Importing items into ShopKeep.com can be done using a .csv file.  The below Google Doc Template will help you create the .csv file so that it will import correctly.  More information on each field is found below. You must let us know you want imports turned on for you by emailing support@shopkeep.com.

Each field is described below.  

1. Old Item ID: This is the id of the item in your old system.  If you don't have one just start with 1001 and have the following numbers be consecutive (1003, 1003, 1004, and so on)  and unique. DON'T LEAVE BLANK

2. Description: The description of the Item.  Should be short since this is what prints on the receipts. DON'T LEAVE BLANK.   (Description may not contain ampersand (&) or equal (=) characters)

3. Discountable: 1 if yes, 0 if no.  DON'T LEAVE BLANK

4. UPC Code: This is the UPC code of the item and not a made up number.  There are lots of restrictions here like it can only be 8,12 or 13 digits  in length so make sure it is a valid UPC or EAN. If you don't know leave it blank and you can add it later. 

5. Item Price: if you don't have one then 0 DON'T LEAVE BLANK (Price cannot be negative)

6. Item Cost: if you don't have one then 0 DON'T LEAVE BLANK (Cost cannot be negative)

7. Department: You can create your departments here and the import will create them in ShopKeep.  If you don't want to do that you can leave it blank.

8. Category: Same as department if you don't want to leave this blank.

9. Taxable: If the item is taxable then 1 otherwise 0 DON'T LEAVE BLANK

10. Price Type: "open" or "system" - "open" means you set the price at the register,  "system" means you set the price in the BackOffice.  Most likely your items should be set to 'system'.  DON'T LEAVE BLANK

11. quantity_on_hand: Best to set this to 0 for all items unless you have counted your exact quantity. DON'T LEAVE BLANK

12. inventory_method: 'periodic or 'perpetual' - periodic is for items you Don't track inventory on.  perpetual is for items you DO track inventory. DON'T LEAVE BLANK

13. register_status: 'inactive' or 'active' - Register status is a setting to tell ShopKeep if it needs to download the item to the register.  If you don't know set it to 'active' DON'T LEAVE BLANK

14. Last Sold: Date of last sale if you know it otherwise leave blank.  Needs to be in specific format:  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS-Z:ZZ so for example if you are on the east coast of the USA and your last sale was on 12-31-2009 at 9PM your format would look like this '2009-12-31T21:00:00-5:00'.  The -5:00 means  you are GMT -5 Hours which is what the east coast is on.

15. Kwik_Code: Is normally a short sequence of digits that will be entered on the register keypad to quickly pull up a stock_item on the register transaction screen.  EX. 101, 1014, 2345.   The Kwik_Code can be digits and letters but Kwik Code cannot be 8, 12, or 13 characters in length.  Kwik Code also cannot contain any special characters, like # % & , . !.  (Normally this field should just contain a few digits or just leave blank if you like)

16. Order_Trigger: should be an integer, must be 0 or greater; EX: 0, 5, 100, 1000 (Order Trigger cannot be negative) DON'T LEAVE BLANK

17. Recommended_Order: should be an integer, must be 0 or greater; EX: 0, 5, 100, 1000 (Recommended Order cannot be negative) DON'T LEAVE BLANK

18. Item_Supplier: Is the text name of the Stock_Item supplier.   EX: ABC-Supply  You can just leave this blank if you like.

Note: There is a limit of 1000 stock_items that can be imported in a single file.  If you have more than 1000 stock items to import you will need to import those in a second file.  

Below is a "Stock Item Import Tool" excel file and also a sample stock item excel file.  

To use the "Stock Item Import Tool" excel file, open the file as you would any excel file.  There are 3 worksheet tabs, (1) a READ_ME tab (2) a SET_UP data entry tab and (3) an EXPORT to CSV tab.   Before you export to CSV on tab three, please be sure to delete the unused rows.   The tool is set-up to format 1000 records for an import but you will need to delete the rows that you did not use before importing.

The sample excel file is simpler to use but will require you to be careful not to change the format of the file.  To use the sample excel file (stock_items_example_2011FEB28.xls) open the file as you would any excel file, enter your data in place of the sample data, delete any unused sample data, then save the excel file as a .csv file and submit the file with your browser on the BackOffice imports tab with the Stock Items Import link.