Prepare the import file

Most import problems are created in the spreadsheet, before anything is pasted. Twenty minutes preparing the sheet saves an afternoon of correcting items one by one.

Start from an export

Whenever the items already exist, build the sheet from Download as Excel rather than typing titles again.

The export gives you the exact titles Fenómenus holds, and imports match by exact title. Any title you retype is a chance to create a duplicate instead of an update.

One sheet, one menu type, one category

Three separations that make an import predictable:

• One menu type per sheet. Columns differ per type and an import targets one type.
• One category per batch. The category is chosen once for the whole import, not per row.
• One purpose per import. Creating new items and repricing existing ones in the same paste makes the result hard to verify.

For a menu with six sections, that means six small imports. Each one is reviewable.

Match the column order on screen

Open the Bulk create/update screen for the menu type and look at the table headings. Arrange your spreadsheet columns in exactly that order.

Headings in your sheet are ignored — mapping is by position.

Clean the titles

Titles are the matching key, so they carry the whole risk:

• Trim spaces, especially trailing ones. A trailing space creates a new item.
• Fix quotes and apostrophes. A curly apostrophe and a straight one are different characters.
• Normalise accents. Two visually identical accented characters can be encoded differently.
• Remove vintages, sizes and format notes from wine titles.
• Decide capitalization once and apply it to the column.
• Remove duplicate titles within the sheet; two rows with the same title in one paste are two attempts at the same item.

A quick way to catch problems: sort the title column and read it. Near-duplicates end up adjacent.

Clean the prices

• Enter plain values. Remove spreadsheet currency formatting; it can travel with the cell.
• Leave a cell empty when the format is not offered.
• Never type 0 to mean "not offered".
• Use one decimal separator throughout.
• If you include counts — 12,00€ (6 unidades) — apply the convention to the whole column.

Do not include the heading row

Copy the data rows only. A pasted heading row becomes an item called Dish name.

Do not include extra columns

Anything beyond the table's columns is not read. Delete the export's category column before copying, and delete working columns you added for calculations.

A pre-paste checklist

• [ ] One menu type, one category, one purpose.
• [ ] Column order matches the screen.
• [ ] No heading row in the selection.
• [ ] No extra columns.
• [ ] Titles trimmed, consistent and unique.
• [ ] Titles copied from an export where the items already exist.
• [ ] Prices plain, with empty cells where a format is not offered.
• [ ] The current export saved as the "before" copy.

Then continue with Validate before importing.