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Uploading/Importing Items to Your Venue
Uploading/Importing Items to Your Venue

How to bulk upload your list of items to add or update them using our template

Nick Neale avatar
Written by Nick Neale
Updated over a week ago

Article Contents

Introduction

If you have a list of your venue’s items in a spreadsheet, you can upload them to your WISK account using our template.

With the template, you can create new items and bulk update the information of existing items.

Note: You must use the provided template. If you attempt to upload any other file, it will display the following error message, and no items will be created or updated.

Depending on whether you’re using WISK Restaurant or Bar, there are different circumstances where we recommend using the item upload feature.

WISK Bar

In most cases, the majority of beverage items have barcodes on them. The best way to add items to your venue is by scanning the barcodes of items while taking your first inventory.

When the barcode is scanned, it finds the match in the WISK database and adds it to your venue. Whenever an item is pulled, it includes all the data WISK has on file, including images and weights (if applicable).

If the majority of your items have barcodes on them, it’s best to add them via scanning during the first inventory.

However, if you have a large number of items that don’t have barcodes on them (for example, a collection of rare wines), using our item upload feature can save you a lot of time instead of adding them manually.

Furthermore, using the template after adding your items is an easy way to add your costs, distributors, and par levels.

WISK Restaurant

Food items, on the other hand, are less likely to have barcodes. For the smoothest experience, we recommend adding your items via scanning / uploading invoices prior to your first inventory.

You can then use the template to bulk update item information if needed.

Downloading the Template

1. On the WISK Web Portal, click “Items” then “Items”.

An animated gif clicking on Items then Items.

2. Click “Actions”, then “Import items from Excel file”

An animated gif clicking "Import items from Excel file" from the Action menu.

3. Click "Download template". The template is populated with all of the items in your venue so far. You can update existing items, and add new ones.

The "Download template" button is highlighted on the "Upload items" pop-up window.

Using the Template

Update Existing Items

If you have already added items via scanning or a previous upload, you can bulk update information for your existing items(distributors, costs, pars, etc). You can copy and paste the data from another data source (spreadsheet, etc) into the template.

Adding New Items (Required Fields)

If you're uploading new items, please add the item details into the empty rows.

Note: If you're only adding new items, you can delete the existing items from the template to make things easier.

To add a new item, you’ll need to fill in the required 3 fields at a minimum:

  • Item Name

  • Quantity (the size of the item based on its unit of measurement)

  • Unit of Measurement

Family & Category

While not required, you can select the Family and Category of an item from a drop-down list of options in the template, or you can enter your own by typing or pasting into the fields.

The "Category" cell has been clicked, and it shows the drop-down menu options.

If you leave the Family and/or Category field blank for an item, they'll default to "Unknown" when you upload the filled out template and can be updated at any time.

Note: The families & categories in the drop-down list vary depending on whether you're using WISK Restaurant or WISK Bar. You can fully customize your families and categories and don't have to use the defaults. When you upload the template, any new Families & Categories will appear in your venue.

You can also go to the "Data" tab to change the options in the drop-down list.

An arrow points to the "Data" tab in the template.

Other Columns

  • WISK Item ID (leave this blank if adding new items)

  • Alias (The name by which the Quantity + Unit of Measurement will be displayed on the UI. For example, can, pack, bottle, etc.)

  • Pack/Case Size

  • Cost

  • Cost UoM (If left blank, it will default to "unit")

  • Distributor

  • SKU (Distributor Code)

  • Order Format

  • Par Level

  • Barcodes

  • Full Weight (grams)

  • Empty Weight (grams)

  • Image URL

For descriptions of each column, please see the template.

Note: If you are using custom fields, they will also appear in the template:

WISK Bar Reminder

As a reminder, if using WISK Bar, we only recommend adding items via the upload template that don’t have barcodes on the physical item (certain wines, beer kegs, etc). This is because WISK uses barcodes to pull items from our database to add them to your venue.

Scanning beverage item barcodes is still the best way to ensure you’ll get the correct weights and images from the WISK database.

For example, if you upload a bottle of Jameson 750ml in the template and leave the barcode field blank, and then you scan it in your venue, it’ll create a new item. You’ll end up with a duplicate entry for Jameson 750ml in your items, and need to merge them.

Multiply this by however many items you have, and it becomes a lot of extra work to clean up your data.

Uploading the Template

1. After you have filled out the template, click “Browse” and select the file.

2. Then click “Upload”

The "Upload" button on the "Upload Items" screen is highlighted to be clicked.

3. The new and/or updated items appear in your list of items with the data you have populated in the template.

Note: If you're importing a large number of items, it may take some time to create them. You'll be sent an email notification when the process is complete.

The items that were uploaded in the file now appear in the list of items for the venue.

Summary

For the best experience when uploading your items:

WISK Bar

  1. If you have a large number of items without barcodes (100+), use the empty template to add them to your venue before your first inventory.

  2. Add the rest of your items by scanning their barcodes during your first inventory

  3. You can then download the template with the existing items to bulk update any information if needed (costs, pars, distributors, etc).

WISK Restaurant

  1. Add as many of your items as you can by scanning / uploading invoices from your distributors

  2. Add any remaining items manually, or using the item upload template

  3. You can then download the template with the existing items to bulk update any information if needed (costs, pars, distributors, etc)

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