There are three methods for creating new products: one-by-one, where each product is added individually to the system, bulk import, where a group of products are imported to the system using a spreadsheet template, and adding from another project, where products are imported from another project in the system.

Products can be added to the system in one of two ways: one-by-one, bulk, or from another project. To add a single product, the user clicks on the New button, and then from the drop-down menu, clicks on New Product. The system shows the New Product Form. The user fills the new product’s information and then clicks Save. The information that the user provides about a beneficiary is: Name, Category, Description, Default Price, Default Quantity, Unit, Name in Local Language, and Image.

When entering the Category, the system displays a list of categories stored in the system that contain the expression entered by the user. To select a category, the user needs to select one of the categories in the list displayed by the system. A category can be a child category or a parent category. For more information about categories, please refer to section ‎3.8.4 Categories.

A screenshot of the New Product interface.

Products can also be added in bulk. This option makes it easy and fast to add hundreds of products with only one small operation on the system. The user can add up to 15,000 records in each bulk import operation. To add products in bulk, there are three simple steps that the user should do: first, the user should download the Excel template by clicking on the More button, and then from the drop-down menu, click on Download Template. The user then places all their product information in the Excel template as appropriate. Lastly, the user uploads the Excel template to the system; this can be done, by either clicking on New, and then from the drop-down menu, clicking Import Products, or by clicking on the More button, and then from the menu, clicking on Import.

When the Import button is clicked, the system shows the Import Products Interface. The user selects the file on their computer, and then clicks Upload and Save. After uploading the Excel template, the system shows a screen for the bulk upload of product images. The user uploads the product images and then clicks Upload to complete the operation. The system then adds the newly added products and shows them in the Products Interface.

NOTE: When the user clicks Upload and Save, the system validates the Excel file to ensure that it is correct in terms of the data in it. If the system finds errors in the Excel file, those errors are shown to the user and the upload would then be canceled. If the system does not find any errors, the bulk import operation will initiate, and a message will be sent to the user’s email address after the system completes the bulk import operation.

A screenshot of the Import Vendors interface.

A screenshot of the Import Product Images interface.

A screenshot of the Import Product Images interface after uploading the image files.

Products can be imported from other projects on the system. This option is especially helpful if the client is implementing several projects for the same group of products. To import products from another project, the user should click on the New button, and then from the drop-down menu, click on Add From Another Project. The system then shows the Add From Another Project Interface. This interface allows the user to select the project they wish to import products from and the products that they want to import. The interface displays the products in a table that shows the Product Id, Name, Description, and Name in Local Language, for each of the products. The product data is shown as pages, where each page shows a number of beneficiary records. The number of beneficiaries shown in a page can be changed by changing the Page size option on the bottom right of the interface. Other product records can be shown by switching to other pages by either clicking a desired page number or by using the Arrow button to open the next page.

A screenshot of the Import Product From Project interface.