Import your inventory from Excel

You work for [your company name], a construction company in [city, province], with the TektonAI tools connected to this conversation.

What the TektonAI tools do:
- Scaffold prepares 3D scaffold plans from the dimensions of the structure: dimensioned A3 PDF plan, CAD plan (DXF), 3D model (STEP), bill of materials in Excel and CSV, and the load takedown. It revises an existing plan from its drawing number.
- Inventory keeps track of everything our company owns: quantities available, rented out, in for repair and out of service, by location, and every movement with the employee's name. It imports our parts list and reads barcodes.
- Scaffold plans use the parts of our Inventory when we ask.
- Materials keeps the catalogue of common building materials (drywall, lumber, insulation, hardware…) with our own items, and produces PDF and Excel catalogues from it. When I ask for a family, give only that family; accessories only when I ask for them.

How to work with me:
- Answer in English, in plain words and site terms. Produce documents (plans, calculation notes, labels, slips) in English.
- Use the TektonAI tools for every plan, quantity or weight. Never make up a dimension, a quantity or a weight.
- Before producing a plan, show the configuration and the bill of materials, and wait for my approval.
- When a tool asks me a question through a form, let me answer it myself. Never choose the duty class (light, intermediate or heavy) for me.
- Leave plans at the “PRÉLIMINAIRE” (preliminary) status until I give you the names of the person who checked the plan and the person who approved it.
- For an import into Inventory, show the preview, let me choose the mode and wait for my confirmation: a click on the card, or the word “Import” that I type myself. Pass my message on exactly as I wrote it.
- Remind me that plans are preliminary: a competent person must check them before erection.

Your parts list is already in a spreadsheet? Inventory takes it as is: you have nothing to retype.

This tutorial follows a full import, from uploading the file to the summary. It then shows how to complete the records. Allow about 15 minutes, plus the time to review your file.

What you need

• A TektonAI account, with Inventory connected in your assistant. See Get started.
• An Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file of 5 MB and 50,000 lines or less. If your file is bigger, split it into several files.

Step 1: prepare the file

Put one line per part. Inventory recognizes common column headers, in English and French:

• part number;
• description;
• category;
• dimensions;
• quantities by status: available, rented out, in for repair, out of service;
• location;
• weight, in kg or lb;
• barcode.

For the weight, enter only a reliable value: the one from the manufacturer’s data sheet or from a weighing. Inventory never guesses a weight. An empty cell is better than a rough number: you can fill it in after the import.

An example file for a fictional company. The weights of the guardrail and of the sole plates are left empty: the manufacturer’s data sheet does not give them. They will be asked for after the import.

Step 2: ask for the upload link

I want to import my inventory from an Excel file.

Your assistant gives you an upload link. This link is valid for one hour and reserved for your company.

1. Open the link.
2. Upload your file.
3. Come back to the conversation and say the file is uploaded.

Step 3: read the preview

Inventory reads the file without importing anything. The preview shows:

• the recognized columns;
• the first 10 lines;
• the problems found: empty or duplicate part numbers, quantities that are not numbers, negative quantities.

The preview of another example file, whose headers are not Inventory’s. “Matricule” is recognized as the part number, and “Dispo” as the quantity available. Information without a column stays empty: Inventory never guesses it.

A form appears in these cases:

• the part number column is missing;
• a header is not recognized;
• a proposed column is doubtful.

For each piece of information (part number, description, quantities, weight…), pick the column of your file that holds it, then send the form. The columns proposed from the headers are already selected. Inventory then redoes the preview with your answers.

Step 4: choose what to do with the parts already there

Your assistant asks how to handle the parts already in the inventory. It never chooses for you. There are four modes:

• nouvelles (new): only new parts come in;
• ajouter (add): the file’s quantities are added to the stock, as for a delivery;
• mettre à jour (update): the parts in the file take its quantities, as after a count;
• remplacer (replace): a full count; parts missing from the file go back to 0.

The preview shows the effect of each mode before you choose. For a first import, the “nouvelles” mode is enough.

Import in "nouvelles" mode.

Step 5: confirm

Nothing enters the inventory before you confirm.

1. A confirmation card shows the summary.
2. Click Import.

If your app does not show the card, type “Import” yourself in the conversation. A vague answer, like “yes”, is refused.

The import request stays valid for 30 minutes.

Step 6: follow the progress and read the summary

A small file imports in a few seconds, and the summary shows right away. A large file takes longer. You can carry on with your work and ask how the import is going:

How is the import going?

Your assistant gives you the number of lines processed. At the end, it gives you the summary:

• the parts created;
• the parts changed;
• the details the records are still missing.

The import is all or nothing. If an error occurs, nothing is applied, and you can start the import again.

Step 7: complete the records

If records have no category or weight, a form asks for them for each part. Nothing is prefilled.

• Enter a weight only if it comes from the manufacturer’s data sheet or from a weighing.
• Otherwise, leave the field empty.
• A weight you enter is marked as declared by the client.

Good to know

• No import deletes a record or a movement from the log.
• A part already in the inventory keeps its record. Only its quantities change, according to the mode you chose.
• A negative quantity is imported as 0. The summary then asks you to count that stock.
• The same file cannot be imported twice in “ajouter” mode: a delivery counts only once.
• A “Barcode” column links the manufacturer’s codes (UPC, EAN) to your parts. See Label your fleet with QR codes.
• Your scaffold plans can then use these parts. See Make a scaffold plan with your own parts.