Excel Import: Create Vendor Order

FieldStack allows you to bulk-build a vendor order from a spreadsheet of UPCs and quantities, instead of keying items in one at a time. If active in your system, this is located on the Inventory tab, under the Excel Imports ribbon group, as “Excel Import: Create Vendor Order.”

The items you import don't go straight out to the vendor — they land in an order bin first, exactly as if you'd added each item to that order by hand. That gives you a chance to keep adding to it, adjust quantities, and get it to where you want (hit a pallet minimum, a dollar minimum, etc.) before you activate and send it. Once it's sent, it behaves like any other purchase order — normal receiving, normal invoicing.

Preparing your spreadsheet

Your file should have one row per item, with these columns:

UPC | Qty | Store | Unit Cost

• UPC — required.
• Qty — required.
• Store — only needed in the file if you're ordering for more than one store at a time. If you're placing the whole order for a single store, you can leave this column out and just set the Store field on the import screen instead.
• Unit Cost — optional. If you leave it out, no cost is filled in automatically, so add this column yourself if you want cost captured on the order.

Running the import

1. Open the report. Open Excel Import: Create Vendor Order from the Inventory tab.
2. Set Vendor (and Store, if needed). Pick the Vendor. If your file doesn't have a Store column, also set the Store field.
3. Set the Order Bin. This is just a bucket number for the order — see “Choosing an Order Bin” below for how to pick one.
4. Import your file. Click Import and select your file.
5. Preview first. Leave the Preview Mode box checked and click Run. This checks your file without changing anything in the database. Rows where the UPC couldn't be matched to an item will show “No item found!” — fix those in your file and re-import before continuing.
6. Commit the import. Once the preview looks right, uncheck Preview Mode and click Run again. Your items are now added to the order bin.

Choosing an Order Bin

The Order Bin field is a free-text box. It works like this:

• If the Store/Vendor/Bin combination you enter doesn't have an order going yet, one is created automatically the moment you commit the import.
• If that Store/Vendor/Bin combination already has an order in progress (from an earlier import, or from items added by hand), your new rows are simply added to it.

In practice: use a new bin number to start a fresh, separate order. Reuse a bin number to keep building on an order you already started. Using a distinct bin per order in progress is good practice — it keeps separate orders from accidentally merging into one.

Clear Existing Manual Order (WIPE)

Leave this unchecked in almost all cases. Checking it zeroes out whatever is currently in that Store/Vendor/Bin order before your import adds its rows — only use it if you specifically want to replace what's already there rather than add to it.