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Bulk Inventory Upload

Marissa Van Alst
Updated

Bulk Uploading Inventory

1. To bulk upload inventory, go to Inventory then click Bulk Uploads. Click Download Inventory (CSV).Screen_Shot_2022-11-15_at_9.45.25_AM.png

2. You will need to open this CSV file in excel to input your data in the correct format OR you may download a sample file here.

3. Click +Add Bulk Upload and select your new file to complete. Screen_Shot_2022-11-15_at_9.46.10_AM.png

 

Format

  • Your CSV file must conform to a specific format. You may download a sample file, follow the instructions below and create your own file. Or, if you already added some inventory items individually, you can also download your inventory list.
  • If you do NOT conform to this format your inventory will not be imported. We suggest using one of the suggested and known-compatible applications below to create your CSV file as it will create a correctly formatted file.
  • Remember, you must save the file as the comma-separated format — .xlsx, .ods, tab-separated, and other formats are not supported. Instructions for popular spreadsheet applications are given below. If you have any problems creating a CSV file, feel free to reach out to our support team.
  • Column names are case-insensitive and may be specified in any order, as long as you specify the minimum required columns. You may specify any number of additional columns at your convenience, any columns not found in our format below are ignored by the bulk import tool. Because of this, please be cautious as if you misspell a column name, no warning will be issued and the column will be ignored.
  • Again, column order does not matter. As long as the header row (first row) and the data rows (any other row) align properly as cells, it makes no difference how they are ordered.
  • For fields that accept a pre-defined set list of values, these values are also case in-sensitive (such as category names, or 'yes' and 'no' fields). Even though they are case insensitive, you must be careful not to include any additional punctuation or characters within them.

 

Known Compatible Spreadsheet Applications

Any quoted CSV file will work, but these are well-known spreadsheet applications that are known to be compatible with the TrailerCentral/OperateBeyond bulk uploader. Instructions on how to export as CSV are given for each application.

Download and help links open a new window to third-party websites.

 

How it Works: Add vs Update

For each row within the CSV file, it may either add a new unit, or update an existing unit. Units are matched based on stock numbers. The bulk uploader never removes units.

To demonstrate, consider an example where you currently have three units in stock:

  • A123
  • B123
  • C123

If you upload a CSV file with two rows (three, including header), with stocks "A123" and "X123", then:

  • A123 would be updated with the information within the CSV, since stock# A123 already exists.
  • X123 would be added with the information within the CSV, since stock# X123 did not exist previously.
  • B123 would be left untouched, since the CSV did not contain this stock#. Remember, the bulk uploader never removes units.

If you need to routinely remove units based on CSV uploads, please contact TrailerCentral/OperateBeyond support for additional options.

  • Extra attention should be paid to the columns included within a CSV file when updating units, as well. When updating units with CSV, fields are left untouched when the column is not included in the CSV. For example, if a unit has an existing sale price, then uploading a CSV without the sales price column will not modify the sales price of that unit. However, by including the "sales price" column, then all "sales price" fields will be updated on all units included within the CSV, including removing the sales price if the corresponding cell is blank for that particular unit's stock number.
  • To demonstrate, consider if our inventory currently contained a unit with stock "A123". This unit, "A123" has a sale price of $1,100. If we upload a CSV file without the column "sales price", then the sale price of $1,100 will remain. If we upload a CSV file with the column "sale price", even if the cell corresponding to unit "A123" is blank, then the value will be updated. In the case of a blank cell, then the sale price would be removed.

 

How it works: Locations

If you are a single-location dealership, simply do not include a location column and your location will be set correctly. If you are a multi-location dealership, then excluding any sort of 'location' column will result in the units being set to your primary location (which is marked as bold in your locations)

  • However, if you are a multi-location dealership, you will likely have the need to set locations for each unit. To do so, simply refer back to your locations page and find the phone number for each location. The phone number must be in the same format as the locations page. Check if the location's page includes the leading "1", etc, and copy the phone numbers exactly into a column named "location" or "location phone". This will set the location for each unit.
  • Inventory exports will have additional information, such as city, state and country. This information is included for your purposes only and is ignored during import. The "location phone" column is the only column that will set a unit's location.
  • Refer to the location phone column for more information.

 

How it Works: Archived Units

The most important thing to understand, as mentioned above: For each row within the CSV file, it may either add a new unit, or update an existing unit, matched based on stock numbers. This matching extends to archived units. If you have units that appear to not be importing, and there are no associated error messages, then it is likely that the stock number is archived.

  • If a stock number, -- say "A123" is within your CSV, and a unit with the same stock number is archived, then the archived unit will be updated. It will not be un-archived.

 

How it Works: Length, Width & Height

Inventory units and websites support two different display modes when displaying units, 'feet' and 'inch'. Internally, all units are stored as feet. However, when it comes to how the unit displays on your website and other parts of TrailerCentral, you may pick between showing length, width, and heights as feet (such as "7.5 feet") or inches (such as "90 inches") depending on what makes the most sense for that particular unit.

  • However, there are many ways to convey the same measurements -- for example we could specify "7ft 6in" or "7.5 ft". Not to mention whether to use a double-quote or "in", "inch", "inches", etc. Therefore, it is highly suggested that only two formats be used in your CSV to prevent any misunderstandings. These are the same formats that units will be exported as, which are ex. 7.5 ft to display the unit as "feet" and 60 inches to display the unit as "inches".
  • Several more formats are supported, but it can be tricky. Refer to the length, width, and height columns section for a full break-down.

How it Works: Images

To upload images in CSV format, they must first be accessible on an HTTP-accessible website (photobucket.com, postimage.org).

1. When your images are accessible via URL, you can include a new row in your CSV file titled 'images', and add a comma separate list of image URLs for each inventory item.

2. Ensure that the image URLs do not contain any commas, as this will prevent the bulk uploader from successfully loading the file. You are limited to 20 images per inventory item. The first image listed will be used as the primary image. Allowed formats: JPG / JPEG, PNG, GIF.

  • Example: 'http://www.website.com/image1.jpg, http://www.website.com/image2.png'

3. Images will by default be discarded and ignored! This is a newer behavior, previously they would always be appended. Starting in April 2019, the "images" column will be ignored unless you add an additional column "image mode", OR "append images " (but not both).

The "image mode" column MUST be one of: "ignore", "replace", or "append". These correspond with:

  • "ignore" - ignoring the image column, for existing units, images are untouched, for new items, no images are used.
  • "append" - append images from the image column to the end of existing units; for new items, they will be used like you would expect
  • "replace" - remove images from existing items first then replace it with the list given in the images column. for new items, they will be used like you would expect

4. Note that, "ignore" will always ignore the item, existing or not. "append" and "replace" function identically for new units, it's only for existing units their behavior is different.

  • Without the "append images" column, images will be ignored entirely. Here is an example:

Append Images Column Example

In the example above, note the addition of the column titled "append images on import". The column indicates the following:

  • EX01 & EX03 - The images will be ignored. If any existing images exist, they will be left alone. The images in the "images" column will be ignored.
  • EX02 - The images in the "images" column will be appended to any existing images.
  • The "append images" (or alternatively, "append images on import") column must be present for the "images" column to have any effect, regardless of whether the stock is a new stock number, or an existing unit. Valid values are 1 (number one) or yes, indicating that the images in the "images" column should be appended. The values 0 (number zero) or no, which is the default for CSV downloads, will indicate that the "images" column is to be ignored.

Required Columns

The following columns (fields) are required and MUST be set for each trailer (row). If you do not specify these fields in your CSV file, the upload will fail and no data will be imported.

  • Stock #
  • Category
  • Year
  • Manufacturer
  • Model
  • Title
  • Condition
  • Price

All other columns (fields) are optional. When performing unit updates (the CSV contains an existing stock#), omitting a field will leave the previous value as-is.

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