Documentation/ Master records and catalogues/ Exporting products to Excel
Exporting products to Excel
The product master downloads to Excel with every field, not just the columns showing on screen. What changes between one download and the next is which rows go in, and that is decided by the selection and the search box.
Database › Product master › Export to Excel
On this page
Which rows are exported
The screen states the rule: download the list with every field, and if any products are ticked, export only those. In detail, three cases:
| Situation | What you get |
|---|---|
| Products are ticked | Only those products, whether or not they are on the page you can see. |
| None ticked, but there is text in the search box | Everything matching that search. |
| Neither ticked nor searched | The whole master. |
The selection beats the search. If any rows are ticked, what is in the search box is ignored.
Worth knowing that the export is not limited to the page you can see: a search returning eight hundred products downloads all eight hundred, even if twenty are on screen.
Which fields are included
The file is built by the server from each product's full record, not from what you happen to be looking at. That includes fields the list may have hidden, or that have no column of their own.
The difference matters: an export done in the browser would reproduce the table on screen, with its column filters and its hidden columns. This one does not: you get the record.
The file you get
The name carries the date and time of the download. Two exports on the same day never collide, and the files' alphabetical order matches their chronological one.
When it finishes, the application confirms the list was exported. If the download never gets built, the message says so and nothing half-made is downloaded.
What the export is for
- Auditing the master. Spotting products with no category, no VAT rate or no reference code is instant in a spreadsheet and laborious on screen.
- Finding duplicates. Sort by description and the similar names sit next to each other, which is what wants merging.
- Planning bulk work. Filter in Excel to decide which products go into a category assignment, then find them on screen.
- Cross-checking the ERP. Comparing the reference codes with your management system's shows you which items are never going to send.
What can be imported and what cannot
The product master does not take an Excel import. The download is one way: it is for analysing and for planning work, not for handing back changed.
Three other lists do take an import:
| List | Import | Export |
|---|---|---|
| Product master | No | Yes |
| Supplier master | Yes | Yes |
| Client master | Yes | Yes |
| Product categories | Yes, with a template to download | Yes |
| External product catalogue | No | Yes |
To change a lot of products at once, the way is the bulk category assignment on the screen itself, which changes one field on everything you tick and leaves the rest alone.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The file has fewer products than you expected | Rows were still ticked from an earlier search. | Untick everything and export again. |
| The file has the whole master in it | There was neither a selection nor a search. | Type your search term or tick the rows before exporting. |
| The changed Excel will not upload | Products do not take an import. | Use the bulk assignment, or edit the records one by one. |
| The download does not start | The browser is blocking the automatic download. | Allow downloads from this site and try again. |