Create Square items from a supplier price list

In the Square Dashboard, go to Items, then Item library, then Actions, then Export Library. Pick the blank import library for a new catalog, or export your current items if you already have some. Square recommends the Excel format. Keep this file. Its header row is the layout Square expects on import, and the columns have to stay in that order.

1. Download the template or your current export from the Dashboard.
2. Match the supplier columns to the Square fields.
3. Fix the rows Square would reject.
4. Import from Actions, then Import library.

The file must have the Item Name, Variation Name, Description and SKU columns. If you have more than one location, it also needs the Enabled column for each one. Every other column can stay empty. An empty Item Type imports as a standard item. An empty Category leaves a new item without one, and an item that already has a category keeps it.

The Square tool guesses a Square field for each supplier column and shows three sample values beside the guess. That way you can tell whether a column called Price holds your cost or your retail price before anything is written.

Open the Square tool to try it with your own file.

Price lists usually put each size on its own row. Square wants one item with a variation for each size. The tool groups rows that share a base name into one item. Each variation keeps its own SKU, GTIN, price and cost. The item name, description and category come from the first row of the group. Square needs it that way, because an item and its variations must share one category and one description, and every item name in the file has to be unique.

Take the commas out of any text you added. Square asks for this, and you can put them back once the items are in your library. Leave the Token column alone, keep the columns in their order and keep the empty ones. Then import. Square will offer to correct any simple problems it finds.

• Update Square unit costs from a supplier spreadsheet

  Bring in new costs and nothing else

• Supplier raised prices? Update Square costs

  Keep your margin when costs rise

• Supplier CSV to Square

  Map a supplier's columns once and reuse them

• Square product import

  Add new items from any spreadsheet