• Goal
• Prerequisites
• Workflow
• Common issues and questions

Goal 

This guide shows you how to import your existing products to Xentral via CSV. This import enables you to upload and update large datasets in Xentral.

Prerequisites

Before you start importing products to Xentral please ensure that you:

• Know how to create and edit a new product manually in Xentral.
• Are familiar with the CSV upload. You can refer to this guide.
• Have a matching CSV file and a template for the import. Xentral offers a standard template, so you don’t want to create a new one.
• Imported contacts. If you have a customer or supplier-specific prices, you have to import your contacts first to link those prices to your products.
• Connected your shop. If you want to connect to Shopify, you should use the direct product import from Shopify to Xentral. Follow the steps in our Shopify guideline.

Workflow

The following workflows describe best practices for importing products.

1. Importing products

2. Importing your basic structure

3. Importing bundles and bills of material

Importing products

Depending on the complexity of your product structure, you might have to do several imports. Consider the following steps:

1. Import your basic product structure (for example, product numbers, names, and categories)
2. Import prices: optional - If you have a complex price structure, you should consider doing a separate import for those. If not, you can do the price import in the first step.
3. Import bundles and bills of materials: optional - if you sell bundle products or in case you use the production module in Xentral.
4. Import variations of products: optional - If you sell the same product in different sizes or colors.

Note: Xentral offers standard import templates for each step, which you can adjust to your needs. Every template has a number in its name, indicating the usage order, starting with “01 A - Initialer Artikelimport”.

Importing your basic structure

1. Go to Master data > Import/Export center > Master Data Import.
2. Search for the “01 A - Initialer Artikelimport” template and click the pencil icon to open it. This is the recommended import template for the initial product import.
3. In the CSV fields field, you can find which information is expected in which column of your CSV file.
4. You can delete every entry in these CSV fields you don’t want to import. The corresponding column in your CSV file may remain empty if you don’t want to change the template. 
5. When using this template, be aware of the following:
   • The template already contains the import variables for your net sales prices. Leave the corresponding columns in your CSV empty if you don’t want to import prices at this moment.
   • Warehouse locations and stock numbers are another part of this template that you can’t import until you create the warehouse structure in Xentral. Leave the CSV columns empty and postpone the import until you set up your warehouse.
   • The template contains the variable “lagerartikel” which represents the Stock item check box of each product. Expected values are either 1 (true) or 0 (false). Set this entry to 1 in your CSV for each product which is not a service.
6. Adapt your CSV file to match the column order of the template.
7. Upload your CSV file in the Start import tab of the import template.
8. Use the preview of the imported data for a final check.
9. Click Import to start the process. The import will likely take a few minutes. You can find the data in Master Data > Products.

Note: To import a more complex price structure, you can use the import templates “01 B - Artikel mit Staffelpreisen” (for graduated prices) and “01 C - Artikel mit Gruppenpreisen” (for group prices). Refer to this article for more information.

Importing bundles and bills of material

Bundles (Just-in-time - JIT) and bills of material (BOM) represent lists of products. Each list is represented by one product, which contains other products. To import such lists, Xentral needs the information on what product represents a list and which products in which quantity are part of it. The import process is the same for both lists besides one checkmark. 

The following variables are mandatory for the import:

• “nummer” - Product number of the item which is a component of the list
• “stuecklistevonartikel” -> Product number of the product representing the list
• “stuecklistemenge”-> Quantity of the component within the list
• “juststueckliste” -> Only for bundle (JIT) - not for bill of material (see note below)

A possible CSV file would look like this:

The matching import template is called “01 D - Stücklistenartikel” in Xentral.

Importing product variations

Similar products that are different in color or size are called Matrix products in Xentral. You must properly create a structure of those products to display them in your online shop. Different online shops have different variations models, but Xentral structures all variations in a particular pattern. Your online shop's product sync might fail if the pattern is incorrect. Xentral uses the following structure:

• Parent product - A placeholder product that contains the property information of your products. You must select the Matrix product check box in Detail settings and clear the parent product's Stock item check box. You can connect the parent product to multiple child products.
• Child product - This is the actual product that you sell. It is connected to the parent and has its own stock number. You need to select the Variation from check box in the Detail settings for this product.

You can create matrix products in different ways. You can create all children from a parent using the Matrix Product module, which is accessible after activating the corresponding check box in the parent product (it will appear as a new tab after saving the parent). Refer to this manual for the details.

This chapter is about the CSV import of such products. Before creating the actual matrix, you should import all children products and parents as regular products (as shown in chapter “Importing products”). You can import the structure afterward.

Hint: Importing the single products without matrix structure is sufficient if you don’t want Xentral to export any product data to your shop. Xentral will still identify single products with matching numbers on the order level.

You need the following CSV file structure:

• nummer - Product number of the variation (child)
• matrixprodukt - Set this variable to “1”, it indicates the existence of a matrix
• matrixproduktvon - Product number of the parent
• matrixproduktgruppe1 - Name of the first variation property (e. g. Color)
• matrixproduktwert1 - Content of the first property (e. g. red, blue, green)
• matrixproduktgruppe2 - Name of the second variation property (e. g. Size)
• matrixproduktwert2 - Content of the second property (e. g. S, M, L, XL)

The CSV should look like this:

“01 F - Matrix-Artikel ” is the matching import template in Xentral.

Common issues and questions

Something went wrong with the import. How can I delete the imported products?

• As long as you didn’t link your products to any document (order, invoice, …), you can delete them. There is a batch process in Master data > Products beneath the products table. Select all products you want to delete, select Delete products in the dropdown and click Execute.