The matrix in Excel: export it, edit it, upload it back
The matrix can be downloaded as a file, edited in bulk in Excel and uploaded back. That is how you switch fifty items to a new supplier, set storage areas after rearranging the store, and fix units of measure — in five minutes instead of half an hour of tapping.
When a file is easier than a phone
The matrix is built, everything works — and then your vegetable supplier changes. Fifty items have to be moved from one to another. Opening each card and changing the supplier by hand is half an hour of tapping and an almost guaranteed missed row.
For cases like this the matrix can be exported to Excel, edited in bulk and uploaded back. The app recognises its own items by name and updates whatever you changed.
What is convenient to do through a file:
- move many items from one supplier to another;
- set storage areas after rearranging the store;
- fix units of measure on dozens of items at once;
- show the purchasing list to an accountant or a new chef — just hand over the file.
Where to get the file
Open the "Upload matrix" screen — the same one the matrix is first uploaded through. There are two buttons at the bottom:
- "Export matrix" — your current list as a single file;
- "Blank template" — an empty form with examples, if you are still building the matrix.
The file is exported in the same shape it is uploaded back in. There is no format to invent and no columns to line up — what you downloaded is what you upload.
What is inside the file
Six columns: name, unit of measure, category, storage area, supplier and price. The price is exported empty — it lives in supplier price lists, not in the matrix: one item can have a different price with different suppliers, and it can change every week.
A reminder of a difference that is easy to confuse: a category is a group of goods ("Vegetables", "Dry goods"), while an area is a place in your store, the one you walk past with a phone while building an order. More on that in the article about the matrix.
How to change supplier in bulk
The order of work:
- tap "Export matrix" and open the file in Excel;
- sort or filter by the "Supplier" column;
- in the rows you need, put the new supplier in place of the old one;
- save the file and go back to the same "Upload matrix" screen;
- drag the file into the upload field and tap "Upload".
The app will show what it recognised and update the items. If that supplier isn't in the database yet, he will be created automatically and the items linked to him straight away. There is no need to add him separately beforehand.
One rule: don't touch the first column
Items are recognised by name, letter for letter. As long as the name matches, the app understands it is the same item and updates it.
Change a name in the file and the app will decide it is a new item: it will create a second one, and the old one will stay where it was. You get a duplicate to sort out by hand later.
Change anything except the name. Names should be edited in the app itself, on the item's card.
What gets updated and what stays as it was
On upload, the unit of measure, category, area and supplier are updated.
An empty cell doesn't erase anything. If an item has no area filled in in the file, the previous area stays — the app doesn't read an empty cell as an instruction to remove.
Items that aren't in the file at all also stay where they are. Uploading adds and updates, but never deletes: an item can only be removed from the matrix in the app itself.
If something went wrong
Lower down on the same screen there is a list of past uploads. Any of them can be removed, and the items it created go with it. Changes it made to items that already existed are not rolled back — those have to be fixed separately.
The red "Clear the whole matrix" button deletes the entire list and the areas in one go. Suppliers stay in the database. The action cannot be undone, so use it only if you are rebuilding the matrix from scratch — and it is better to export the current one to a file first, so there is something to go back to.