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Importing products using Excel
Importing products using Excel

Import your product information from an .xlsx template

Héctor Emperador avatar
Written by Héctor Emperador
Updated over a week ago

Importing products allows you to create a record of your stock to manage it from the platform, or to add your products to invoices or orders created in Holded, analysing the evolution of your business through reports.

To import products from Excel, follow these steps:

  1. Click on "Inventory" and choose "Products".

  2. In the dropdown, select the type of product to import:

  3. Download the import template and fill it in.

  4. Drag and drop or upload the completed import template.

☝🏼 If you are importing products into Holded for the first time, use the import via Excel. If you already have products registered, use the option to update stock.

💎 Activate the Inventory gem to enjoy products with lots, variants, serial numbers, and packs (without the gem, you will only be able to choose a single product).


How to fill in the Excel template

Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk ( * ). Although not all fields are mandatory, adding as much information as possible about the products is important to get an accurate view of your inventory within Holded.

These are the fields found in the simple product template and are common to all the other product import templates: with variants, with lots, with serial numbers:

  • SKU*: Stock Keeping Unit, the unique reference number that identifies each of your products. It is essential for importing products.

  • Name: the identifying name of the product

  • Description: a brief explanation with details about the product (appears in the documents)

  • Type: the predefined type of product between: simple, with variants, with batches or with serial numbers. In this case, choose simple product.

  • Barcode: the EAN reference number, if available.

  • Factory code: the manufacturing code, if different from the SKU code, and if available.

  • Categories: The characteristics of the product that facilitate its classification or filtering, in case you have previously created them.

  • Cost (subtotal): the amount calculated as the average value of the stock based on the value of the purchase invoices. This field can be edited manually and will be used in stock reports.

  • Purchase price (subtotal): the amount excluding tax used in purchasing documents, e.g. invoices or purchase orders. The value of this field is fixed, i.e. it is not calculated automatically, but can be edited manually.

  • Sales price (subtotal): The amount without tax used in the sales documents.

  • Sales Tax: the tax rate for the sales documents.

  • Purchasing Tax- the tax rate for purchasing documents

  • Stock: the number of product units available in the Warehouse.

    ☝🏼 If you upload products with 'zero' stock that have not previously been in stock in any of your warehouses, they will not appear in any warehouse (unless their stock is no longer zero); although you will be able to see them in Inventory > Products.

  • Weight: the weight of the product expressed in kilogrammes.

  • Start date dd/mm/yyyy: the date the product was created. The platform will automatically assign the date of the day for simple and variant products.

  • Tags: the tags that will help you identify the documents that include the product. If you add more than one, separate them with the underscore sign ( _ ).

  • Supplier (code): the VAT number of the supplier that appears on the purchasing documents.

  • Sales account: the account to choose to assign the invoice to a sales channel and to be able to segment your sales by channels. These should always be sales or revenue group accounts (70, 75, 76 or 77).

  • Purchase account: the account to choose to allocate the invoice to a type of expense and to be able to segment your purchases by account. These should always be purchase or expense group accounts (60, 65, 66 or 67).

  • Warehouse: leave this column blank to assign the products to your default warehouse, or enter a warehouse name or ID to assign them to a specific warehouse:


    ☝🏼 Make sure to delete the key icon, or blanks, when pasting the number into Excel, so that the system recognizes it correctly.

In addition to the fields common to the simple product template, the product template with variants has two specific fields:

  • Variant SKU: unique reference number that differentiates the variants within each global product.

  • Variant barcode: unique EAN reference number specific to each variant, if available.

Only these fields will be updated for each variant, the other fields that appear in the template are updated for the global product only.



To import batches correctly, it is essential to attribute the same SKU code of the global product to the different batches. In this way, the batches will appear in the same product file on the platform.

In addition to the fields common to the simple product template, the product template with batches has four specific fields to differentiate the information for each batch:

  • SKU Batch: unique reference number that differentiates the batches within each global product.

  • Batch description: a short explanation with details about the batch. Appears in documents.

  • Created dd/mm/yyyy (Batch): the date of manufacture of the batch.

  • End date dd/mm/yyyy (Batch): the expiry date of the batch, if any.

Only these fields shall be updated for each batch, the other fields appearing in the template are updated for the overall product only.

To correctly import products with serial numbers, it is essential to attribute an SKU code for each serial number. In this way, the serial numbers will appear in the same product panel in the platform and will be differentiated by this code.

In addition to the fields common to the simple product template, this template has four specific fields to differentiate the information for each serial number:

  • SKU serial number: SKU code that differentiates the serial numbers within each global product.

  • Serial number description: a short explanation with details about the serial number (appears on the documents)

  • Created dd/mm/yyyy (Serial Number): the date of manufacture of the product

  • End date dd/mm/yyyy (Serial number): the expiry date of the product, if there is one.

Only these fields shall be updated for each serial number, the other fields appearing in the template are updated for the overall product only.

To import the pack correctly, it is essential to attribute the same SKU code to each item as they have on the platform, in addition to giving the pack a general SKU.

In addition to the fields common to the simple product template, the product pack template has other specific fields to differentiate the information for each pack:

  • SKU pack: the unique reference number of the pack. It is essential for the import of products.

  • SKU item: The unique reference number of each product in the pack. It is essential for the import of products.

  • Item units: The number of units of the item to be added.

Although manufactured products are not considered a type of predefined products in Holded (since they can, in turn, be any of the other types); and although they cannot be "created" from Excel, however, it is also possible to update your BOMs from the import menu.

Learn how to do it here.


I would like to receive personalized help

If you prefer our Imports team to give you a hand with the preparation of your files, at Holded we have a team of experts who can advise you and perform the import for you.

Our team will assist you in the preparation of your journal, sales, and purchase invoices, contacts, accounting accounts, and products. In addition, they will help you detect errors, correct them, and organize each of your files.

This will ensure that all your business information is transferred correctly and you will have the peace of mind that the import will be successful.

For more information about the service and pricing, please contact us at [email protected].

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