Importing Items

You can bulk-create Items in Blueprint Studio by importing them from an Excel file. This is ideal when onboarding from another system or loading a large order into a project.

This page covers:

  • Where to find the Import Items screen

  • How to prepare your Excel file (column names & formats)

  • How to Validate and Import & Save

  • How to handle missing Vendors and Rooms

  • How statuses work (✅ / ⚠️ / ❌ / 📥)

Where to find the Item Import screen

For a given project:

  1. Open the project.

  2. Go to the Items view for that project.

  3. Click Create New to open the menu

  4. Click Import Items from Excel (or the import link/button in the Items area).

On the Import screen you’ll see:

  • An Upload area for your .xlsx file.

  • A toolbar with:

    • Category (required)

    • Schedule (required)

    • Commission % (shown only if commissions are enabled for the company)

  • An empty grid that already shows the expected columns (this is your template/spec).

Excel file format

General rules

  • File type: .xlsx (Excel)

  • Blueprint reads only the first sheet in the workbook.

  • The first non-empty row is treated as the header row.

  • Data rows start immediately after the header row.

  • Completely blank rows are ignored.

  • Extra columns (not used by Blueprint) are allowed but will be ignored.

Required header row

Your header row must contain these column names. They are case-insensitive, but spelling and punctuation must match.

If a column header is wrong (for example, VendorDoc# instead of Vendor Doc #), its values will not be imported.

Column reference

These are the fields Blueprint expects and understands:

Excel Column Name
Required?
Type / Format
Description

Name

✅ Yes

Text

Item name. If blank, the row is skipped.

Description

⚪ Optional

Text

Description shown on the item (used for both client and vendor descriptions).

Vendor

⚪ Optional

Text

Vendor name. Must match an existing Vendor (case-insensitive) to be linked.

Room

⚪ Optional

Text

Room name. Must match an existing Room for the project to be linked.

Quantity

✅ Yes

Number

Quantity > 0. If ≤ 0, the row is marked as error.

Price

✅ Yes

Number

Purchase cost per unit.

Tax

⚪ Optional

Number

Purchase tax amount.

Shipping

⚪ Optional

Number

Purchase shipping amount.

Vendor Doc #

⚪ Optional

Text / Number

Vendor document number (e.g. PO, vendor invoice). Imported as a string.

Vendor Doc Date

⚪ Optional

Date M/d/yyyy

Date of the vendor document (e.g. 1/15/2025). See notes below.

Notes

⚪ Optional

Text

Internal notes on the item.

Special handling for Vendor Doc Date

  • Expected format: M/d/yyyy (for example, 1/5/2025, 12/31/2025).

  • The following values are treated as “no date” (not an error, just ignored):

    • XXX

    • N/A

    • NA

    • TBD

  • Any other non-parseable date string will cause a Warning:

    • Status: Warning

    • Message: Invalid receipt date: <value>

    • The row can still be imported.

Project-level settings (Category, Schedule, Commission)

At the top of the import screen there is a toolbar:

  • Category – Item Category to apply to all imported items in this batch.

  • Schedule – Schedule to assign to all imported items in this batch.

  • Commission % – If your company has commissions enabled, you must provide a Commission % (applied to all imported items).

These values are not taken from Excel. They are chosen once in the UI and applied to every item created from this import.

If any required selection is missing:

  • Missing Category → error: “Please select a category before importing”

  • Missing Schedule → error: “Please select a schedule before importing”

  • Commission enabled but no Commission % → error: “Please select a commission percentage before importing”

Step 1 – Upload the Excel file

  1. Click the Upload component and select your .xlsx file.

  2. Blueprint:

    • Finds the header row.

    • Reads all non-blank data rows.

  3. The grid is populated with one row per line in the Excel sheet.

The grid columns are fixed to:

  • Name

  • Description

  • Vendor

  • Room

  • Quantity

  • Price

  • Tax

  • Shipping

  • Vendor Doc #

  • Vendor Doc Date

  • Notes

  • Status

  • Message

  • Actions

If a field is populated in Excel but appears blank in the grid, the most likely cause is a header spelling mismatch.

Step 2 – Validate

You can validate in either of these ways:

  • Click the Validate button; or

  • Use the Actions ▾ → ✅ Validate menu.

Validation goes through each row and sets its Status and Message.

Status values

The Status column shows a badge with emoji + text:

  • ⏳ Pending – Row has not yet been validated.

  • ✅ Valid – Row is valid and will be imported.

  • ⚠️ Warning – Row has a non-critical issue (e.g., invalid date); it can still be imported.

  • ❌ Error – Row has a blocking issue and will not be imported.

  • ⏭ Skipped – Row is ignored (for example, missing required fields like Name).

  • 🚚 Importing – Row is currently being saved during an import run.

  • 📥 Imported – Row has already been imported and will not be imported again.

Once a row is Imported, it is treated as final and is never re-imported, even if you run import again. This prevents duplicates.

Validation rules (high level)

  • Name

    • If blank → row is Skipped ("Missing required fields or non-item row").

  • Quantity

    • Must be > 0 → otherwise row is Error ("Quantity must be > 0").

  • Vendor

    • If provided, must match an existing Vendor (case-insensitive).

    • If not found → Error ("Unknown vendor: "Vendor Name"").

  • Room

    • If provided, must match an existing Room for the project.

    • If not found → Error ("Unknown room: "Room Name"").

  • Vendor Doc Date

    • Special values (XXX, N/A, NA, TBD) → treated as no date (not an error).

    • Invalid date format → Warning ("Invalid receipt date: …") but still importable.

Step 3 – Fix missing Vendors and Rooms

If validation shows errors for unknown Vendors or Rooms, you have two options.

A. Fix from the row’s Actions menu

Each row has an Actions column with a menu (typically “⋮”):

  • 🌎 Create Vendor

    • Opens the Vendor dialog with the name pre-filled from the row.

    • After saving, validation can be re-run so that row becomes Valid/Warning.

  • 🛏️ Create Room

    • Opens the Room dialog with the name pre-filled and linked to the current project.

    • After saving, validation can be re-run so that row becomes Valid/Warning.

B. Auto-create missing Rooms in bulk

In the header Actions ▾ menu you can choose:

  • 🏠 Create Missing Rooms

This will:

  1. Scan all rows for distinct Room names.

  2. Compare them to existing Rooms for the project.

  3. Auto-create any missing Rooms.

  4. Re-run validation so rows move from Error to Valid/Warning as appropriate.

Vendors are global and usually managed more carefully, so bulk auto-create is only provided for Rooms.

Step 4 – Import & Save

When you are satisfied with the validation results:

  1. Click Import & Save (or Actions ▾ → 📥 Import & Save).

  2. The system will:

    • Ensure Category, Schedule, and (if required) Commission % are selected.

    • Re-run validation only (no saving yet).

    • Build a summary of the current statuses and show a confirmation dialog, for example:

    • Excel rows: total rows

    • Will create items for: count of rows that are Valid or Warning

    • Errors: count

    • Warnings: count

    • Skipped: count

    Only rows with Valid or Warning status are importable.

  3. If you confirm:

    • An “Import in progress” dialog appears with an indeterminate progress bar.

    • The import runs in the background; the UI stays responsive.

    • For each successfully saved row:

      • Status becomes 📥 Imported

      • Message is set to OK.

  4. When the import finishes:

    • The progress dialog closes.

    • A notification shows how many rows were imported, for example: Imported 42 / 50 rows.

You remain on the Import screen so you can review which rows were imported and which failed.

Re-running Validate / Import

You can:

  • Run Validate multiple times (for example, after creating missing Vendors/Rooms).

  • Run Import & Save again after fixing errors.

Safety rules:

  • Rows with Status = Imported are never re-imported (no duplicates).

  • Validation and import skip Imported rows and leave their status/message untouched.

  • You can continue to correct non-imported rows and re-run the process.

Recommended workflow

  1. Prepare the Excel file

    • Use this header row (in any order, but exactly spelled):

    • Fill in your items.

    • Ensure Vendor and Room names match existing records in Blueprint (or be prepared to create them).

    • Use M/d/yyyy format for Vendor Doc Date, or leave blank / use XXX, N/A, NA, TBD if there is no date.

  2. Configure project-level import settings

    • Select Category for all items.

    • Select Schedule for all items.

    • Enter Commission % if required.

  3. Upload and validate

    • Upload the .xlsx file.

    • Click Validate.

    • Fix any Error rows:

      • Create missing Vendors / Rooms as needed.

      • Correct Quantity, Name, etc.

  4. Import

    • Click Import & Save.

    • Review the summary in the confirmation dialog.

    • Confirm to start the import.

  5. Review results

    • Verify that the rows you expected show as 📥 Imported.

    • If needed, adjust remaining rows and re-run Validate / Import.

Your items are now created in the project and can be used throughout Blueprint Studio (proposals, purchase orders, invoices, etc.).

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