Import orders from a CSV or Excel file

The Orders page at /orders is where every order lives, whether it came from a store or a file. If your store is not connected, or you want to load history, import your orders from a file.

The buttons on the Orders page

• Warehouses: add the places your consignments ship from (code, optional name, suburb, state and postcode).
• Template: download order-import-template.csv with the right headings and three example rows.
• Export CSV: download your orders. It follows the From and To dates you have applied.
• Import CSV or Excel: choose a .csv, .xlsx or .xls file to import.
• New order: enter a single order by hand.

The file

One row per order line. Rows with the same order_id make one order. Rows with the same carrier_code and connote make one consignment, so an order can be split across connotes and one connote can carry several orders.

Required columns:

• order_id: your order number, up to 100 characters
• order_date: YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY
• dest_suburb, dest_state and dest_postcode: the delivery address. The state is an Australian state or territory (such as VIC or NSW) and the postcode is 4 digits.
• sku_code: the SKU on this line
• qty: a whole number from 1 to 10,000
• freight_charged_ex_gst and freight_gst: what the customer paid for freight on the whole order, in dollars and cents ex GST, with GST in its own column (for example 34.01 and 3.40)

Optional columns:

• customer_ref and customer_name
• connote, carrier_code, service_code and ship_date: fill these in to create the consignment at the same time. When you give a connote, carrier_code and ship_date are required too.
• origin_code: the warehouse code the consignment left from. You need it only when you have more than one warehouse.

Order details (date, customer, destination and freight amounts) must be the same on every row of an order. Consignment details (service, ship date, origin and destination) must be the same on every row of a connote.

A file can be up to 5 MB and 10,000 rows. For workbooks with several sheets, Forensik asks which sheet to import.

All or nothing

The import is checked as a whole. If any row has a problem, nothing is imported and you see "Import failed" with each row number and what is wrong. Fix those rows and upload the whole file again. See Import row errors and Import missing columns.

When it works, you see "Import complete" with the number of orders, consignments and packages created. Consignments are priced straight away from your approved rate cards, fuel levy and markup rules.

Lines that cannot be priced

Forensik never guesses a carton size. If a line's SKU has no cartons set up, the order is still imported, but the line is marked cannot price and the order shows a "cannot price" badge in the Lines column. Tick Cannot price in the filters to list these orders. Add cartons for the SKU and the line can be priced. See SKUs and cartons and Cannot price orders.

Add a consignment later

If you imported orders without connotes, they show Not shipped. Open the order and select Add consignment to record the carrier, connote and ship date, and choose which lines and units went on it.

Find orders

Search by order ID, SKU or postcode, filter by date, customer and carrier, then select Apply. Clear removes the filters. Select any row to open the order.