Importing receipt item data
Uploading your receipt item data to a blind receipt provides flexibility and saves time because you can complete the receipt items spreadsheet outside of SmartTurn, and then enter up to 500 items at once, where they are incorporated into the receipt. For instance, after you make a successful receipt item upload, you can make one click to receive all of the items into inventory. With one upload, you are communicating data across various modules within SmartTurn.
Download the receipt item import template from Online Help at Resources and tips>Downloadable import templates.
What to expect:
Depending on the number of receipt items, detail needed, and condition of your existing receipt item data, SmartTurn expects this process to take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours. The process involves extracting data from the system you are currently using to track receipt items, re-arranging a copy of this data to conform to the SmartTurn import system, and importing.
Before you start, there are a few important things to know:
- Warehouses, locations, and item masters must be set up in SmartTurn before you can import receipt items. Since you must associate receipt items with item masters, and also must specify a putaway location, you won't be able to import receipt items unless your company has set these items up. See Adding a warehouse, Creating locations, or Creating item masters.
- Spreadsheet reference data must exactly match data in SmartTurn. When you're importing data to SmartTurn, you'll need to type data to match exactly the Item #'s and Location names that already exist in SmartTurn. Additionally, the column labels in the spreadsheet are protected to prevent accidental renaming, because if you alter the column labels, add columns, or delete columns, the import will fail. Similarly, if you remove the three example rows at the top of the spreadsheet, the import will fail.
- Upload from a single-warehouse view. If your company has a multi-warehouse operation, you must be in a single-warehouse view to import receipt items. The warehouse view you select must contain the putaway locations specified for the receipt items in your template. See Viewing the correct warehouse data.
- One upload per (blind) receipt. You can import receipt items only to blind receipts in the SmartTurn application, and only to one blind receipt at a time. (The imports button does not appear as an option when you are receiving from a PO.) Then those receipt items are specific to a certain receipt in SmartTurn. If you have multiple receipts to receive, you can upload them one receipt at a time. In other words, you can put all receipt items for one (blind) receipt on one Receipt Items import template. However, you can not combine receipt items from two or more (blind) receipts on one Receipt Items import template.
- Import only on new blind receipts. You can import receipt items to only to receipts that don't already contain other items. You must create a new blind receipt for every receipt item import.
- Customize the file name, not the worksheet name. SmartTurn looks for a specific worksheet name during import. In other words, the name of the worksheet within the file you import is important; it must match the name of the file SmartTurn is expecting to import. Note that while you shouldn't change the worksheet name within the SmartTurn upload template, you can name the .xls file whatever you want.
- Turn off .xls filters. Spreadsheet filtering interferes with the SmartTurn import process. Filtering may cause errors in the upload process, so you should turn it off prior to upload. SmartTurn can import only unfiltered worksheets.
- Unprotect the worksheet to add custom fields. If you are importing custom field information, you may need to "unprotect" the Item Master Data tab in order to add the custom field columns (see detailed instructions in the import template, SmartTurn_Receipt_Items_Template.xls). To "unprotect" the worksheet, select Tools>Protection>Unprotect Sheet (Excel 2003) or Review>Changes>Unprotect Sheet (Excel 2007).
- Limit each import to 500 records. SmartTurn can import up to 500 receipt items at a time with this template.
To import your receipt item data:
- To get a copy of the blank license number import template, download it from online Help at Resources and tips>Downloadable import templates.
The import template (SmartTurn_Receipt_Items_Template.xls) contains detailed instructions on the Instructions tab.
- Open the import template. Look at the Receipt Item Data worksheet tab. (It might also be helpful for you to print this out so you can clearly see the names of the columns SmartTurn uses.)
Tip: The column headers contain information. Click column header cells in the Receipt Item Data worksheet tab to see important information about values for the field, whether the field is required or optional, etc.
- Complete the Receipt Item Data tab in the SmartTurn_Receipt_Items_Template.xls spreadsheet. Notice that the column headers are different colors. The fields that correspond to the column headers are either optional or required. Click into the cell to see more information in a pop-up:
- Required fields are denoted by Red column headers. These fields must be completed for a successful import.
- Optional fields are denoted by Black column headers. You can still have a successful import with these fields left blank.
- If you have questions about what data you can put into a field, there are detailed field descriptions in the Instructions tab of the template.
- Save the .xls. file to your computer. Then close it, and open up SmartTurn.
Tip: You can rename the entire .xls file as you like. For instance, you can add a date, and the name of the warehouse this file has receipt items for: E.g. your file name could be "Receipt items for Field Street Warehouse 2007-12-10.xls".
- Log in to SmartTurn.
- Go to
My Account up above. In the Warehouse field at the top, select the warehouse for which you are importing receipt items. (You can change this as needed for each import.) Make sure you are not in the All warehouse context. If the Warehouse drop-down in the grey area at the top of the screen says, "All warehouses," select a single warehouse from the drop-down.- If it is not a complete list, add any warehouses that you need to add. See
Adding a warehouse.To add a warehouse:
- Select Administration>Warehouses. A list of existing warehouses appears.
- Select
Add up above. The Add Warehouse form appears. - Enter the warehouse Name.
- Select the Time zone the warehouse is in.
- Under the Contact tab, enter the information for the main contact at that warehouse.
- Under the Address tab, enter the full address for the warehouse.
- When finished, select OK.
Once you have set up a warehouse, you will need to:
- Set up locations for that warehouse. See
Creating locations. A location is a site where you store goods. How a location is configured determines how it is used and what restrictions there are on its use.
You can create locations by adding them manually or by importing them from a spreadsheet.
To create a location:
- Select Administration>Locations. A list of locations appears.
- Click
Add in the header above the list. A new location record opens. - Enter the Location name and select the Location Type.
- Storage: A storage location is a location used for storage.
- WIP: A WIP (Work in Progress) location is used for assembly or manufacturing. (Each kit document must specify a WIP location. When you start building the kit, the component items are transferred to the WIP location.)
- Forward: A forward location is a location you pick from.
- Door: A door location is a location positioned near a door.
- Staging: A staging location is a location where you organize goods/boxes for putaway or shipment.
- For each location, under the General tab, you can specify whether the location is:
- Adjustable: The quantities in this location can be adjusted.
- Putaway: When checked, goods can be putaway in this location.
- Pickable: When a location is pickable, goods can be picked for shipment from this location.
- Owned: When checked, the contents in this location are owned by a third party.
- Bonded: When checked, the contents in this location have been set aside for some type of inspection or payment requirement. Both owned and non-owned locations can be bonded.
- For each location, under the Capacity tab, you can specify how capacity should be handled:
- When finished editing the location, click OK.
- Set up item master instructions for that warehouse. See
Item master settings by warehouse.Item masters have specific relationships to warehouses.
For instance, the reorder point for an item master at one warehouse may be different from the reorder point for another warehouse. This goes for the reorder quantity, pick and putaway locations, locks, discontinued status, and holds. So regardless whether your operation consists of one or many warehouses, you set the following item master settings under Operations>Item Masters>Warehouses tab.
Note: Check the Warehouse drop-down at the top of the page. If you are in All Warehouses view, then the Warehouse tab on the item master page shows all the following fields for each warehouse. If you are in a specifc warehouse view, then the Warehouse tab on the item master page only shows the following fields for that warehouse.
- Reorder Point - This quantity determines the stockout status.
- Reorder Quantity Standard Unit - This amount appears by default on Purchase Orders.
- Default Pick Loc - This location appears by default on Shipments.
- Default Putaway - This location appears by default on Receipts.
- Admin Lock - This lock prevents the item from being processed in all transactions.
- Discontinued - This status prevents the item from being ordered.
- Hold - This hold prevents the item from being shipped or added to sales orders.
For the Warehouse tab field descriptions, see Warehouses tab.
Setting the reorder point and reorder quantity is necessary to view a low-stock item in the Inventory Stockout report under Reports>Inventory Stockout. See Stockout report for more details.
- Go to Receiving>Receive Purchase Orders. A list of your purchase orders appears. But you will importing these items on a blind receipt, so do not select a purchase order from the list.
- In the toolbar for the PO list, select
Add Blind Receipt. The Add Blind Receipt screen appears. - Complete the general information in the receipt header.
- The Date Received defaults to today's date. You can change this as needed.
- Check the Use as Item Receipt Date box if you want each item on the receipt to have the same Item Receipt Date as the date appearing in the Date Received field.
- Notice that the receipt inherits the values in the Vendor, Owner, Broker, and Carrier fields from the Purchase Order, but that you can change these here, if necessary. (For instance, if one of the business affiliates has become inactive between the time it was added to the PO and the time of the receipt, you will need to change it to an active business affiliate, re-activate the inactive business affiliate, or remove it before you can save the receipt.) See more information about how Business affiliate data follows inventory through transactions...
- In the Receipt Details tab, enter the vendor's Shipment Reference code or number, Container #, Dock #, Bill of Lading, as applicable for your operation. Switch to the Comments tab to enter up to 200 characters of comments.
- At the bottom of the screen is a blank Receipt items list. In the toolbar for the Receipt items list (in the lower part of the page), select
Import. A pop-up window appears, prompting you to locate the file on your computer. - Follow the prompts, and identify the template you are importing.
- Click Upload in the pop-up. A message appears in red at the top of the import pop-up. The message indicates whether the file data is formatted correctly, or whether SmartTurn has detected errors in the data.
- If SmartTurn determines that the data in the file is formatted correctly, the pop-up will display a message in red: "The upload file contains all valid rows."
If this is the case, continue with the import by clicking Import. When your import is complete, the pop-up closes and the receipt items list refreshes. Continue to step 12.
- If SmartTurn detects errors, the pop-up will display a warning in red: "The uploaded file contains some invalid rows. Click Import to import valid rows. Invalid rows will NOT be imported."
If this is the case, look below the buttons in the import pop-up. SmartTurn lists the specific errors by the spreadsheet row number.
To correct errors:
- Leave the import pop-up open for reference, or copy the error statements and paste them into a text document for reference.
- Locate your import file on your computer. Open it up, correct the errors, save, and repeat steps 6-11.
- Once you've imported the receipt items, they appear in the Receipt Items table on the Add Blind Receipt screen. From here you can modify the imported receipt items as you would with any other receipt items.
|