If you want to correct the stock of many products at once, the CSV import is the fastest way. You can use it to both remove and add stock – depending on whether you enter a negative or a positive quantity. You can adjust individual products more easily directly in the product (see Adjust stock manually). This guide walks you step by step through the recommended way: the relative stock import.
Relative means: The quantity you enter in the file is offset against the current stock – so the stock is corrected by this quantity relative to the existing stock. With the absolute stock import, on the other hand, the quantity you enter is the new total stock of the product.
Which stock import do I need?
Both imports write stock, but they handle it differently. This overview helps you choose:
Relative stock import | Absolute stock import |
You know the difference: remove 30 units of breakage, add 15 units from a delivery, correct shrinkage. | You know the actual stock: counted quantities after a stocktake, initial stocking of a new warehouse. |
Stock movements between export and import are retained – your quantity is offset against the then-current stock. | Stock movements between export and import are overwritten. |
Change column | Stock column |
When in doubt, use the relative import. Between downloading the template and importing, orders, returns or stock transfers can change the stock. The relative import takes these movements into account, while the absolute import discards them – and the longer you work on the file, the more likely this becomes.
To learn how the absolute stock import works, read How do I overwrite my stock via CSV?.
Before you start: What a CSV file is and what to look out for when saving it (UTF-8 encoding, semicolon as separator) is explained in Tips for working with CSV files. Read it once before you start.
1. Download the template
Go to Warehousing → Stock overview. Click Export and select Export without stock (as a template for the relative stock import). In the downloaded file, there is one row per product (or per product and bin location) with the column Change, which is set to 0 everywhere.
Tip: Via the menu on the right, you can show/hide columns and filter beforehand. Your template will then contain only the products you care about.
Safety net: Additionally download the Export with stock (as a template for the absolute stock import) once and keep this file. It contains the stock your products had before the import. If something goes wrong during the import, you can restore the original state via an absolute stock import of this file.
2. Enter the stock change
Open the file in your spreadsheet program (e.g. Excel) and enter in the Change column the quantity by which the stock should change. Products that should remain unchanged you leave at 0 or delete the entire row.
Remove stock (negative quantity)
For the products you want to remove stock from, enter a negative quantity – for example -30 to remove 30 units.
Add stock (positive quantity)
For the products you want to add stock to, enter a positive quantity – for example 15 to add 15 units.
Example
Suppose you want to remove 30 units of product PW10001 from bin location A-01-02 and add 15 units of product PW10002 to bin location A-02-01. A valid file then looks like this:
Product number | Warehouse code | Bin location | Change |
PW10001 | HL | A-01-02 | -30 |
PW10002 | HL | A-02-01 | 15 |
or:
Produktnummer;Lagerkürzel;Lagerplatz;Änderung
PW10001;HL;A-01-02;-30
PW10002;HL;A-02-01;15
The columns Product number and Change are mandatory. Via Warehouse code and Bin location you define where the stock change is booked.
3. Save the file
Save the file again as a CSV file (UTF-8 encoded, with a semicolon as separator). How to set this up in your spreadsheet program is described in the Tips for working with CSV files.
4. Import the file
Go back to Warehousing → Stock overview and click Import. Upload your file and select Relative stock import (requires the column "Change") as the format. You can optionally add a comment. Then click Import.
Important: Be sure to select the correct format. If you accidentally select Absolute stock import (requires the column "Stock"), the quantity you entered is booked as the new total stock (so -30 would result in a stock of -30) – and your stock will no longer be correct.
5. Check the result
Under Settings → Shop → Import/Export (Pickware) you can see all imports and – if something went wrong – the errors that occurred. You can also find the individual stock changes in the product details in the Stock tab under Stock movements (e.g. with the reason Destocking (CSV import)).