> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aimventory.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Import Data
> Bring your existing stock into AIM from a spreadsheet — you answer a few setup questions once, upload your file, confirm what each column means, check the products AIM matched, and then load it all into a location.
Bring your existing stock into AIM from a spreadsheet — you answer a few setup questions once, upload your file, confirm what each column means, check the products AIM matched, and then load it all into a location.
**Where to find it:** [Open Import Data in AIM](https://aimventory.com/data-import) — you will be asked to sign in first.
## What you can do here
* Answer a one-time setup questionnaire so AIM understands your sizes, conditions, and SKUs
* Upload a spreadsheet export from Copyt, Consignr, Shopify, a till system, or your own list
* Confirm which of your columns holds the style code, size, quantity, price, and cost
* Review the products AIM matched, correct the wrong ones, and create anything missing
* Load the approved rows into one of your locations as real, countable stock
## Buttons, fields, and controls
| Control | Where | What it does | When to use it |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Set Up Your Import (questionnaire) | Shown instead of the wizard until you finish it once | A five-part questionnaire — What You Sell, Your Data, Sizes & Conditions, Your Stock, and Review — that teaches AIM how your spreadsheet is written. | You only see this the first time. Later imports go straight to the upload step. |
| What product categories do you sell? | Questionnaire, "What You Sell" | Tick every category you carry — sneakers, streetwear, trading cards, collectibles, electronics, accessories, or other. | Tick everything you actually stock, even the small lines; it widens what AIM will try to match. |
| What brands do you primarily carry? | Questionnaire, "What You Sell" | A type-and-press-Enter box for your main brands. Each brand becomes a removable chip. | Add your top sellers — Jordan, New Balance, Yeezy — so brand names in your file are recognised. |
| What condition are your products typically in? | Questionnaire, "What You Sell" | Tells AIM whether your stock is all new, mostly new, mixed, or mostly used. Choosing "all new" hides the condition questions later. | Pick honestly — this decides whether AIM asks you to translate your condition wording. |
| Where is your inventory data coming from? | Questionnaire, "Your Data" | Names the system your file came out of: Copyt, Consignr, a Shopify product export, a custom spreadsheet, a till export, or something else. | Pick the closest match; choosing "Other" asks you to describe it in a box. |
| Do your products have SKUs or style codes? | Questionnaire, "Your Data" | Says whether all, some, or none of your rows carry a style code. Answering "yes" or "some" adds a follow-up asking what those codes look like. | Style codes are the single strongest matching signal — answer this carefully. |
| What sizing systems do you use? | Questionnaire, "Sizes & Conditions" | Ticks the size scales in your file — US Men's, US Women's, US Kids, EU, UK, apparel letters, or one size. | If you sell both men's and women's, tick both. Ticking only one makes AIM read every plain number as that gender and mis-match the rest — a warning appears if you do. |
| How are sizes formatted in your data? | Questionnaire, "Sizes & Conditions" | Says whether your sizes look like "10.5", "US 10.5", "10.5M", letter sizes, or a mix. | Open your file and look at the size column before answering. "I'm not sure" is allowed. |
| What condition terms do you use in your data? | Questionnaire, "Sizes & Conditions" | A chip box for the exact wording in your file — DS, VNDS, Used, B-Grade, and so on. | Only appears when you said your stock is not all new. Type in whatever words your file actually uses. |
| Your Term / AIM Condition table | Questionnaire, "Sizes & Conditions" | Translates each of your condition words into one of AIM's four: New, New with Defects, Pre-Owned, or Damaged. AIM pre-fills a sensible guess. | Check every row — a wrong translation puts worn pairs into your new stock. |
| What products do you have in stock? | Questionnaire, "Your Stock" | Search and tick the products you carry so AIM recognises them instantly on your first upload. This step is optional. | Worth two minutes for your best sellers; skip it if you are in a hurry. |
| Back / Continue / Complete Setup | Questionnaire, bottom of the card | Moves between questionnaire parts. "Continue" stays greyed out until the required answers on that part are filled in. "Complete Setup" saves everything and opens the wizard. | You can click a completed step in the strip at the top to go back and change an answer. |
| Step strip (Upload, Map Columns, Analysis, Review Matches, Import) | Top of the wizard | Shows where you are in the import. Finished steps get a tick. | Glance at it to see how much is left; AIM moves you along on its own as each step finishes. |
| File name tag | Beside the "Import Data" title | Shows the name of the file this import is working from. | Check it if you have several exports on your desktop and want to be sure you uploaded the right one. |
| CSV File | Step 1, Upload | Picks the file from your computer. Comma-separated (.csv), tab-separated (.tsv), and plain text (.txt) files are accepted. | Export from your old system as CSV first. The file needs a header row and one row per size — a spreadsheet saved as .xlsx will not be accepted. |
| Upload & Detect Columns | Step 1, Upload | Sends the file to AIM, counts the rows, and takes a first guess at what each column holds. Stays greyed out until you pick a file. | Click once your file is chosen; you get a confirmation showing how many rows were read. |
| Mapped To | Step 2, Map Columns | A dropdown on every column of your file. Choose SKU / Style Code, Product Name, Brand, Size, Condition, Quantity, Price, Cost, Barcode / UPC, Category, Image URL, or "(Skip this column)". | Fix anything AIM guessed wrong. Set columns you do not care about — internal notes, staff initials — to "Skip this column". |
| Sample Values | Step 2, Map Columns | Shows the first few real values from that column of your file. | Use it to tell two similar columns apart — for example price versus cost. |
| Confidence | Step 2, Map Columns | A percentage showing how sure AIM is about its guess for that column. | Anything low deserves a look before you continue. |
| Confirm & Analyze | Step 2, Map Columns | Saves your column choices and starts matching your rows against the AIM product catalog. | Click once every column you care about points at the right thing. |
| SKU Quality / Size Format / Brands cards | Step 3, Analysis | A summary of what AIM found in your file — how many rows carry a style code, the dominant size format, and how many brands are present. | Read it as a health check. Poor style-code coverage explains a big unmatched pile later. |
| Auto-matched / Needs review / Low confidence / Unmatched counts | Step 3, Analysis | How your rows split once matching finishes. | Use it to judge how much review work is ahead before you dive in. |
| Review Matches | Step 3, Analysis | Moves you on to the review step. | Click once the analysis has finished and the counts have appeared. |
| Auto-Matched / Needs Review / Unmatched tabs | Step 4, Review Matches | Splits your rows into confidently matched, possible-but-unconfirmed, and no-match-found. | Work left to right: skim the auto-matched, decide the middle pile, then rescue the unmatched. |
| Approve All | Step 4, on the Auto-Matched tab | Approves every row on the auto-matched tab in one click. | Use it after spot-checking a handful of rows, not before. |
| Other candidates | Step 4, on a row that still needs a decision | Lists the runner-up products AIM considered, with their scores. Clicking one makes it the match. | Quickest fix when AIM picked a close cousin of the right shoe. |
| Approve this match (tick) | Step 4, right-hand side of a row | Accepts the product AIM chose for that row. | Use it row by row on the Needs Review tab. |
| Search for product (magnifier) | Step 4, right-hand side of a row | Opens a search box, pre-filled with the row's name or code, so you can find the right product by name, style code, or brand and pick it. | Use it when AIM found nothing or found the wrong thing and no candidate is right. |
| Create custom product (plus) | Step 4, right-hand side of a row | Opens a form pre-filled from your file — Product Name, SKU, Brand, Size, Price — and creates a product of your own for that row. Product Name is required. | Use it for pairs that genuinely are not in the catalog: local brands, one-offs, custom bundles. |
| Skip (X) | Step 4, right-hand side of a row | Leaves that row out of the import entirely. | Use it for junk rows, duplicates, or stock you no longer own. |
| Proceed to Import | Step 4, bottom right | Moves you on to the final step. | Click once you have dealt with everything you intend to bring in. |
| Location | Step 5, Import | Chooses which of your stores or warehouses the imported stock lands in. | Required — "Start Import" stays greyed out until you pick one. |
| Start Import | Step 5, Import | Creates the stock in the chosen location from every approved row. The button shows "Importing…" while it runs. | Click when the "Will Import" and "Skipped" counts look right. |
## How to: Finish the one-time setup questions
1. Open Import Data — the questionnaire appears before anything else the first time.
2. Tick your categories, add your main brands, and say what condition your stock is usually in.
3. Say where the file came from and whether your products carry style codes.
4. Tick every size system you sell and say how sizes are written in your file.
5. If you sell used stock, list your condition words and translate each one to an AIM condition.
6. Optionally search and tick a few products you carry, then review your answers and click "Complete Setup".
A sneaker shop ticks Sneakers, adds Jordan, Nike, and New Balance, says stock is "mostly new", picks "Copyt export", answers "yes" to style codes, ticks both US Men's and US Women's, and maps DS to New and VNDS to New with Defects.
## How to: Upload your file and confirm the columns
1. On the Upload step, choose your exported CSV and click "Upload & Detect Columns".
2. Check the confirmation showing how many rows were read — if it is far off, you exported the wrong file.
3. Go down the mapping table and check each "Mapped To" dropdown against the sample values beside it.
4. Set any column you do not need to "(Skip this column)".
5. Click "Confirm & Analyze" and wait while AIM matches your rows.
Your export has a "Style" column of values like CW2288-111 and a "Retail" column of 190.00 — set Style to "SKU / Style Code" and Retail to "Price", then skip the "Staff" column.
## How to: Review matches and fix the wrong ones
1. On the Auto-Matched tab, spot-check a few rows against your file, then click "Approve All".
2. Move to Needs Review and work down the list: tick the match if it is right, or click a better one under "Other candidates".
3. If no candidate fits, use the magnifier to search by name or style code and pick the right product.
4. On Unmatched, use the plus button to create your own product for anything genuinely not in the catalog.
5. Use the X to skip rows you do not want to bring in at all.
Row 42 reads "AJ1 Chi Lost & Found, size 9" and AIM matched a 2015 Chicago — click the magnifier, search DZ5485-612, and pick the right pair. Similar rows in your file are corrected with it.
## How to: Load the stock into a location
1. Click "Proceed to Import".
2. Check the "Will Import" and "Skipped" counts.
3. Pick the location the stock physically lives in.
4. Click "Start Import" and leave the page open while it runs.
5. Wait for the "Import Complete" message telling you how many items landed.
A 312-row export ends up as 298 to import and 14 skipped — you pick "Main Store", start the import, and the page confirms 298 items imported.
## Good to know
* Correcting one row teaches AIM about the rest — a fix is applied to other rows in the same file that look the same, so start with your most repeated products.
* Nothing touches your stock until you click "Start Import" on the last step; everything before that is preparation you can change.
* A file with style codes matches far better than one with only product names. If your old system has a style-code column, include it in the export.
* Ticking only US Men's when you also sell women's makes every plain number read as men's and mis-match half your file — tick both.
* Rows you skip are simply left out. Sort them in your spreadsheet and run a second import later if you change your mind.
## Where to go next
* [Import from Copyt](/settings/copyt-import)
* [Inventory](/inventory/inventory)
* [Products](/products/products)
* [Purchase orders](/buying/purchase-orders)