Import External File

This set of utilities will import external or "foreign" data files into CAPITAL stock record, card file, customer record and supplier databases.

Use this facility to update or add to your master file records information from other accounting systems or databases, to import stock archive files and for placing "on-line" a variety of other data. For example, marketing information, phone contact lists, product technical information, and so forth, can be imported into card files for pop-up reference from within CAPITAL.

Once stock archives have been imported into card files, they can be moved effortlessly back and forth from CAPITAL's Stock Control system.

The data you specify to import must be in either DBF (dBASE III) or ASCII delimited file format. Many programs that have general purpose export facilities can produce data files in one of these formats.

Import File

Specify the file name and the file extension of the file you wish to import. You should also specify the file path if necessary. For example, if the file to import is stored in the sub-directory \DATA on drive D: and has the filename STOCK.TXT you should enter: D:\DATA\STOCK.TXT as the file path and name.

DBF Format File

Select if the file format to import is dBASE III compatible.

CAPITAL will first examine the file to see if it appears to have a dBASE file identifer. If it does not, the file will be immediately rejected. Note that dBASE II and dBASE IV file formats have different structures and are not recognised by this import utility.

ASCII Fixed Length

Select to load an ASCII fixed length (sometimes referred to as an Standard Data Format) file. In an ASCII fixed length file each record is separated by a carriage return/line feed sequence but there is no delimiter character, as with ASCII delimited text. Therefore, you will also have to supply an offset number, and width, for each field you will be importing. The offset is the character number within the record to start the extraction from. The width is the number of characters from the offset point to extract.

ASCII Delimited

Select if the file format to import is ASCII delimited.

Delimiter

If you have specified ASCII delimited text as the file format to import you will also be prompted to enter the delimit character that should be used. The standard delimit character is the comma (,) and does not normally need to be changed. However, if the file you are trying to import has a different delimiter, i.e., is TAB delimited, the delimit symbol needs to be entered as either a one character entry or a three digit number.

For example, the ASCII code for the TAB character is 009. The digits "009" should be entered in this field if you wish CAPITAL to recognise TAB delimited text files.

Read From Record

You may optionally specify the first record to read data from. Unless the data file has a "header" or identifier record you may wish to skip over, the default of 1 should be left unchanged.

Clean Up

Removes extra (redundant) spaces from description fields. Code fields such as product codes, bin locations, customer codes, etc., are not altered. Fields that are altered include product descriptions and customer and supplier name and address fields. Fields in card files are also cleaned if their names match those that will be cleaned in the customer, supplier or stock databases.

Card File

You will only be prompted for a card file name as a destination if you have specified a card file import. The card file database must already have been created prior to using the utility.

Action if record exits

This section determines how CAPITAL will relate imported records to existing records already in your CAPITAL files.

This does not apply when importing card files.

Possible options include:

Replace

If the record (based on matches with the product code, customer code or supplier code) already exists, the details of the record are updated with the new information contained in the import file. If the record does not exist in CAPITAL, it is added.

Skip

If the record in the import file already matches an entry in a CAPITAL file, it is not added.

Add Anyway

If the record already exists in a CAPITAL file, it will be added to that file anyway. No two stock records may have the same product code (or product and location code if multi-location stock control is active), and no two customer or supplier records may have the same account code. Therefore, a unique numeric code will be assigned to the added record.

Update

If the record exists it will be replaced. If the record does not exist, it will not be added. You will be given the option to print a report of all the records from the external file that were not found.

Hints & Tips

Customer codes, supplier codes and product codes (with the same location if you are using multi-location stock control) may not be duplicated in CAPITAL. The import utility will assign a unique 8 digit product, customer or supplier code when a clash with an existing code is detected. You will probably want to manually edit and change these codes once the import process is completed. The first unique 8 digit code will be "00000001" and this number will be incremented as required.

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