Importing a price list from CSV

Bringing in 100+ items from a spreadsheet or your old system? The import wizard matches your columns, builds your categories, checks every row before writing anything, and can undo the whole import. Here's the safe way to use it.

Updated 1 hour ago 109 views import migration csv pricelist bulk

Importing a price list from CSV

Hand-entering 800 items takes a week and produces inconsistencies. The import wizard takes a spreadsheet or your old system's export and turns it into a clean catalog, usually in under half an hour. This article covers the flow, what to put in the file, the choices you make along the way, and how to check the result.

For one-by-one item entry, see Adding items to the price list.

When you'd use this

  • Migrating from a previous system. You exported your old catalog and need to bring it in. Exports from Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan and QuickBooks Online are recognised, so their columns mostly match on their own.
  • Initial setup for a service business with hundreds of SKUs. Plumbing, HVAC, electrical: any trade with a sizable parts catalog.
  • Bulk price changes. Re-importing with Update the price chosen for items you already have.

When NOT to import

  • You only have 20 items. Typing them in is faster.
  • Your current catalog is messy. Importing on top of a messy catalog multiplies the mess. Clean it (or inactivate the junk) first.
  • You haven't set up tax yet. Set up your tax categories first, so taxable items land in the right one.
  • Stock quantities and vendor price books. Those still use the older import screens next to inventory and vendors.

Getting there

Open Import Your Data (Administration → Company) and pick Price list. Choose where the file came from, then upload it: CSV, TSV or Excel (.xlsx). An old .xls file needs saving as .xlsx or CSV first. There's no template to download, because the wizard reads your file's own headings.

What to put in the file

One heading row, then one row per item. Only the name is required. Everything else is optional, and the wizard recognises the common names for each column:

  • Name: what shows on invoices.
  • SKU or item code: your part number. Items without one get a generated SKU.
  • Price: 125, 125.00 and $1,250.00 all work.
  • Cost: your cost, if you track margins.
  • Description: the longer text under the name.
  • Category: either one column written as a path ("Engines > Outboard"), or a Category column plus a Subcategory column. Categories that don't exist yet are created, so your category tree is built as the import runs.
  • Type: product, service or discount. "Labor", "parts", "inventory" and similar words are understood. Blank or unrecognised uses the default type you pick.
  • Taxable: yes or no. Taxable items go into the tax category you choose on the check screen; blank uses your usual tax category (the one most of your price list already uses).
  • Active: rows marked inactive, archived or discontinued are left out.

Excel and other encodings are handled. Files saved as Windows-1252 are converted, so "Café" stays "Café".

The check screen: nothing is written yet

After you confirm the column matches, the wizard checks every row and shows:

  • How many items are new.
  • How many look like items you already have. An item matches on SKU when the row has one, otherwise on its exact name. Repeats inside the file are caught too.
  • Every problem, row by row, in plain language: "Price "abc" isn't a number", "No item name", "Marked taxable, but there is no tax category set up yet".

For items you already have, choose Skip them (the default, and right for a first import) or Update the price (right when the file is a price change).

Import, then check it

Press import and watch the progress bar. If you close the tab, open the wizard again and press Resume. At the end you get a summary, a download of any rows that were skipped and why, and an Undo button.

Don't trust "done" without spot-checking:

  1. Open the price list and look at a dozen of the new items. Are the names, prices and categories right?
  2. Make a test estimate and add five or ten of them. Do they price and tax correctly?
  3. If you use the visual estimate builder, check the new categories appear as tiles. Add pictures to the ones you'll use most.

If it's wrong, press Undo, fix the file, and import again. Undo removes the items the import created, but keeps any that are already on an estimate, invoice or agreement, have stock, or were edited since, and tells you which.

Common mistakes

  • Choosing "Update the price" on a first import. If your file has two items with the same name and no SKU, the second one overwrites the first one's price. Use Skip until the catalog is clean.
  • Importing before tax categories exist. Taxable items then come in untaxed. The check screen warns you; set up tax first and re-run the check.
  • Leaving inactive items in the file on purpose. They're skipped. If you really want them, change the Active column before uploading.
  • Letting Excel reformat SKUs. "0001234" becomes "1234" when Excel treats it as a number. Format the SKU column as Text before saving.
  • A typo in a name with no SKU. Without a SKU, a re-import matches on the exact name, so "Fuel Pump" and "Fuel pump " are different items. Give items SKUs if you'll re-import prices.
  • Expecting deletions. The import adds and updates. It never removes items that aren't in the file; inactivate old ones yourself.

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