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Help centre · Products & prices

Import products from a CSV file

Load your whole product list from a spreadsheet in one go, using the downloadable template with the exact headers.

Who can do this: Needs the Manage catalogue permission (Tenant admin and Store manager by default).

When to use an import

If you are moving from Excel or another system, importing is much faster than typing each product. You can also use it later to add new stock lines or to update costs and prices in bulk.

The file is a CSV file. Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice can all save a sheet as CSV.

Download and fill the template

  1. Open Catalogue → Products and click Import CSV.
  2. Click Download CSV template. The file has the exact headers and three example rows.
  3. Delete the example rows and add one row per variant. Rows with the same product name become one product with several variants.
  4. Save the file as CSV.

What each column means

product (required): the product name, for example Cotton T-Shirt.

sku: the item code. Leave it empty for a new item and Sevo makes one from the name. A row whose sku already exists updates that item.

variant: the variant name, for example M. Leave it blank to use the product name.

barcodes: one or more barcodes. Separate several with a semicolon, comma or space.

category: the category name. A category that does not exist yet is created for you.

tax_rule: the name of a tax rule, for example VAT 18%. It must match a tax rule that already exists under Catalogue → Tax rules, or that row is rejected.

unit: pcs, kg and so on. Blank means pcs.

track_stock: true or false. Blank means true (stock is tracked).

cost: your purchase cost per unit.

price: the selling price. It is saved in your default price list, so you need a default price list before you import prices.

Supplier columns (optional)

preferred_supplier: the supplier's code as shown under Purchasing → Suppliers, for example CEYWHO. That supplier becomes the variant's preferred supplier. An unknown or archived code rejects the row.

supplier_item_code: the supplier's own code for the item. It needs preferred_supplier.

pack_size: the case size the supplier ships in, for example 24. It needs preferred_supplier.

supplier_price: what the supplier charges for one piece, for example 235. New purchase orders take it. It needs preferred_supplier.

Leave all three empty if you do not want to set suppliers from the file. The template's example uses CEYWHO; change it to one of your supplier codes.

Upload the file

  1. In the Import products from CSV window, drop the file on the box or click it to choose the file.
  2. The file uploads and the import runs in the background. Watch it under Recent imports.
  3. When the status shows completed, check the Created, Updated and Errors columns.
  4. If there are errors, the rows are listed under the file name, for example “Row 12: Unknown tax rule”. Fix those rows in your sheet and upload the file again.

Uploading again is safe for rows with a sku: a row whose sku already exists updates that item instead of making a copy. This is also how you update costs or prices in bulk. A row with an empty sku is always a new item, so give rows a sku before you upload the same file twice.

Before you import

Create your tax rules first (Catalogue → Tax rules) and a default price list (Catalogue → Price lists), so the tax_rule and price columns have somewhere to go.

After the import, add opening stock for each store. See “Opening stock”.

Start from common Sri Lankan products

  1. Go to Catalogue → Products and click Import CSV.
  2. Under Start from common Sri Lankan products, click Download the starter list. It has about 640 packaged products sold in Sri Lanka, with their real barcodes.
  3. Open it in Excel. Delete the rows you do not sell, and type your selling price in the price column (and what you pay in cost, if you like).
  4. Save it as CSV and import it here.

A USB barcode scanner works in Excel too: click a cell in the barcodes column and scan the pack.

Photos for many products at once

  1. Go to Catalogue → Products and click Photos.
  2. Click Find photos for all: every product with a barcode and no photo gets the photo Open Food Facts has for it. Keep the window open until it finishes.
  3. For items it could not find, take your own photos, name each file by the barcode or item code (for example 4792090000546.jpg), and click Choose pictures to add them all.

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