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!