Importing Global Products

Modified on Thu, 18 Dec at 10:42 AM

Effectively managing your inventory is essential for smooth business operations. MyTime simplifies this process by allowing you to add new products in bulk using a spreadsheet at the global (parent) level. Once added, these products automatically appear in all franchise (child) accounts, ensuring consistency and reducing manual setup. In this article, we’ll guide you through the step-by-step process of adding products globally.

Things to know:

The ability to import products to the inventory is governed by the "Accessing Inventory Details" access control setting.
During import, MyTime uses specific spreadsheet columns referred to as "matchers" to identify products. A product is matched using a combination of the following three fields:
- Name
- Category
- SKU Name
- These fields must be entered correctly and in the proper order for the import to succeed.
- If you change any of the matching fields (Name, Category, or SKU Name) for an existing product, MyTime will create a new product instead of updating the existing one.
During the import process, the location you select determines where the product is stocked. Other child locations will see the product listed in their inventory catalog, but it will appear with an "Add to Inventory" option because it is not stocked at those locations.
- Example: If a parent account has three child accounts franchise A, B, and C—and you import a product while franchise A is selected:
  The product and SKU will be visible at franchise A, B, and C.
  The product will be stocked at franchise A.
  At franchises B and C, the product will appear as not stocked and will require selecting the "Add to Inventory" option to set quantities before it can be sold.
Managing Existing SKUs during Import in MyTime: The radio buttons at the bottom of the page allow you to specify how existing SKUs are handled:
- Update Existing Inventory: If selected, existing SKUs that are not on the import sheet will not be deleted.
- Overwrite and replace inventory: If selected, the process becomes more comprehensive. Before selecting this option, carefully review and verify the details you intend to overwrite, as the changes will be propagated to all instances of the product across all locations associated with the account.
- Only existing SKUs will be updated or removed.
- Existing SKUs not present on the import sheet will be removed from the inventory.
- For each product name on the import sheet, it is crucial to include the quantity of each SKU Name/SKU Number associated with that product.
At the child location level, products are visually differentiated using icons:
- A globe icon indicates a global product created at the parent level and shared across all locations.
- A local (location-specific) icon indicates a product created and used only at that specific location.

Contents

Importing Global Products via Inventory Spreadsheet
Inventory Spreadsheet Column Descriptions
Importing Global Products via CSV Files (Ingest Data)

Importing Global Products via Inventory Spreadsheet

From the parent level:

Navigate to Inventory
Select the Import link at the bottom right of the page
The Import Inventory page below will appear; select Download spreadsheet
The first tab of the Excel document (labeled INSTRUCTIONS) explains how to enter your inventory.
Use the second tab (labeled SKU) to enter your inventory information
When you are finished entering your inventory information into the MyTime Inventory Spreadsheet, make sure to save the Excel file
Next, return to the Import section of the Inventory page, select the location, then the Upload button
When your file is uploaded, select Import

Your products are now added and will appear in your Inventory section at the parent and child levels.

Parent Level

Child Level

Inventory Spreadsheet Column Descriptions

Column	Description
Product Name	This field is required and is a matcher. Enter the product name that this SKU corresponds to.
Product Brand	Brand of the product
Product Category	This field is required and is a matcher. Category associated with the product; you can add multiple categories, just separate them using a comma.
Product Vendor	The vendor responsible for supplying the product.
Description	The description for the product.
Sell Product to Clients?	Indicate if this product be sold to customers via the POS by entering 'Y' for yes and 'N' for no. Taxes will be applied.
Commission Eligible?	Indicate if this product can be applied to retail commissions by entering 'Y' for yes and 'N' for no.
Discontinued?	Indicate if this product should be ordered by entering 'Y' for yes and 'N' for no.
SKU Name	This field is required and is a matcher. The full name of the SKU
SKU Number	The unique stock-keeping unit associated with the specific version of a product
Vendor SKU Number	The Product Number the vendor assigned to the SKU, if different than the Manufacturer’s SKU number
Min	The quantity at which you want to be alerted to re-order on MyTime
Barcode	The number appearing directly below the barcode image on the SKU. You can add multiple barcodes, just separate them using a comma.
Max	The quantity of each SKU you want to maintain is used to calculate the reorder amount
Price	This field is required. The price paid by the client for the SKU
Cost Basis	This field is required. The price paid to the vendor for the SKU
Expiration Date	The expiration date of SKUs (leave blank if this does not apply)
Current Retail Stock	The current retail stock at the time the report was exported from MyTime
Current Back Bar Stock	The current back bar stock at the time the report was exported from MyTime
New Batch Date Added	The date the new batch was added to your inventory.
New Retail Batch Quantity	The quantity of retail SKUs that you are stocking as part of a new batch or shipment (you must use this if the cost or expiration date differs from previous batches). Note if this column is used, the Current Stock column will be ignored.
New Back Bar Batch Quantity	The quantity of back bar SKUs that you are stocking as part of a new batch or shipment (you must use this if the cost or expiration date differs from previous batches). Note if this column is used, the Current Stock column will be ignored.
New Cost Basis	The cost of SKUs in the new batch
New Expiration Date	The expiration date of SKUs in the new batch (leave blank if this does not apply)
Retail Enabled	Indicates the SKU can be a retail item
Back Bar Enabled	Indicates the SKU can be a back bar item
Delete Product and all its SKUs?	Indicate if the product and all its SKUs should be deleted by entering 'Y' for yes and 'N' for no.

Importing Global Products via CSV Files (Ingest Data)

Things to know:

The ability to create new products via ingest data is governed by the 'Accessing Ingest Data' access control setting.
This feature is controlled by a hidden setting that only the MyTime team can enable. To enable the hidden setting, please contact our support team at support@mytime.com.
The attached file is a general zip template that can be edited and used to create new products via Ingest Data.

From the parent level:

Download and open the attached zip file template in this article
This file will include 3 CSV sheets:
- inventory_products: This contains the new products that should be created.
- inventory_skus: This contains the SKUs that should be created for the new products.
- inventory_manifest: This contains the files you want us to process and their types.

On the inventory_products CSV sheet, enter the following information:

Column	Description
product_id	The external ID that will be assigned to the product and displayed on the 'Edit Product Details' modal under POS > Inventory
name	The name of the product
category	The product category that will be assigned to the product

On the inventory_skus CSV sheet, enter the following information:
Column Description
product_id
The external ID assigned to the product. This should match the ID entered on the inventory_products CSV sheet
name The name of the SKU assigned to the product
On the inventory_manifest CSV sheet, enter the following information. The information below has to be identical when entered into the CSV sheet
name The name of the product
brand The product brand assigned to the product
Once all CSv sheets are completed, download them as a CSV file
Create a zip file with all 3 CSV files. To zip your files:
- Highlight all 3 CSV files, then right-click on any of the files
- Choose the Compress or Archive option
- Name your file, for example, inventory_product_creation
- When the parameter pops up, select ZIP for the format type. Please remember where you are saving your ZIP file and note that your modal may appear differently based on your system.
In MyTime, go to Inventory
Click 'Import' at the bottom right-hand corner of the page
Click 'Upload File Here' on the import Inventory page
Choose the zip file that you have saved on your computer, then click Open
Click 'Import'
The page will be directed to the Processed Batches page; the file will appear below with a start date and time, along with the status
Once completed, an end time will be displayed and the status changed to 'Finished'