Bulk Import from Vendor Catalogs

A user may wish to import a group of items from the vendor catalog into the EBMS product catalog. This is an alternative to adding products individually when an inventory item is added to a sales order or proposal.  

This utility should NOT be used unless the following criteria is TRUE:

1. The vendor catalog is a relatively small catalog with a few items. Note that a catalog with tens of thousands of records can dramatically increase the size of the product catalog and slow down all inventory searching and processing. 

2. The catalog contains the information to identify the target product category.  Review Vendor Catalog Folder Structure for configuration requirements for this utility.

If these conditions are met, complete the following steps to bulk import products from the vendor catalog:

1. Enter the Vendor Catalog Information including the Folder Structure settings. Review Create Relationship with EBMS Product Catalog for required setup instructions.

2. Back up EBMS data since this process cannot be reversed. (A data backup provides piece of mind during a utility that changes data in bulk. If something goes wrong with the process or the end result isn't what the user wants, the backup can be restored.)

3. Select Inventory > Utilities > Bulk Import from Vendor Catalogs from the main EBMS menu. This will open a window called Choose Catalogs To Bulk Import.

4. Put a checkmark in the Import column for each desired vendor Catalog as shown below:
   

5. Note that the Folder Structure automation is required to use the Bulk Import From Vendor Catalogs feature. Review Vendor Catalog Folder Structure for instructions to configure this option. Click Next to start the import process.

6. A dialog will appear with a summary of the import as shown below (how many inventory items were successfully imported from the vendor catalogs, how many failed to import, and how many were already present in the EBMS product catalog):
   

7. Click Finish to complete the import.