Importing your data

If you already have a supplier list, an ingredient catalogue, or a stock count in a spreadsheet, you don't need to retype it. Crown imports five kinds of record from a spreadsheet, and shows you exactly what will happen before anything is saved.

Open the Admin area and go to the Import tab.

What you can import

• Suppliers — your supplier directory.
• Ingredients — your ingredient catalogue.
• Ingredient lots — stock on hand, so you start from a real count rather than zero.
• Products — the things you make.
• Chemicals — your cleaning and sanitation register.

How an import works

1. Pick what you're importing

   Choose the type at the top of the page. Each has its own template and its own columns.

2. Download the template

   Select Download template. It comes as a CSV with the right column headings already in place, so you're filling in a known shape rather than guessing what Crown expects.

3. Fill it in

   Put your data under the template's headings. Keep the heading row exactly as it came.

4. Upload and check the preview

   Upload the file. Crown reads it and shows you how many rows will be created and how many have errors — without saving anything.

5. Confirm

   If the preview looks right, confirm the import. The button names the exact count, so you commit to a number you've read rather than a vague "import".

Crown QMSThe import page

Getting a clean import

• Import in dependency order. Suppliers before ingredients, ingredients before lots, because the later records reference the earlier ones. Importing lots first gives you rows pointing at ingredients that don't exist yet.
• Start with a handful of rows. Import five before you import five hundred. You'll find your formatting mistakes on a file you can fix in a minute.
• Don't rename the columns. The headings are how Crown maps your data.
• Check the preview's error count, not just the create count. A run that creates 200 of 240 rows has silently left 40 behind unless you look.

What's next

After an import, spot-check a few records against your spreadsheet, then fill in what the template didn't cover. Ingredients in particular carry allergen and storage detail worth setting properly — see Setting up your ingredients.