Importing ingredient costs is available to:
Plans: Business, Premium, and Premium Plus
Team Members: Account Owner and Managers
It's essential to follow these steps to ensure your upload template is successful and does not cause errors when importing into your meez account.
This is Part 2 of how to add or update ingredient costs in bulk using a spreadsheet.
For Part 1, An overview of Importing your purchase data and the ingredient cost import feature, go here
For Part 3, Importing your purchase data, go here
For Part 4, Mapping your purchase data to ingredients, go here
Want a walkthrough? Follow along here
File requirements
The ingredient cost import file must follow the below:
Be a .csv, .xlsx, or .xls file
Have only one sheet
Be UTF-8 encoded
Include a header row in which each column header corresponds to one of supported fields (per the table in the next section). The column headers can be organized in any order without affecting the import
Supported fields
Below are all the supported fields that can be imported into meez via the ingredient cost importer. The field names below are suggestions and not required. You will be able to map column headers from your file to the corresponding meez field after the file is imported.
Field name | Value | Notes |
Location ID | Required! The ID of the location the cost should apply to | Must be identical to the ID of the corresponding meez Location as defined on the Concepts page.
If the Location ID does not match any of the Location IDs in meez - the imported cost will apply to the "Default Location" of the ingredient. |
Ingredient Name | The name of the meez ingredient the cost should apply to | If the value does not match any of your existing ingredients - meez will create a new ingredient with this name and apply the cost to it.
If this field is empty - the Purchase Item Name field will be used to find the corresponding ingredient. If no match is found - the purchase data will display in the New Purchase Items table (accessible from your home page) where you will be able to manually select which ingredient to apply the cost to. |
Purchase Item Name | Required! the name of the item as shown on your invoice | Sometimes referred to as the 'item description'. |
Item ID | Required! The unique ID number given to the item by your vendor or inventory system | Sometimes called 'item number' or 'vendor SKU'. If none were provided to you - you can use the Purchase Item Name or the Ingredient Name as the value of Item ID as well.
We will use this field to remember which ingredient to apply costs to next time you import costs. If the Item ID changes - you might be asked to re-select which ingredient to apply the cost to (from the New Purchase Items table). |
Purchase Cost | Required! How much you paid for the item | Currency data must be formatted for USD. Examples of accepted formats: 109.95, $52.05, 10. |
Purchase UoM | Required! How much of the item you got for the Purchase Cost | It is highly recommended to use detailed pack sizes. For example: use "case=10lb" instead of "case". Use "bag=50lb" instead of "bag". This is crucial for cost calculation accuracy.
Purchase data with unrecognized units or generic/vague units (such as: case, each, bag, bottle, etc) will display in the New Purchase Items once imported, as these units will need to be further defined before the cost can be applied to the ingredient. |
Vendor Name | The name of the vendor |
|
Invoice Image URL | A link to the invoice (if available) | Once imported - if this field was available, you will see a link to the invoice on the ingredient page in meez.
Note that currently each ingredient can only have one invoice associated to it. The link on the ingredient page will always link to the latest invoice imported. |
You can use your own spreadsheet to import your purchase data. It could be an export from your inventory management system, an order guide from a vendor, your own cost tracking spreadsheet, or something similar as long as it contains the required fields listed above. You can also download our ingredient cost template and manually fill out the required fields with purchase data.
How to fill the import file - step by step
Step 2: Add a Location ID
Each item in your spreadsheet should have the Location ID of the location where it was purchased. If your account only has one location, use that Location ID for all purchased items.
You can find your Location IDs on the Concepts page of your meez account.
Step 3: Add Purchase Item Name
This sometimes called the 'Item Description' on invoices. If you don't have invoice or inventory data to work from, you can use the ingredient name instead.
Step 4: Add an Item ID
It is ESSENTIAL that you always add an Item ID (sometimes called, "External ID"). if you don't have an ID number for each item, you should copy the Purchase Item Name to use as the Item ID.
Step 5: Add a Vendor Name (Optional)
We highly recommend adding the vendor name when it is available, since it will be used along with the Item ID to track your purchase costs.
Step 6: Add a Purchase Cost
No need to calculate any numbers here, just add exactly the amount you paid for the item.
Step 7: Add the Purchase Unit of Measure
For accurate cost calculations, it is ESSENTIAL that the Purchase Unit of Measure is the amount you received for the Purchase Cost in the previous step.
Use the purchase unit from an invoice if available
You can also add any standard weight or volume unit, such as 'lb' , 'oz', 'gal', 'qt', 'kg' etc. - if that is how your Purchase Cost is broken down already
Or, if the item is purchased by the case, bag, or package you can add a custom unit such as "case=36each" or "bag=50lb".
