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PO Import Review

After you upload a spreadsheet on a purchase order (see Importing POs), VMX takes you to the Import Review screen. This is a preview and correction step: VMX shows every row from your file, which inventory item it matched (if any), and what will be updated. Nothing is added to the PO or changed in inventory until you click Import at the bottom of the page.

Reading the Import Review screen

The top of the Import Review screen shows summary counts for your file: how many rows matched an existing inventory item (with a count of cross-matched rows in parentheses), how many are new items not found in inventory, and the total rows in the file.

In the review table, each row is color-coded:

  • White (no highlight) — the row matched an existing item directly (exact PLU, exact barcode, or exact part number for this vendor).
  • Orange — the row matched an item through cross-matching (for example, the value in your PLU column was found as a barcode). Double-check these — cross-matches are usually right, but they're worth a second look.
  • Red — no matching inventory item was found. Red rows are skipped by the import unless you create the item first (see "Add missing items" below).

The Match column shows the matched item's PLU (linked to the item page), its description, and which strategy found it (for example, "via Exact PLU" or "via Part # → PLU"). In the row itself, a ⭐ marks the cell whose value produced the match.

When a matched row contains a price, cost, name, or description that differs from what's currently on the item, the cell shows the current value underneath in gray — for example, was $3.99 under a new price of $4.49 — so you can spot price changes before committing them.

Map your spreadsheet columns

Each column of your file gets two dropdowns in the table header on the Import Review screen:

  1. Field dropdown — which VMX field this column contains (PLU, Description, Ext Description, Name, Variety, Color, Size, Barcode, Part #, Note, Qty, UOM, Unit Cost, Each Cost, Subtotal, Unit Price, Each Price, Department, Sub Department, Collection, Unit Price Expiration, Tag Type, or a per-store Qty (Store Name) column). Choose -- Ignore -- to skip the column entirely; the field dropdown is highlighted yellow on skipped columns.
  2. Action dropdown — what to do with the column's data: Update, Match Only, or Ignore (see the next section).

VMX guesses the field mapping automatically from your header names, but you can correct any column here. After changing mappings, click Update at the bottom of the page to re-run the matching with your new settings — this does not import anything yet.

Column actions: Update vs. Match Only vs. Ignore

Each mapped column on the Import Review screen has an action dropdown that controls whether the column's data is written back to inventory when you click Import:

  • Update — use the column for matching and write its value to the matched item.
  • Match Only — use the column to find the item, but don't change anything on the item.
  • Ignore — like Match Only, nothing from the column is written to the item. To keep a column out of the matching entirely, set its field dropdown to -- Ignore -- instead.

With the action set to Update, these columns write to inventory during import:

  • Barcode — added to the matched item's barcodes.
  • Part # — saved as the item's part number for this PO's vendor.
  • Each Price — updates the item's retail price.
  • Tag Type — updates the item's tag type (the value must exactly match an existing tag type name).
  • Ext Description — updates the item's extended description.
  • Collection — adds the item to the named collection(s) (see "Collections column" below).

Columns like Qty, Unit Cost, Each Cost, and Note feed the PO lines themselves rather than editing the item record.

Match strategies: how rows are matched to inventory

The Import Review screen matches each row to inventory using a series of strategies, shown as checkboxes at the top of the page. Uncheck a strategy and click Update to re-run matching without it. Direct strategies are tried first:

  • Exact PLU — the PLU column matches an item's PLU.
  • Exact Barcode — the Barcode column matches a barcode on file.
  • Part # (vendor) — the Part # column matches a part number on file for this PO's vendor.

If no direct match is found, the Cross-matching strategies try the identifier columns against other fields:

  • PLU → Barcode — the value in your PLU column is found as a barcode.
  • Fuzzy Barcode — attempts to match a 10–12 digit barcode even if leading/trailing check digits differ from what's on file.
  • PLU → Part # — the value in your PLU column is found as a part number for this vendor.
  • Part # → PLU — the value in your Part # column is found as a PLU.
  • Part # (any vendor) — the Part # column matches a part number on file for any vendor, not just this PO's vendor.
  • Barcode → PLU — the value in your Barcode column is found as a PLU.

Cross-matched rows are highlighted orange and counted separately in the summary line so you can review them. Which strategies start checked can be preconfigured for your account by VMX; you can always toggle them yourself on the screen.

Include or exclude individual rows

Every row on the Import Review screen has a checkbox in the first column. Uncheck a row to leave it out of the import — the row stays visible, but nothing from it is added to the PO or written to inventory when you click Import. The checkbox in the table header selects or deselects all rows at once.

Rows with a quantity of 0 (or a blank quantity) are automatically skipped when adding lines to the PO, and rows with no matched item are skipped unless you create the item first.

Add a missing item from the review screen (+ Item)

Rows highlighted red on the Import Review screen didn't match any inventory item. To create the item without leaving the page:

  1. Click the + Item button on the red row.
  2. The New Item form opens, pre-filled from the spreadsheet row — PLU, name/description, variety, color, size, price, barcode, tag type, extended description, department and sub department, collections (when those columns are mapped), vendor, and cost.
  3. Fill in anything missing and save.
  4. The page reloads and the row now matches the new item. If the row has a part number, it is saved to the new item for this vendor automatically (unless you set the Part # column's action to Match Only or Ignore).

Add all missing items at once

When the Import Review screen finds rows that don't match any inventory item, an + Add All Missing Items button appears next to the summary counts (with the count of missing items in the button label). Clicking it creates all of the unmatched rows as new inventory items in one step:

  1. VMX checks the unmatched rows for problems — a missing department, a missing price, or no identifier at all (no PLU, barcode, or part number).
  2. A confirmation dialog lists how many items will be created and summarizes any rows with issues. Rows with issues are skipped, not created.
  3. Confirm to create the items. When it finishes, the page reloads and the new items show as matched.

If every missing row has the same problem (for example, none of them have a department), the bulk add stops and tells you how to fix it — either use the per-row + Item button to add them one at a time (you can pick the department there), or map the missing column (such as Department or Each Price) in the header dropdowns and click Update first.

Costs, case packs, and the UOM column

The Import Review screen understands both per-each and per-case costs:

  • Each Cost — the cost per selling unit. Used directly on the PO line.
  • Unit Cost — the cost per purchase unit (for example, per case).
  • Subtotal — a line total. When present, VMX derives the unit cost as Subtotal ÷ Qty.
  • UOM — the unit of measure for the row, such as CS12 (a case of 12). VMX matches it to the item's units of measure by size or name and converts: the each cost becomes the unit cost ÷ case size. If the item has no matching unit of measure and the size is more than 1, VMX creates the unit of measure on the item during import.

If there's no UOM column but the item's part number for this vendor has a purchase unit on file, VMX applies it automatically: the imported quantity is multiplied by the case size and the cost is converted to a per-each cost.

If your file has no cost columns at all, VMX falls back to the cost on the item's part number for this vendor, and then to the item's most recent receiving cost.

Import quantities for multiple stores

If your spreadsheet has one quantity column per store, name the columns Qty (Store Name) using each store's name as it appears in VMX — for example, Qty (Main Street) and Qty (Riverside). The Import Review screen recognizes these columns (a plain store name as the header also works) and imports each store's quantity separately; by default, VMX creates or fills a separate purchase order for each store with a quantity.

When per-store columns are present, a plain Qty column in the same file is ignored.

Some accounts are instead configured so that all stores' quantities land on a single purchase order as per-store lines. That mode is enabled per-client by VMX — contact help@vmxllc.com if you'd like to discuss it.

Set the order status and ETA for the import

Above the review table are two fields that apply to the purchase order(s) when you click Import:

  • Order ETA — an optional expected delivery date, saved as the PO's estimated delivery date.
  • Order Status — Building, Submitted, or Confirmed, saved as the PO's pending status.

Finish the import

When the mappings, matches, and checkboxes look right on the Import Review screen, click Import at the bottom of the page. VMX then:

  1. Adds a line to the purchase order for each included, matched row with a nonzero quantity (line status Ordered).
  2. Applies any column updates (barcode, part number, price, tag type, extended description, collections) to the matched items.
  3. Returns you to the purchase order so you can review the added lines.

Use Update (next to Import) whenever you only want to re-run the matching after changing column mappings, actions, or match strategies — Update never writes anything.

Collections column on PO import

If your spreadsheet has a Collection column, the import adds each matched item to the named collection(s) — it never removes an item from collections it's already in. A cell can list several collections separated by commas (for example, Spring, Shade). Names must match existing collections; the import never creates a new collection from a spreadsheet value.

If any collection names aren't found, the import still completes and shows a warning listing them:

Import done. These collection names were not found and were skipped (no collection added for them): …

To skip collection updates entirely, set the Collection column's action dropdown to Match Only or Ignore.

Error: "No quantity column is mapped. Please assign a Qty column before importing."

This message appears on the Import Review screen when you click Import but no column is mapped to Qty (or a per-store Qty (Store Name) field). Every import needs a quantity column. Find the column in your file that holds order quantities, set its field dropdown to Qty, then click Import again.

Error: "Uh oh! Please try uploading your file again."

The Import Review screen holds your uploaded rows temporarily while you review them. If you see this message, that in-progress upload is gone — usually because the session expired or the page was reopened later. Go back to the purchase order and upload the file again with the Import... button.