In Rentman, you have the option to add your equipment by importing an equipment file. This article guides you through the process of importing your equipment list into Rentman.

Video tutorial

Here is a video tutorial you can watch to learn how to import your equipment. In this video tutorial, we go over what you need to know to import your equipment successfully into Rentman.

Here's what you need before importing your equipment

How to import your equipment

1. Go to the category Equipment module.
   
2. Click on Import on the top right corner.
3. Select here which type of import you want to do
   Types of import

   Import all rows as new items	Rentman creates a new item for every row
   Add new items and skip existing ones	Rentman does not import items that are already in your database
   Add new items and update existing items with new data	If you want to update the items in your database (example: list price), read how to do it in our article about updating data
   Do you also want to import serial numbers?	Select if you also want to import serial numbers or only standard items.
   Do you want to add or overwrite QR codes from the import file?	When you choose "Add new items and update existing items with new data", you will have the option to either replace the existing QR codes with those from the import file or add the QR codes from the import to the serial numbers, ensuring existing QR codes are retained.

4. Drag a file or click  to upload a file. 
   If you do not have a file with your equipment available yet, you can download our template in Rentman "Download an example file" 
5. Select if your file contains a header, or not. If you select yes, the first row of your file will not be imported. 
   
6. For each column, the system matches the header names with the column names in Rentman. Check if all matches have been correctly made, and adjust where necessary. 
   
   If you selected "Yes" on importing serial numbers in Step 4., the system will match the columns in your file either with Serial number columns or normal Equipment columns in Rentman. So if you import serial numbers, ensure to modify the first row to "Serial number" instead of "Equipment." Check out the video below.
7. Click on Next step when you have done this for all columns.
8. Select a Root folder for your import. The root folder is the folder at the top, and it contains your folder structure. New items will be placed under this folder. If you have defined folders in your import file, these items will be placed under the chosen Root folder. 
   Warning:If your equipment file doesn't contain a Folder column, all items will be placed in the same root folder. This means that your items will not be organized, and it may be difficult to find equipment. We recommend creating your folder structure and specifying the correct folder path for your items in the Folder column.
9. Optional: If you selected "Add new items and skip duplicate rows" or "Update existing items with new data" in Step 3, you need to select match columns. Typically, "Code", "Name (in database)", or "Serial number" are the best columns to choose from. For example, if you are updating the price of all equipment items, you would select "Code" as the match column as it is unique for every equipment item being updated and is not being updated itself. The match column should never be the column you are trying to update.
   Warning: These columns may not contain double values in the import file, as they are used during the import to identify which item or serial number should be skipped. 
10. Choose Next step
11. Check your data in the preview. 
    
    Note: Only the first 10 rows will be shown in the preview. 
12. Click Import
13. After the import has finished, a window will pop up with the results. If your data has been imported successfully, you can Close the window, or choose to "View imported equipment". If the import failed, please read the Insight into your import result article.

Mastering equipment import: tips and troubleshooting

Occasionally, import failures may occur, either partially or completely. In such cases, you'll discover all the solutions within the import results on this page.

How to delete an import

When an import goes partially wrong, the best choice is to archive the information and do it all over again.

Every time you import equipment, Rentman creates a tag with the format "import-date-hour". Simply select the tag of your latest update and archive those items. 

Download our import template