User guide

35
”Adams”, “Jane”, “46”, “female”, “New York”
”Doe”, “John”, “32”, “male”, “California”
Not all software programs will export into .csv or .txt format. If your current
software does not export into the correct file type, you will need to convert your
files before you can import them into InventoryControl. You c an easily format
your files by opening the exported file in your favorite spreadsheet application
that exports to .csv (such as Microsoft Excel
©
) and change the data to fit the
InventoryControl format. To help you correctly format your files for import, we
have included import templates on the installation CD. These files can be found
on the Import Samples folder on the installation CD. This file contains the correct
header information and one row of sample data. When formatting your files,
keep I mind that the columns do not have to be in the same order as those in the
sample files, but the column headers do need to match exactly to be
automatically mapped. If you do not have headers or if they do not match, you
will be given the opportunity to specify which c olumn should go with which data
field. This process is explained in the Mapping Your Data section of this chapter.
Import Order
Data must be imported into the database in the following order:
1. Sites
2. Locations
3. Suppliers (Optional)
4. Manufacturers (Optional)
5. Customers (Optional)
6. Items
7. Inventory (Optional)
The order in which you import your
data is important because some data
contains other data. For instance,
InventoryControl requires a Site when
entering a new Location. If you try to
import your Locations, without first
adding Sites, InventoryControl will not
know how to handle the data, because there are no Sites in the system to assign
each Location.
You will need to have a separate .txt or .csv file for each of the data types listed
above.
TIP
Even though some data in the
import order list is optional, you
stillneedtoimportinthis
specified order. You can
choose not to import the
optional data at all if, for
example, you won’t be using
Manufacturers. If you will be
importing Manufacturers, you
must first import Suppliers.