How to move off spreadsheets into SECND
Spreadsheets migrate cleanly if you clean them first. Fix the SKU column, split anything you have been storing as free text, decide what history is actually worth importing, and resist recreating your spreadsheet's structure inside the new system.
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Why spreadsheet migrations go wrong
Not because of the data volume. They go wrong because a spreadsheet lets you store anything anywhere, and after two years of that, a single column contains three different kinds of information. The migration surfaces every shortcut at once.
The good news is that the cleanup is worth doing regardless. A spreadsheet you cannot import is usually also a spreadsheet you cannot report from.
Clean these before you import
- SKUs: every row needs a unique identifier. Blank SKUs, duplicated SKUs and SKUs that are really descriptions all have to be fixed first.
- Prices: strip currency symbols and make sure there is one price column, not a mix of asking price, sold price and cost in the same field.
- Cost: if you have been tracking what you paid, separate it from price. Margin reporting depends on this and it is much harder to reconstruct later.
- Status: a clear sold / available / on hold value, rather than inferring status from whether a row is highlighted yellow.
- Consignor: if you take consignment, one column with a consistent consignor identifier, not names typed slightly differently each time.
- Dates: a consistent intake date format. Mixed formats are the single most common import failure.
Decide what history is worth bringing
Current inventory: import all of it. That is the whole point. Sold history is a judgement call — a year of sales makes your early reporting useful, but importing five years of messy history mostly imports mess. Most operators bring current stock plus twelve months of sales and archive the rest.
| Data | Import? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Available inventory | Always | This is what the system exists to manage. |
| Cost per item | Always if you have it | Cannot be reconstructed later; drives all margin reporting. |
| Consignor balances | Yes | Opening balances need to be right from day one. |
| Last 12 months of sales | Usually | Enough to make sell-through and seasonality reports meaningful. |
| Older sales history | Rarely | Archive the spreadsheet instead; the import cost outweighs the value. |
Do not rebuild the spreadsheet inside the software
The most common failure after a successful import is behavioural. People recreate their spreadsheet's habits as custom fields — a column for every eventuality, statuses that encode workflow, notes fields carrying structured data.
Use the native concepts instead. Consignor terms belong on the consignor. Location belongs on the item. Condition belongs in the condition field, where marketplaces can actually read it. A custom field should be something genuinely specific to your business, not a re-import of a column you created because a spreadsheet had no better place to put it.
After the import
- 1
Spot-check twenty items
Pick a mix — cheap, expensive, consigned, aged. Confirm price, cost, status and consignor came through correctly on each.
- 2
Reconcile a total
Compare total item count and total retail value against the spreadsheet. A mismatch here is much easier to diagnose now than in three months.
- 3
Print a few labels
Confirm the SKU and barcode on a printed tag scan correctly at the register before you tag the whole floor.
- 4
Freeze the spreadsheet
Make it read-only and date it. The failure mode is a team that keeps half-updating the old sheet for another two months.
Frequently asked questions
What file format should I use?
A CSV exported from your spreadsheet, with one header row and one item per row. Avoid merged cells, multiple sheets in one import, and formulas — export values, not formulas.
What if my items have no SKUs at all?
SECND can generate them on import. Generated SKUs are fine going forward; the reason to fix them first is if your existing physical tags already carry a number you want to keep using.
Can I import photos from a spreadsheet?
Photos come in by URL if your sheet holds links, or you attach them after import. For most spreadsheet migrations photos are the part that has to be redone, because they were never stored systematically in the first place.
Should I import items that have been sitting for years?
Import them, then use aging reports to decide what to do about them. Importing gives you the first honest measurement of how much capital is in dead stock, which is usually the most valuable output of the whole migration.
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