I want to import new Assets but the Bar|Scan Import/Export Log says that I am missing Location History. What does this mean?

When doing a formatted import, some tables have such a special relationship with each other that they need to be imported simultaneously if NEW entries are being imported.  These are as follows:

1. Assets, Location Histories and Depreciation Histories.
   1. If a new Location or Depreciation History entry is being added, its Asset must already exist, either from a previous import, manual entry, or by being imported at the same time.  If the Asset doesn’t yet exist at the time of the import, then that asset must be created ahead of time or imported simultaneously.  To import it simultaneously, create a formatted import entry for the Asset table, position it before the entry for the Location History using the Group Name and Group Order fields, then range the both of them and press the import button, OR, use the alternate import method described in 1.b below.  This way they are BOTH imported.
   2. Under normal circumstances, changes to an Asset’s location are done by importing the new location into the Location History table, that is, adding a new entry into the Location History table for every location import. Using this method, you will see the number of entries in the Location History of the asset grow over time as new locations are added to the history.  This is the recommended procedure when multiple inventory locations are imported per asset.  When this method is used, the corresponding inventory date and time are used to automatically determine whether any newly added location is the current, prior, or even an earlier location for the asset.  This is basically what happens within BarScan itself when a Move is performed from the Transaction table to the Asset table.
      However, when both asset information and CURRENT location information (no Prior location information) are being imported, the user has the option of considering whether or not they want to use the “Automatically Transfer a new Current Location into the Asset Location History” checkmark (see image below).
      If this option is CHECKED, then a new Location History entry is generated for each import if there are any changes to any of the Asset’s Current Location fields.  In short, the new current location information written to the Asset table’s Current Location Fields is used to generate a new Location History entry and the number of Location History entries will continue to grow over time.  This alternative import method allows fewer Formatted imports items and fewer fields to be filled in.  For example, if the Inventory date and time are not known, it will use the time of the import. See the sample below:
      If this option is UNCHECKED then any updates to the any one of the Asset’s current location fields are ignored. If you want to update the asset’s location then you must perform a formatted import into the Location History table. When importing into the Location History there are generally two desired outcomes, either each imported location is to add a new entry in the Location History table or the import is to add a new location when the new location does not match the current location.  The first is the standard import method described above. The second requires a special import procedure described here.
      If you are importing Asset locations and you only want new entries when the current location changes, then you must import into the Location History table but be careful to establish an import link that allows this type of operation.  The key is the link expression between the Location History table (on the left) and the Imported file (on the right).  On the left you must include the Location History Record Id. On the right, corresponding to it, is an expression that retrieves the desired asset’s Current Location record id.
      Left: LH.Recid ID
      Right: X_LOOKUP(“AS”, “ASSET_NO”, PADR(XX.ASSET_NO,), “L_RECID_LH”)
      Where is the asset number length for your system.  BarScan’s default is 12, but yours may differ.
      After this you must list whatever fields describe a unique location for your installation.  The standard is shown below.  Here is a sample image of this link.

Second, you must make sure that you select the correct update operations. If you want to add a new location if it is a new one, select “Add” when there is no matching item.  Note that a ‘matching item’ consists of all of the fields in the link expression., otherwise select “Skip”.

Lastly, make sure that you are listing all of the required fields for the location history for the new location, in case it is added.  Please note that the sample below will generate a duplicate time and date if there is more than one location in the imported file, and duplicates will not be imported even if they are valid new locations.  If you have more than one location per asset in the imported file then you must use the standard import mentioned above.

2. Work Orders, Work Order Line Items
   1. If a new Work Order Line Item entry is being added, its Work Order Master must already exist, either from a previous import, manual entry, or by being imported at the same time.  If the Work Order doesn’t yet exist at the time of the import, then that it must be created ahead of time or imported simultaneously.  To import it simultaneously, create a formatted import entry for the Work Order table, position it before the entry for the Work Order Line Item table using the Group Name and Group Order fields, then range the both of them and press the import button.  This way they are BOTH imported.

There are many other tables that need valid entries in a look up table (e.g. the Catalog needs a valid Catalog Category from the Category table) for the import to be entirely valid.  These can sometimes add additional imports before an entirely valid import can be done.  For example, the Asset table has several fields that contain values that, if not blank, must exist in a lookup table.  In the extreme case, this might require that you perform imports to the Condition, Status, Organization, Lease, Depreciation, Catalog Category, Catalog, Owner, Location and Vendor fields in addition to the Asset itself with its Location History.  If true, then these tables can have their values imported first, then the Asset and Location History can be done simultaneously as a separate operation.

The following is a list of tables and the tables that they do validation against:

Remember that most of these are required only if there are non-blank entries related to those tables.