Importing

Essential Point

• You should do a manual backup before performing any imports.
• You can import Products, Suppliers, Customers, or Customer/Supplier Contacts.
• You must rearrange your target fields to match your source data.
• Some field values, such as those for Supplier, Class, and Family, must exist in LightSpeed Pro before those values are imported.
• To import images, collect them as jpg files together in a folder and include their file name in the source data.
• Multiple Customer Contacts can be imported within a single Customer card.
• Existing Products and Customers can be updated by matching on a particular field and importing data into others.
• Import Logs are files saved to your desktop and which indicate which data was not imported.

Introduction

As you transition from your previous system to LightSpeed Pro, or if you simply want to add a supplier’s pricelist to your database, Import Tools (Tools > Import Tools) provides you a simple way to import or update data into LightSpeed Pro in a batch, whether it’s Products, Suppliers, Customers, or Customer Contacts.

With Import Tools, you match your target fields (UPC, Description, Telephone, etc) with your source data (the original file) by dragging and dropping them into the correct order (see image).

Presets

nce you have matched fields, and have checked off which fields to import/update, you can save the order as a preset for future imports. Click Presets, enter the name of your field arrangement, and click Save.  You may also export and import preset files to have your fields automatically arranged according to an imported Preset file. For example, you have an associate who has already matched fields for source data that you are also importing - you can swap preset files with them to save time. Click the Action menu in the pop-out Presets drawer, and select Import Preset to bring in a preset that had already been exported, or select a preset and choose Export Preset to export your preset.

To apply a preset, you must first open the source data file. Select the desired preset, and click Apply.

General Import Steps

1. In the main Import Tools window, select the button that corresponds with the data you wish to import: Products, Customers, Suppliers, or Contacts.
2. Then, in the window that appears, click the Open File button to locate the source file containing your original data. This file must be a tab-delimited text file or a comma-separated text file, and each line should represent a different record. It is recommended that you include the column headings in your file as they can be omitted when you do the import, but are useful for matching fields. To omit a record, click Omit This Record when it is displayed using the Browse slider.  (see Step 4)
3. Using the window’s two-column layout, match target fields (in the second column) with your source data (in the first) by dragging and dropping them into the proper order.  If you do not want to import data into a particular field, uncheck its checkbox.  Use the Action Menu (gear icon) at the bottom to check or uncheck all fields.

   If there is a down-pointing arrow in the first column (see Pre-Defined Values image), it is an indication that this field currently has a pre-defined set of values set up in LightSpeed Pro. Data being imported into these fields may be one of three types:

   Values must pre-exist in LightSpeed Pro for import to work:
   Class, Family, Tax Status, Supplier, Currency, Web Categories, POS Categories, User, Color, Size, GL Accounts...

   For example, if you have “speakers” in your source data and you want to import it into LightSpeed Pro’s “Class” target field, the word “speakers” must already be in LightSpeed Pro’s list of Classes.  (see Field Definition tables below for more info)
   
   Values can pre-exist in LightSpeed Pro, but do not need to:
   City, State/Province, Country

   For example, if you have “Tucson” in your original data, it will be added to your Customer/Supplier record, but will not modify your list of pre-definied values in LightSpeed Pro. 
   
   Values that exist in a pre-defined value list in LightSpeed Pro:
   Phone Types, Inventoried, Serialized, Editable Sell, etc.

   In some cases, where the target field is a checkbox attribute within LightSpeed Pro (eg. Serialized), the original data must say “Yes” or “No” (without quotations), or you click the detail arrow to select one value - yes or no - to be imported into each record.  Yes values will enable the attribute, No values will not.  Note: The original data may use “1” or “0” (without quotations) rather than “Yes” or “No”, respectively.

   Some fields use other pre-defined value lists that are already part of LightSpeed Pro, such as Phone Type, which has values such as Work or Fax.

   If you click the down-pointing arrow, you can choose one of the pre-defined values to have one value auto-added into all the records you import.  If you do not click the arrow, the various values from your source data will be imported into the target field of each imported record.

   For example, if you are importing Billing Address Cities, you can either bring in a number of various cities in one import, or you can click the down-pointing arrow, and choose ONE pre-defined city to be imported into ALL the records you’re importing.

4.  Using the Browse slider, skim through your original data to ensure it will be imported the way you expect.  If there are any records you wish to omit from the import, use the Omit This Record checkbox when you are browsing the record you want to omit.
5. Once you have finished arranging your data, but before you click Import, you can click Presets to save this configuration for a future, similar import, so you do not have to manually re-match the same field order. (see Presets section above for more info)
6. Click Import to  import your data. LightSpeed Pro will tell you how many records were imported, and how many were not. For a detailed list of which records were not imported and why, see the Import Log(s) saved to your desktop. (see Import Log below for more information)