I’m hoping there may be a better method for this.
What I do now is use .xls spreadsheets and update the item pricing one by one. Then re-import the file to update in Striven. This is obviously very tedious and time consuming.
We’re in the time of year where the hearth industry puts out new pricing for 2025, so I’m wondering how do y’all do this? Is there a better/simpler/faster way?
Thanks!
We have a pretty slick process now because we run things through an Access database to validate pricing before we update it. @Joe do you want to fill them in. We would always be happy to setup a call as well.
We do an export of our entire item population from striven, scrub the price list from the vendors to get it clean, then upload both files to an access database. In access you can run a query that will match on item numbers and match anything that needs to be updated.
You can accomplish the same thing using vlookup in excel, but I find using access easier and capable of doing more. If you can manage to do this process you can handle a pricing update, whether it’s 100 items or 10,000 items in under an hour. Spot checking and verifying the information is correct is the most important part of the process since you are doing such mass updates.
Feel free to let me know if you would want to look into this as a possible solution for your business.
I still do it with spreadsheets, but it takes about the same amount of time once you create a template sheet to start from and use the tools within Striven to categorize your item list. If a vendor isn’t giving me a flat XLS file for uploading items into a POS or ERP, we aren’t buying from them. We don’t support companies that are stuck in the early 1990s with only a few notable exceptions, but my sales rep hears about it, with fervor, every single time.
Categorization of Items:
In the worst case scenario, you buy multiple product lines from the same manufacturer through different distributors. Napoleon is a good example. You may buy some hearth direct, some hearth from a distributor and grills from another distributor. In this case, you have 3 different price lists coming at you at different times. Separating direct purchases from distribution purchases is easy enough with a vendor price list within Striven. Separating the hearth from the outdoor/grills can be done by either creating a Napoleon Outdoor ‘manufacturer’ or by using categories. Either way, you can use the custom reports to get a list of item ID, item name, item number, descriptions, type, division, category, UOM, Serialized, cost, price, and anything else that may be updated from Striven, or added to Striven, based on exactly the product line you need to update. From that report you can either export to XLS or use the API to insert the data directly into a spreadsheet. I have this report saved as “Item Update” and I only change the filters for the product line I’m updating. For many of our manufacturers I append the beginning of the item name with an abbreviation of the manufacturer so prevent duplicate item names in the system. I have another custom report created in the same fashion based on the inventory dataset to know whether or not I have a product in stock for sorting obsolete items.
My template has:
- a sheet to catch the data from the price list custom report from Striven (be sure to modify the headers in your custom report to match what Striven needs for uploading as it will save you time later)
- an empty sheet to copy/paste the data from the vendor’s XLS price list (this must be formatted to match the data from Striven)
- a sheet that uses FILTER and VLOOKUP to give me items that exist in both sheets with both the old and new pricing and old and new descriptions (I update descriptions when companies do something smart, like adding “for unit XYZ42” to the description for accessories and parts)
- a similar sheet that only has parts from the new price list that are not already in Striven (new items that need the full build out of custom category, division, tax, and so on)
- a similar sheet that only has parts from Striven that are not in the new price list (obsolete or discontinued items that need to be made inactive once they are out of stock)
- a sheet to catch the data from the inventory custom report from Striven
- a sheet similar to the earlier sheets that filters items from the ‘not on the new price list but do exist in Striven’ based on whether or not I have the items in stock
- an empty sheet for updating price and description only changes
- this sheet gets the data from the ‘in both Striven and the new price list’ copy/pasted to it so I don’t disrupt the formulas and I can delete unnecessary columns
- if descriptions have been updated, I use find/replace to replace quotation marks with “in” for inches, commas with “;” or “-”, and remove any formatted marks, like trademark, accented letters, and any other nonsense that CSV doesn’t digest well - an empty sheet for uploading new items
- this sheet gets the data from ‘in the new price list but not in Striven’ copy/pasted to it so I don’t disrupt formulas and the descriptions formatted as above - an empty sheet for updating obsolete items
- if an item is obsolete and I don’t have it in stock or need it to complete a product package it is marked as inactive
- if an item is obsolete and I do have it or need it to complete a product package, I append the item name with “-OBS” so we can maintain a list of closeout items with another custom report that can be emailed to sales for discounted sales of in-stock items
Finally, all 3 lists get spot checked for accuracy and each uploaded individually, so I’m not uploading any data that is unnecessary. It took me more time to type this out than it takes to actually do the work for a new price list. If this template would be useful, let me know and I’ll create one with the instructions included for your own use. That would actually force me to make one so I can hand off this tedious process to a team member rather than doing it myself.
Thank you for these details!! Your template would honestly be super useful as opposed to the rudimentary version I’m currently using. Much appreciated!
I’m looking at Access now. Thanks!
Thanks for your input!
Hello, did you by chance ever make the template you were talking about and would be willing to share?
I did… but I was relying on static scripts to parse vendor pricing in Google Sheets. No matter how many rules I wrote, a new vendor would always come along with some “creative” new file format that broke everything and required a complete rewrite with new rule sets. It was the script version of Whack-A-Mole.
Then AI caught up, and it changed the game. Instead of relying on rigid scripts, AI adapts dynamically without me having to write new code so a team member can handle the process. It actually thinks through what I want and figures out how to get it.
Why I Built These Apps
Sure, you could just drop your files into an AI chat directly and feed it your Striven item rules every single time. But my apps lock those rules in. They keep your logic stable, accessible, and ready to go forever. It’s just easier long-term.
Here is what I am currently using to run my own data:
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The Excel Whisperer (Powered by Claude): Claude processes messy Excel files like butter. I can drop in the most poorly executed spreadsheet, and it will ask the exact right questions to parse it accurately. From there, the app uploads the update directly to Striven via API. ChatGPT is okay, but Claude beats it up with pure logic. Unfortunately, Claude looks at PDFs like they’re written in Klingon. Which brings me to…
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The PDF Tamer (Powered by Gemini): Gemini processes PDFs like butter. Same deal—the app gets the context it needs and spits perfectly organized data into a Google Sheet. From there, I can upload it via my API app, or just use a good old-fashioned CSV upload if the descriptions don’t have any squirrely characters.
What’s Next: A Striven Swiss Army Knife
Right now, I’m selfishly finishing up a few more Striven helper apps because our Fiscal Year End is next week. (I actually just finished building a multi-user, multi-store, multi-warehouse physical inventory app this morning to help us close the books!)
After a conference next month, my next big project is opening these tools up to link with other companies’ Striven instances. Here is the vision:
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Seamless Onboarding: A simple online form to map out your account names, categories, departments, naming conventions, and custom fields, complete with easy directions to build the custom Striven reports needed to feed some of the apps.
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Bulletproof Security: Data will remain completely siloed between companies. Your API IDs and Secrets will be completely secure—even from me.
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Modular Tools: I’m building this ecosystem to be a digital Swiss Army Knife. You just pick the tools you want and use them at will.
I’m being my own guinea pig right now to ensure everything is flawless before I roll it out. Stay tuned.
So far, I have built -
- Payroll App using custom hours reports and PTO reports to compile a CSV file for our PEO to upload directly into their system. Maintains overtime, holiday and work comp classes.
- Payroll Invoice Importer that takes the PEO invoice PDF and imports checks into Striven per store, work comp class, division and correct COGS/Expense accounts.
- Receipt Importer that parses credit card receipts entered into a form, creates the charges in Striven, and attaches the receipt image
- Bill Importer/PO Item Receipt Importer that is nearly complete, but I need an API endpoint to add serial numbers to line items.
- Site Visit Info Grab App that updates a measure/site visit task with custom fields, attachments, checklist, and notes. Starts a workflow depending on the information. Working on integrating Jamie, Fireflies or Plaud for live audio transcription, recording and summary to be attached. It’s been a real problem with clients and contractors ‘misremembering’ conversations.
- Showroom/Reception App that collects info while visiting with potential clients, providing a conversational script template, rather than a checklist style script. It creates the customer, the contacts, the locations, the opportunity and a completed task with all info and any attachments. Working on integrating Jamie, Fireflies or Plaud for live audio transcription, recording and summary to be attached.
- Physical Inventory App that allows live counting, review by manager, and uploading of inventory adjustment into Striven (still lacking serial numbers, but the app splits out equipment so it can be imported easily enough). It will work wonders for cycle counts.
- Upcoming website integration to feed lead/prospects, appointments, service requests, opportunities, and tasks based on AI chat bot results.
- Upcoming advanced workflows to change custom fields on sales orders, (hopefully) opportunities, tasks, purchase orders and anything else I can think of to automate button presses within Striven. I’d really like to see an API endpoint for labels for all of these transactions.
- Upcoming sales/use tax calculation app to pull invoices and separate retail (no labor) sales from contracted (labor) sales and accurately calculate sales and use tax on a schedule.
- This summer I’ll be working on a native mobile app that will allow field techs to complete tasks and upload attachments with a UI that works properly on a phone and has offline capability. It will bring line items in from the associated sales order and allow the user to select if items have been used, will be used, or are no longer needed, as well as add items to a change order if necessary. It will allow creation of follow-up tasks, warranty returns, and customer asset management, with serial number - as a custom field. The only thing missing to make that work 100% is an API endpoint for entering hours. Phase 2 of the app will be location tracking and triggering automatic time entry based on location because no one likes punching a time clock.
Yes, I spend some time going through the community voting area looking for new app ideas based on suggestions, but I’m really focusing on efficiency within our company. We do so much custom work that keeping a very granular grasp on where projects are in our workflow is crucial, but enormously labor intensive - simply because of the button presses. The more I automate, the higher our revenue to team member ratio is. I’ll be actively decreasing overhead and expenses while increasing the entire team’s profit share because we all work on a percentage.
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