Import Assets

If your organization is already tracking assets, these assets can be imported into Checkout using our CSV importer. Assets are imported one asset type at a time. Once imported, assets are added to the built-in asset management system.

Building the CSV File

To import assets, the first step is making sure that the CSV file is set up correctly. The CSV file will define which assets to import and all of the details associated with each asset.

To build the CSV file, we need to understand what columns the CSV file is expecting. The file may be different depending on the asset type we are importing, as each asset type may have different required attributes.

To determine which columns are required for your CSV file, start by navigating to Project Settings > Checkout > Asset Management and edit the asset type you want to import. In the screenshot below, Name and Item columns are the only two which are required. New custom attributes added to each asset type will appear in the import screen for mapping.

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Any attribute marked as required, except for Id, will need to be a column in your CSV file. The Id field should only be included in the CSV file if you are performing a bulk update of existing assets that have an existing id. Otherwise, when importing new assets, id should not be added.

Any of the attributes in this list may be included in your CSV file, regardless of whether or not they are visible to the asset type you are importing.

For each attribute, it is important to understand what the type of the attribute is as this will change which values are supported for import. To see the type of an attribute, click on the pencil icon and take a look.

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For example, the Status attribute is a Dropdown type, and can only accept the values of “Inventory”, “In Use”, “In Repair”, and “Retired” while importing.

Outlined below are the different attribute types and what values they will accept:

1. Short text - Single line text values.

2. Paragraph - Multi-line values.

3. Number - Must be an integer value, does not accept the period or comma characters.

4. Dropdown - Accepts only the values defined in the attribute. The values are case-sensitive.

5. Checkbox -

6. Date - Must be in the form of DD-MM-YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD.

7. User - To import a user field, the value must match the user's display name exactly. For example, to assign an asset to the user “John Doe”, I must set the value as “John Doe”. Checkout will find a user that matches exact name.

8. Item - The Item attribute ties the asset to one of the front end Items. This connection allows users to see items that are in inventory. To import an asset with an Item value, you must set the value to exactly match one of the Product Names as defined in the Items tab of the Checkout Hub. If an asset is not given an Item value, it will be categorized under Non-Catalogued Assets.

9. Image - The image attribute type allows custom images to be stored against an asset. To import images, you will need a publicly accessible url to the the image being uploaded.

10. Vendor - Ties an asset to a specific Vendor. To import an asset with a Vendor, the value will need to match exactly one of the names in the Vendors tab of the project. You can only associate an item to only one vendor.

Once you have your CSV file built, you are ready to proceed to start your import!

Importing new Assets

To import assets into Checkout, navigate to the Checkout Hub and Click on Assets and then click into the asset type you want to import assets into.

1. Checkout Hub Link

2. Asset Type

For example, to import Tablets, click on the Tablets link, and click on the … > Import button.

Press browse to choose the file from your file-system and then click Next to move to the Match section of the import process.

The Match section is where you will match the columns of your CSV file to the attributes you want to be set on import. To import new assets, be sure to uncheck the Id box.

Depending on the number of attributes available to your asset type, you may need to navigate to a second page to map some of the columns. There may be attributes available for the asset type that you do not want to import. In that case, simply uncheck the box in the left-hand column next to the attribute that you do not want to import. Once all your attributes are matched to a column or are marked as not being imported, click Next.

The Refine screen allows you to review the assets you are planning on importing and make any last-minute corrections to the values.

1. Show only invalid rows allows will remove rows Checkout does not find immediate errors with. Invalid rows can be caused by badly formatted text or non-supported formats.

2. Import checkbox allows users to remove assets from the import.

3. Every asset attribute can be updated prior to import in this view.

4. The Next button to move to the final stage once any changes are performed.

5. CSV column names

The Finish section gives a final chance to review the choices made during the import process and make any changes prior to performing the import.

Clicking on Finish Import will perform the import, and provide a detailed result of the import.

Bulk Update Existing Assets

The CSV import process also allows agents to update assets already in Checkout. To do so, the first step is to Export your assets and download your file.

Once your file is downloaded, open it using a program such as excel. Make the changes to the assets as you see fit and save the file.

Once the changes are complete, follow the process outlined above to upload the file. The only difference in the process is that we will leave the Id attribute checked. This will tell Checkout to update existing attributes rather than creating new ones.

This should result in your existing assets updating rather than new ones being created.