I can’t seem to import Assets using a formatted import. What am I doing wrong?

There are many things that can go wrong when importing assets because assets depend on many different tables. Go through this general checklist when doing an asset import.

Checklist:

#1. Consider importing into the Transaction table instead of the Asset table.

Normally most imports into the Asset table should actually be imported into the Transaction table.  This is especially true if you are adding new assets. Importing into the Transaction table ensures the highest degree of data validation and automatically handles many situations that must be manually taken into account when importing directly into the Asset table. If you are adding new assets, make them TAGs.  If updating assets, make them TAKEs.

#2. Import data into supporting tables first, as well as individually, before importing assets.

Assets have many supporting tables, among them are the Organization, Catalog, Location, Status, Condition, Owner, Personnel, Vendor and Depreciation Method tables.  Note that Location History and Deprecation tables are not considered supporting tables here.  Before importing into the Asset table, be sure to import the corresponding information into all supporting tables first. For example, all assets reference a catalog.  If the catalog does not already exist in the Catalog table, it must be imported before the asset that refers to it is imported. If you do not import the Catalog into the Catalog table first, then the Asset import will fail validation since the Catalog does not exist yet.  Please note that there is one exception to this. If you are doing an import that will CHANGE the value of a key field in a support table other than the Personnel or Location tables then you must do a grouped import of that table at the same time as the asset table.

If problems occur during the import, importing data into the supporting tables first and doing it just one table at a time can help make diagnosing the source of any errors much simpler.

Additionally, the Personnel and Location supporting tables will automatically update related data in the Asset and Location History tables and are easier to import into. If these are the only changes that you need, then an import into the Asset table may not be needed at all. For example, updating the Region field in a location in the Location table will update that location to the new Region field value everywhere that location appears in BarScan, including the Asset and Location History tables. One thing to keep in mind is that some fields are more ‘expensive’ to update than others. This is true of the key Location table fields. A change to a single location field can trigger a change in hundreds of records in other tables. If you are updating hundreds of locations this may take many hours.

#3. In the following circumstances you do not need to import into the Asset table at all. Perform your import into the Location History table only and the related field values echoed in the Asset table will be automatically updated.

a.) If you are ONLY updating fields that are found in the Location History table.

b.) If you are ONLY updating fields that are found in BOTH the Location History table AND the Asset table. See below for other rules as well.

#4. If you are only ADDING new assets it is strongly recommended that you add assets using the Transaction table as described in item # 1 above.

#5. If you are ADDING or CHANGING new assets but have decided not to use the Transaction table you must adhere to the following rules to prevent failure of your import.

a.) If the Asset is a new asset or the asset has a new location. Every asset must have at least one (1) valid Location History entry. If you are updating the asset’s location there are two ways to make sure that your imported Asset has a valid location history entry:

I. IMPORT ONLY INTO THE ASSET TABLE.  When ADDING or CHANGING an asset in the Asset table make sure that you also update the entries for the CURRENT LOCATION fields in the asset table AND then make sure that there is a check mark next to the Formatted Import option ‘Automatically Transfer a new Current Location into the Asset Location History’.  Don’t forget that the Field ‘Location Type’ must be in the Values Tab.  You can use a Replace ‘Current Location Type’ with VALUE = SITE.  BarScan will then automatically generate a new Location History entry for you during the import operation.  Note that this is true for both updates and adds.  UPDATE ONLY THE CURRENT LOCATION FIELDS, NOT THE PRIOR LOCATION FIELDS.  ADDITIONALLY, THIS CAN ONLY BE DONE IF THE ‘AUTO TRANSFER’ OPTION IS SELECTED, OTHERWISE THE DATA WILL NOT BE SAVED OR WILL NOT PASS VALIDATION.  The reason for this is that the location data flows from the Location History items into the copy in the Asset table, not the other way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. IMPORT INTO THE ASSET AND LOCATION HISTORY TABLE SIMULTANEOUSLY.  Import into both the Asset and Location History tables using two formatted import items (one for the Asset information and one for the Location History information) and perform the import IN THE SAME IMPORT OPERATION.  In other words, prepare two formatted import items, one for the Asset table and one for the Location History table. Range both so that both are highlighted. MAKE SURE THAT THE ASSET IMPORT APPEARS FIRST IN THE LIST. Then you may press the Import/Export button to perform the import. To make sure that the Asset table appears first in the list and to assist you in keeping your imports organized put values in the ‘Group Name’ and ‘Group Order’ fields. The imports are performed in the order in which they appear on the screen when you start the import.

III. If you are going to CHANGE any Location History entries then you must decide what kind of a change it is.  If your changes result in already existing locations you may perform the import as is. However, if you are attempting to ‘correct’ the location and it is actually going to be still the same location but with a changed field value then you should change the location in the Location table not in the Location History table.

b.) Every asset must have a valid Catalog.