Import counts from a CSV or Excel file

Importing Counts from a CSV or Excel file (from any Data logger)

If you do not have Denso data logger you can still import counts from any data logger as long as you can get the counts into a CSV file in a specific format. CSV files are text files that contain rows and columns. They can be imported into Excel and the rows and columns remain in tact. Excel files can be exported as CSV text files using the Save As option and selecting the CSV option.

The CSV file must have either 2 or 3 columns. The column order is

1- EAN (or ISBN or UPC - note you can record in-house codes here and Bookmine will import them into the holding queue for manual linking)

2 - A count field

3 - Optionally a Date Time stamp in the format yymmddhhnn (eg 0702241145 which means 11:45 AM on 22/Feb/2007)

The 3 column file will look like this:

9781234567892 4 0702241145

9781234567892 35 0702241145

9781234567892 45 0702241145

9781234567892 35 0702241145

9781234567892 5 0702241145

9781234567803 5 0702241145

9781234567691 45 0702241145

9781234566898 45 0702241145

9781234567892 45 0702241145

ur456 3 0702241146

In this case the item corresponding to EAN 9781234567892 will receive several counts all time stamped 11:45 AM on 22/Feb/2007. The file can contain as many different EANs and counts as are required for the stock or can be done in batches of smaller counts. Bookmine can also handle ISBN10, or UPCs

Item ur456 has an inhouse code - when imported this will not be automatically matched with any stock item. It is left to the operator to manually link items with such codes to the corresponding stock item. All items with in-house codes will be left in the import queue to be processed manually (See below for handling non-EAN compatible codes).

The 2 column file looks something like this:

9781234567892 45

9781234567892 15

9781234567892 5

9781234567892 25

9781234567892 35

9781234567892 5

9781234567892 3

9781234567892 8

9781234567892 4

In this case the item corresponding to EAN 9781234567892 will receive several counts with no time stamp. This means that a live stocktake might cause anomalies as Bookmine cannot tell when the count was made relative to any sales that were processed since the start of the stocktake (ie when the stored values of stock on hand and on hold were added to the stocktake).

Non-EAN codes

A file with non-EAN compatible in-house codes will look like this

9781234567892 45

9781234567892 15

S567G 5 ' code is in-house

9781234567892 25

ST3456 35 ' code is in-house

9781234567892 5

9781234567892 3

After importing the counts for the items with the 2 non-conforming codes, S567G and ST3456 will be left in the import queue to be linked manually to the corresponding stock record using the standard Stock Find and Select interface. Bookmine will only automatically link on valid ISBN/EAN/UPC codes as these are more likely to be correct and unique.

WARNING!!!

Before actually importing counts into a genuine stocktake it is advisable to do a small test stocktake of a few items and determine if the count records output by your data logger is compatible and correctly imports into Bookmine using the Import from CSV text file.

Once convinced it is working as expected you can start the stocktake using the datalogger.