The Start Import Button Is Disabled, and Duplicate Part Numbers

The Import Parts screen walks through four steps — Upload File, Configure, Preview and Import — and the green Start Import button on the Preview step stays disabled until four specific selections are made. This article covers those four, and what the import actually does when a part number in your supplier file already exists at your lot.

Questions this answers

• "The Start Import button on the parts upload screen is greyed out even though I already picked my file and mapped Part Number — what else is it waiting on?"
• "I'm importing a parts file from our supplier and it keeps rejecting rows with something like 'part number already exists at this lot' — what should I do about those?"

This article is only about the Import Parts screen for parts inventory. It is not about importing vehicles from a spreadsheet, and it is not about purchase orders or receiving stock.

What Start Import is waiting on

Four things must be set. The button gives no message when it is disabled — it simply stays greyed out.

1. A file. A CSV or Excel file, up to 50 MB, chosen on the Upload File step.
2. A mapped Part Number column. On the Configure step, enter the column position that holds the part number.
3. When Duplicate Part is Found. A dropdown in the Import Options box. It has no default, so it must be chosen deliberately.
4. Default Vendor and Default Bin Location. Both live in the Defaults box, below the column mapping grid, and both are required. These are the two that are almost always the answer, because they sit far enough down the Configure step to be scrolled past.

You cannot even reach the Preview step without the file, the Part Number mapping and the duplicate choice — Next: Preview is disabled until those three are set. So if you have arrived at Preview and Start Import is still grey, the missing piece is Default Vendor, Default Bin Location, or both. Click Back, scroll to Defaults, and set them.

Two other options on that step are worth checking before you start, because they are easy to get wrong and awkward to undo:

• Has Header Row — leave it ticked if your first line is column titles, or the titles import as a part.
• Divide $ by 100 (prices in cents) — tick this only when your supplier sends prices in cents.

Duplicate part numbers: the import does not reject them

This is the part most people have backwards. The parts import never fails a row because the part number already exists. That is what the When Duplicate Part is Found setting is for, and whichever option you pick, the row is handled rather than refused.

Choose Add to Existing Quantity for a restock file from a supplier. Choose Update Existing for a full price-book refresh. Choose Skip when you only want the parts you do not already carry.

So where does "already exists at this lot" come from?

That wording appears when someone saves a single part by hand — adding a new part, or renaming an existing part's number to one already in use. Part numbers must be unique per lot, and the check only counts parts that are currently active, so a part number that was deleted can be used again.

"Per lot" matters: the same part number can exist at each of your lots as its own separate part record with its own quantity on hand. The import always loads into the lot you are currently switched to, so check the lot selector before you start a supplier file.

If you hit that message while saving a part, either edit the existing part rather than creating a second one, or give the new part a different part number.

Rows that really do error

When the import finishes you get counts for Total Rows, Created, Updated, Skipped and Errors, plus an Error Details table listing the row number, part number and message for every failure. Only two things put a row in those counts as a problem:

• A row with too few columns. The message names how many columns the row had and how many your mapping needs. This is usually a delimiter mismatch — check the Delimiter setting matches the file, and watch for commas inside unquoted descriptions.
• A row with no part number. These are counted as Skipped and are not listed individually. A large Skipped count on a file with no duplicates usually means the Part Number column position is off by one.

To rerun after fixing a file, click Import Another File and start again. If you already imported once, set When Duplicate Part is Found to Skip on the rerun so the rows that landed the first time are left alone.