Upon joining the Shopmonkey family, you will likely have saved data or lists that you want to bring into your Shopmonkey shop instead of manually creating it from scratch. If this describes you, then good news! There are import templates available to you to help you achieve this.
What kind of data can I import?
The following types of import templates are available for you to download and fill out:
Customers, Vehicles, Fleets, Parts, Labor, Tires, Fees, and Vendors.
Where do I find the import templates?
Let's walk through how to start this process with one particular import template type. For this example, let's go over the Customer import template. The process should be almost identical for the other import templates, with the difference being where they are located in the app.
Go to Lists > Customers to access your Customer List, then click the three dot (ellipsis) button, and click Import:
From the Import Customers menu that appears, click on the Download Template button:
A blank spreadsheet (XLS) file will be downloaded. Open this file, and fill out the applicable fields:
If your existing data that you are bringing into Shopmonkey is already in a spreadsheet format, you can simply copy+paste the information into the import template. Any column title that doesn't contain "(optional)" is required to be filled out.
Important Fields
Customer ID - You can link customers to vehicles by using Customer IDs. Enter a unique ID of your choosing ("JohnsonRBob", for example) into the Customer ID (optional) column of the Customer import template, and then enter the same exact ID into the Customer ID (optional) column of the Vehicle import template. Upon importing both templates, customers and vehicles with matching Customer IDs will be associated with one another in Shopmonkey! Note that this only applies to the Customer and Vehicle import templates.
My import file is ready. How do I import it?
To import your completed template, drag and drop your file into the Import menu, or click inside the menu and select your file to upload from your computer. Once your file is added, click Import:
A prompt will then appear confirming a successful import:
When importing Vehicles, Vendors and Fleets, you can follow the steps listed above starting from their respective pages in Shopmonkey (Lists > Vehicles, Lists > Vendors, and Lists > Fleets). Note that each import template will be different from one another and will require different information.
For Parts, Labor, Fees, and Tires imports, you can access the import templates from the Inventory page. Simply click on the tab of the desired inventory type:
Then click the ellipsis button at the top-right of the page, and then click Import.
Note: the Inventory feature is not available at the Basic Monkey tier.
Why am I having trouble uploading my template?
When your upload doesn’t go as you expected or you get an error message, there are some things you can check to make sure your import can go as planned. A common error when importing is All data is incorrect. If you get this error or your upload didn’t seem to work, review the steps below.
Check that all required fields are filled out. If any of the required fields are left blank, that record will be ignored and the part won't be imported.
Make sure there are no formulas in the template. Formulas are a great way to make calculations easy but are not supported for upload templates. Try copying any cells with formulas and pasting Values only.
Check that columns have not been rearranged or deleted. The upload template needs to be exact for it to work. If you have any concerns about your template try downloading a new template with the steps mentioned earlier in the article.
Make sure the Quantity on Hand has a value. When using a template that has Quantity on Hand, this field is key to the upload. This field cannot be left blank when uploading the template.
Importing and Updating Parts
Importing parts follows the same steps mentioned above. Also, if you have your QuickBooks account connected, you will be able to import your QuickBooks inventory from the Parts Inventory page, and even set up your inventories to automatically sync between Shopmonkey and QuickBooks. For more information, click here.
When you need to make updates to inventory items at once, an import template can help make that process quicker. Just use the following steps to make the updates:
Download your current inventory
Add it to an import template
Make the desired changes
Upload the template to push the changes to Shopmonkey
Shopmonkey ID
These IDs are used to identify existing parts already saved in your shop. If an inventory item in an import file has the same Shopmonkey ID value as an existing inventory item in Shopmonkey, then the parts modified won't be added as new parts but will instead be updated and reflect the changes you made.
Part Number
If an inventory item in an import file does not have the same Shopmonkey ID value as an existing inventory item in Shopmonkey but does have an exact matching part number (upper/lower case do matter here), then the parts modified won't be added as new parts but will instead be updated and reflect the changes you made.
Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to us through the Chat Icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. Thanks for reading!