A supplier stock file or price/product list can be used to quickly and easily bulk import products into the Retailer software, which has barcodes associated with it. This is generally created in Excel and saved as either a spreadsheet or .csv file. Below are the steps on how to do this.
Click HERE if you need a sample of a stock file to give to suppliers, or the requirements for it.

Save The Stock File

You will generally receive the stock file from the supplier or Tower Systems as an attachment through e-mail. This file needs to be in a .csv format.

  1. Access your e-mail account.
  2. Open the e-mail message that contains the attachment or stock file.
  3. Save the stock file to a easy to access location such as the Desktop. This can usually be done by right-clicking on the attachment and selecting  Save  or  Save As .
After saving the file, avoid opening/viewing the file. If you have to open it for whatever reason, DO NOT SAVE ANY CHANGES as this will corrupt the barcodes in the file.

Import the Stock File

  1. From the main screen of Retailer, click on Utilities -> Import/Export Files -> Import Supplier Stock File.
  2. Select the required supplier. 
    If the supplier is not in the list, press the [Insert] key on your keyboard to add the supplier.
    Click HERE to learn more about adding a new supplier.
  3. Press the [Tab] key on your keyboard.
  4. If you get a message saying Stock file does not exist, click OK.
    Then, click on     Desktop on the left. Select the file that you saved earlier and click Open.
  5. In the Stock File Setup screen, click Cancel.
    If the Stock File Setup screen does not appear, click on the arrow next to Tools and click on Change Stock File Settings.
  6. In the next screen, tick This File is Comma Delimited at the top of the screen.
    Set     Lines in File Header to the number of rows in the file before stock is listed.
    Set the column numbers for each set of information and click     Save.
    Use the preview at the bottom of the screen to confirm the settings.

  7. After saving, click Close to return to the Import Supplier Stock File Screen.
  8. Select the Default Department and Default Category. This is where the stock items will be allocated to if a department or category was not specified in the stock file.
  9. Enter the Category Markup. This is used to calculate the Cost/Retail Price if only one of the two is specified in the import template (If the import template specifies both, then this percentage is ignored).
  10. Tick the required options under the Instructions section. In general, tick all the available tick-boxes to use the information from the stock file. However, if there are certain types of information that you want to retain from your data, untick the corresponding tick-boxes.
    Click HERE for a breakdown of all options in the Instructions section.
  11. Click on Import.
  12. Navigate to the location of your stock file, select the stock file and click Open.
  13. Retailer will begin importing the information from the file based on the import template settings.
  14. Once the import process is complete, you have the option of viewing a Stock Listing Report. Click  Yes  to access the report options or click No to finish the process.

Editing the Import Template

If you have received a stock file from a supplier that has previously been imported, you may want to check that the import template matches the stock file.

  1. From the main screen of Retailer, click on Utilities -> Import/Export Files -> Import Supplier Stock File.
  2. In Supplier, select the supplier from the drop-down box and press [Tab].
  3. On the bottom-left, click on the drop-down arrow next to Tools.
  4. Click on Change Stock File Settings.
  5. The import template screen will appear, which you can then configure accordingly.
  6. Click Save and Close.
  7. You can then import the file as per the instructions above.