When looking to create a large number of company items in MachShip, it would be very time consuming to create these via the create item method. In order to make this easier, Machship gives you the ability to import company items via a CSV file.

How to create the Item Import CSV file

The item import csv file template requires the following headings in order to be successfully imported into MachShip. 

The fields are outlined below, those in bold are required.

• Company Account Code

The company account code will need to be the account code for the company the import is to be assigned against. This code can be found via the view companies page.

To find the code on the view companies page do the following:

1. Select Admin then View Companies.

2. Type in the company name in the search bar.

3. The account code will be found in the second column of the grid. 

• Item Name
  
  The Item Name is a free text field which will describe the item. This will be one of the fields used when searching for saved company items when creating consignments. 
  
  
• Quantity
  
  This will be the number of items which are shipped at any one time. It is advised that you set this to be 1 as it can be easily overridden when creating consignments by any method. 
  
  
• SKU
  
  The SKU is a non-required field which is another free text field to be used when searching for saved company items when creating consignments. 
  
  
• Item Type
  
  Needs to be one of the following
  
  • 20ft Container
  • 40ft Container
  • B-Double
  • Bag
  • Bundle
  • Carton
  • Case
  • Combines
  • Combined Load Size
  • Crate
  • Envelope
  • IBC
  • Pack
  • Pallet
  • Panel
  • Pipe
  • Rails
  • Roll
  • Satchel
  • Semi
  • Skid
  • Stillage
  • Timber - Loose
  • Timber - Pack
  • Tube
  • Volume
    
    
• Height(cm), length(cm), width(cm)
  
  The dimensions of the item. The headings for this need to be Height, Length and Width 
  
  
• Weight(kg)
  
  The weight of the item.
   
• Very Frequent Item
  
  In order to cut down on the time it takes to enter in consignment data, MachShip has the ability to set an item as Very Frequent. When an item is Very Frequent then it will appear as a drop-down item input field when creating a consignment. The field will appear as below:
  
  
  
  
  The amount of Frequent Items is suggested to be kept to less than 20 as the larger it gets the less effective the dropdown becomes. Only 30 very frequent items will be shown at any one time though. 
  
  Every row in the import will need to have either an "N" or a "Y" in the cell to indicate that it is either Very Frequent or not. 

How to import the Items Import CSV file

Once the csv file has been created it will then need to be imported into MachShip. 

How to navigate to the Import Items Page

1. Select Create/Manage and either View Item or Create Item.

 

2. Select the Import Company Items tab in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

3. Via the following Link.

How to import Locations into Machship

1. Select the Add Files button and select the csv file you are wishing to upload. 

2. Choose to Ignore Errors or not. 

Due to the large nature of item listing and the validation that MachShip places on the data (this is completed so that we can have a high certainty that the carrier will not reject the consignment due to data issues) it is highly likely that errors will appear when importing items. In order to allow a user to import the item data which is valid, and then deal with the discrepancies, the ignore errors function will upload as many rows as it can and advise of the errors. 

Should you decide to not use the ignore errors feature then you will need to ensure that all of the rows are valid otherwise the system will produce an error. 

To choose to Ignore Errors click the button below over to Yes.

3. Upload the file. 

To upload the file you can select the Upload All button (if uploading multiple)

or select the Upload button on the relevant file.

Selecting Upload will prompt the status bar to fill with green and the file with either successfully be uploaded or the errors will be presented to the user as below:

If the file is free of errors or you have selected Ignore Errors then the file will appear in the Import Items section. 

4. Select to Reset Items

If you would like to remove the current Item data in the system (assigned to the company code/s on the spreadsheet) then you can select the Reset Items check box. 

If you wish to just add the locations to what currently exists in MachShip, then leave this box unchecked. 

5. Import the Items

To import the locations into MachShip select the relevant file(s) and then select Import Items.

To select the files, check the box on the left-hand side of the grid. Alternatively, to select all, click the checkbox in the top left-hand corner of the grid. 

Once successfully imported you will see a green success bar in the top right-hand corner.