upload you get a preview where each row is badged NEW, UPDATE, or ERROR. A row is an update when its product code already exists — handy for bulk price or reorder-point changes. Use the All / New / Updates / Errors tabs to focus, and the checkboxes to leave rows out of the import.

If a supplier, category, or location in your file is not recognized, the cell turns into a dropdown: pick the right existing record, or choose the Create option to add it on the spot — a small form opens and Create & Apply fixes every row that used the same name. That means you do not have to abandon the import just because a few names do not match.

Finally, Import Products asks you to confirm. The import cannot be undone, so glance at the new / update counts before you commit.

User import creates or updates login accounts in bulk from an Excel file (.xlsx, up to 2,000 rows). It walks the same four steps as other imports: Upload, Map Columns, Review, Confirm. You will find it under Administration, so it needs admin access.

For new users these fields are required: First Name, Last Name, Username, Password, Full Name, and User Group (by name or ID — see Managing user accounts for what groups do). Optional columns include Email, Phone, Active (defaults to active), Admin (defaults to no), RFID Signature, and a Location Assignment that controls which site’s products the person sees, with a Product Location Mode of filter or restrict.

Rows are matched to existing accounts by username, so the username itself cannot be changed by an import. On update rows a blank password means keep the current one — the review screen shows “will change” or “no change” so there are no surprises.

The review screen badges each row NEW, UPDATE, ATTENTION, or REJECTED. Attention rows usually mean a user group or location name was not recognized; pick the correct one from the dropdown in the cell. You cannot continue until every included attention row is resolved. The Confirm step then lists exactly who will be created, updated, and skipped before you press Execute Import.

Note that users are logins; shop-floor workers for the time clock are a separate list — see Workers vs. users — who is who.

The Import Wizard builds or updates a whole vending location — the cabinet, its drawers, and every bin assignment — from one spreadsheet. It is a six-step flow, and it saves your progress as a session, so you can stop halfway and pick up later from the Saved Sessions list on step 1. The wizard only appears if your group has the Import Wizard permission.

The three starting modes

• New Location — define a location from scratch, then import its bin data.
• Update Existing — upload fresh bin data for a location you already have.
• Export & Edit — download the location’s current data as a spreadsheet, fix it in Excel, and re-import it. This is the easiest way to make many bin changes at once.

For a new location you choose Standard (a simple grid of bins, columns × rows) or Cabinet (which holds named drawers, each with its own grid), pick the machine type, and optionally connect a kiosk device — that step can be skipped and done later (see Devices and UI/Cabinet connections).

After uploading the bin file (use Download Template to get the right layout), the Review & Resolve step shows what will change: counts of Updates, Unchanged, Empty bins, New Products, and Errors, plus a line-by-line list of bin changes. Any product code the system does not know shows a card with three choices: Create it as a new product, Swap it for an existing product, or Skip those rows. Every unknown product must be resolved before you can continue.

The final step summarizes everything, and Commit Import writes it all at once. A checkbox on the upload step controls whether quantities in the file overwrite existing bin quantities or only fill brand-new assignments.

A few habits make every import go smoothly, whatever you are loading:

• Start from the Template. Every import page has a Template button that downloads a spreadsheet with the exact headers and a sample row. Columns named like the template map themselves automatically.
• One row per record, headers in row 1. Extra columns are simply ignored, so you can keep your own notes columns in the file.
• Know the match key. Each import matches rows to existing records by a key — product code for products, username for users, and so on (the upload screen tells you which). Rows that match become updates, everything else is created. Duplicate keys inside one file are rejected.
• Keep values simple. Yes/no fields accept 1/0 or yes/no; numbers should not need currency symbols (the wizard strips $, commas, and % for you, but plain numbers are safest); dates work best as 2026-06-15.
• Spell names the way the system knows them. When a column refers to another record — a supplier, a location, a user group — the value must match an existing name. If it does not, the review step gives you a dropdown to fix it, and your fix applies to every row with the same value.
• Close the file in Excel before uploading. An open file can be locked, which makes the upload fail.
• Rejected rows are never imported. The rest of the file still goes through, so you can fix just the rejected rows and re-upload — the good rows from last time will simply show up as updates. Use Download Log after an import to see exactly what happened to each row.

If you are loading several datasets, follow the order on the Setup & Imports hub — it unlocks steps only when the data they refer to exists. See The Setup & Imports hub.