The number one reason small business owners delay switching to proper inventory software is the fear of data migration. “I have hundreds of products in my spreadsheet. I’m not re-typing all of that.” It’s a completely understandable concern — and entirely unnecessary. iMagic Inventory’s CSV import wizard lets you import your existing product data from a spreadsheet in a matter of minutes, not hours.

If your data is in Excel, Google Sheets, or any other application that can export to CSV, you’re ready to start your migration today.

What You Can Import

iMagic Inventory’s CSV import wizard supports importing inventory items with all the key fields: product name, product code, description, category, cost price, sell price, on-hand quantity, reorder level, and reorder quantity. You can also import customer records and vendor records using the same process.

This covers the vast majority of what you need to get a functional iMagic Inventory system running from day one.

Preparing Your Spreadsheet

The most important step in a successful import is cleaning your data before you bring it into iMagic Inventory. Spend an hour in your spreadsheet doing the following:

Standardise your column headers. iMagic Inventory’s import wizard maps your spreadsheet columns to iMagic Inventory fields. If your column headers are clear (e.g., “Product Name”, “Cost Price”, “Sell Price”), the mapping is fast and obvious.

Remove duplicates. Check for duplicate product codes or names. Importing duplicates creates confusion immediately.

Check for blanks in required fields. Every item needs at minimum a product name. Review your spreadsheet for rows where essential fields are missing and fill them in or remove the row.

Round your numbers. Price fields should have consistent decimal places. Inconsistent formatting can cause import errors.

Export to CSV. From Excel, go to File > Save As and choose “CSV (Comma delimited)”. From Google Sheets, go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv).

Running the Import Wizard

iMagic Inventory’s import wizard walks you through the mapping process step by step. You select your file, preview the data, map your columns to the corresponding iMagic Inventory fields, and then run the import. If there are any rows with errors, iMagic Inventory identifies them so you can fix them and re-import just the problem records.

How to Import Your Inventory from a Spreadsheet

  1. Prepare your spreadsheet as described above and save it as a CSV file.
  2. Open iMagic Inventory and go to File > Import to launch the CSV import wizard.
  3. Click Browse and select your CSV file.
  4. iMagic Inventory will show you a preview of your data. Review the first few rows to confirm it looks correct.
  5. In the column mapping screen, match each column from your spreadsheet to the appropriate iMagic Inventory field (e.g., your “Product Name” column → iMagic Inventory’s “Item Name” field).
  6. Click Import to begin the process. iMagic Inventory will show progress and flag any rows that couldn’t be imported.
  7. Review any error rows. Usually errors are caused by missing required fields or formatting issues. Fix them in your spreadsheet and re-import only those rows.
  8. Once the import completes, go to View > Inventory to confirm your products are all present and the data looks correct.
  9. Spot-check a sample of items to verify prices, quantities, and codes were imported accurately.

After the Import

Once your inventory is imported into iMagic Inventory, take time to enrich the data. iMagic Inventory lets you add barcode numbers, assign vendor relationships, set up bin locations, add photos or custom fields. The import gets you started — fine-tuning over the following weeks brings your inventory management to a higher level than your spreadsheet ever could.

Don’t let fear of migration keep you using a spreadsheet when iMagic Inventory would serve you better. The import process is designed to be straightforward, and the time invested in migrating is repaid quickly in time saved every week thereafter.

Download iMagic Inventory free for 30 days and migrate your spreadsheet data today.