Populating your Inventory List

• About Populating your Inventory List
• Importing Excel File to Populate the Inventory List
  • Download the Approved Excel® Template File
  • Populate the Excel File Template
  • Import the Populated Excel File Template
• Adding an Item to Inventory List via the Inventory On Hand Screen
• FAQs
  • Can I add a product that is not linked to a food item in the system?
  • I’m trying to import my products into the Inventory On Hand, but it’s not working/I’m getting errors.

About Populating your Inventory List

Inventory functionality in the system relies on the vendor product list in your account to pull in products to your inventory list. A product is linked with a generic food item/non-food item in the system (click here for more information), and as such when you pull in products to your inventory list, you are also pulling in the items that the products are linked to. 

Importing Excel® File to Populate the Inventory List

You can populate your inventory list by importing an Excel® file of products that currently exist as vendor products in your account. The Excel file that can be accepted for import must be the MealSuite-approved template file, which is pre-formatted for the import process. In this file you can paste in a list of product IDs and enter some other info to prepare the file for import. 

• Download the Approved Excel Template File
• Populate the Excel File Template
• Importing the Populated Excel File Template

Download the Approved Excel Template File

1. From the left navigation pane, select Inventory > Inventory On Hand. The Inventory On Hand screen appears. 
   
   
    
2. Click the Import button. The Import Invoice Or Products slide-out panel appears. 
   
   
    
3. Past most of the onscreen instructions, click the Download Sample File link to download the Excel template file. 
    
4. Open the file. Do not change or delete the Invoice Number and its dummy value below it. Do not change or delete the Invoice Date and its dummy value below it. This Excel template has been pre-formatted to be recognized by the import process and therefore expects those fields. Proceed to Populate the Excel File Template below. 
   
   

Populate the Excel File Template

Enter the following (see screenshot below of populated file):

• Vendor - enter the vendor name.
• Product ID - paste in your list of product IDs. The product IDs must be based off the vendor product list in your account. In other words, for each product in the file, its corresponding vendor product must exist in your account.
• Qty - enter 0 for each field.
• Price - enter 0 for each field.
• Breakable Product - enter Y or leave blank
• Weight - only include if the product is a catch weight.
• Weight Measure - only include if the product is a catch weight.
• Storage Area - enter the storage area that the product is to be assigned to (use exact spelling of storage area to what is in your account). If left blank, then the import process will assign the product to the "Unassigned" storage area, and you will be subsequently required to manually move unassigned products to the desired storage areas. 
• Storage Location - enter the storage location that the product is to be assigned to (use exact of storage location as to what is in your account). If left blank, then the import process will assign the product to the general (i.e., default) storage location in the storage area, and you will be subsequently required to manually move the product to its internal storage location of a storage area. 

Import the Populated Excel File Template

1. From the left navigation pane, select Inventory > Inventory On Hand. The Inventory On Hand screen appears. 
    
2. Click the Import button. The Import Invoice Or Products slide-out panel appears. 
   
   
    
3. At the bottom of the panel, click the Browse button to retrieve the file.
    
4. Click the Confirm My Data button to begin the import process. If there are any errors with the file, a message appears to indicate such for you to take action on the file and then re-do the import process. 
    
5. If there are no errors, the panel refreshes with the column mapping fields.
   
   
    
6. Because you used the Excel template file, the system will automatically align the columns from the file against the appropriate product field. 
    
7. Click the Verify My Data button to begin the import process. 
    
8. If no errors are detected due to invalid data, then click the Import Without Invalid Data button to proceed with the import process. 
   
   
    
9. Any invalid data that is detected will result in an error, meaning the affected product rows from the file will not be imported (first screenshot below). For an error, you can hover over the red I icon to see details (second screenshot below). 
   
   
   
   
    
10. For invalid data, you have the following options:
    • Adjust the file, and re-import it by clicking the Upload New File button.
    • Import the file with the invalid data by clicking the Import Without Invalid Data button. 
    • Return to the mapping process by clicking the Back button.
       
11. When the import process is successful, a success message appears.
    
    

Adding an Item to Inventory via the Inventory On Hand Screen

When you add an item to your inventory via the Inventory On Hand screen, you will add it to a specific storage location in a storage area. To manually add an item to your inventory via the Inventory On Hand Screen, complete the following steps: 

1. From the left navigation pane, select Inventory > Inventory On Hand. The Inventory On Hand screen appears. 
   
   
    
2. For the storage area you want to add a product to, click the settings icon () on its tab. The storage area screen appears with the storage locations, each listing their existing inventory of items (second screenshot below). 
   
   
   
   
    
3. For the storage location you want to add an item to, click its + icon (first screenshot below). The Product Search screen appears for the storage area/location (second screenshot below). 
   
   
   
   
    
4. In the Search field, either enter the item you are searching for or the specific product (either by description, product ID, or brand), and click Go. The screen returns the items that match your search input. The Item column lists the item and the Product column lists the specific vendor products that are linked to the item. 
   
   
    
5. If searching for a specific vendor product, you can further refine your search by using the Filters tools from the top of the screen. The following filters are available:
   • Brand - filter by product brand.
   • Vendor - filter by the vendor. 
   • Status - availability status of the vendor product. 
     
     
      
6. To add the item to the storage area location, click its Add button. The screen refreshes to state the item has been added to your inventory. 
   
    
   
   
    
7. If the item could be in more than storage location, click the down arrow adjacent to the Add button and select Add to more locations (first screenshot below). The Add to Storage Location window appears (second screenshot below).  
   
   
   
   
    
8. From the Storage Locations drop-down, select the other storage location. 
    
9. Click Add to apply your changes and close the window. 

Note: If it is necessary to change the storage location of an item after it has been added to the inventory list, see Moving Items to a Different Storage Location within the Same Storage Area.

FAQs

Can I add a product that is not linked to a food item in the system?

Yes. A product that is not linked to a food item (or non-food item) in the system can be added to your inventory list. Regarding products not linked to an item, note the following: 

• When adding a product to your inventory list (as per above steps), and when on the Product Search screen, a product that is not linked to an item states Other Product in the Item column. 
  
  
   
• When in the storage area settings from the Inventory On Hand screen. a product that is not linked to an item states No Parent below the item. 
  
  

I’m trying to import my products into the Inventory On Hand, but it’s not working/I’m getting errors.

• Best practice is to use the template file provided.
• Verify that the Invoice Number exists (can be a dummy number)
• Verify that the date is filled in the format provided.
• Verify that the vendor name is filled, and represents the vendor for all the products you are importing within that file.
• Verify that the Product ID is present for the products you want to import.
• Verify that Quantity and Price are both ‘0’ for every product. 
• Storage areas and storage locations are optional but highly recommended. This helps automatically place your items into those respective areas, provided they are already created. The names also need to be an exact match.