Review and finish an import

This is the second half of the guided import, after your files are in and the columns are matched. See Import files: CSV, supplier PDFs and shelf photos for the first half.

Two stages remain: Confirm locations and Review everything. Confirming locations can create storage locations. Inventory items are added only after you approve rows in Review everything.

Stage 2: Confirm locations

Your files mention storage locations by name. This step collects every distinct name it found and asks what each one actually is.

It gets its own step because a location is where an item physically lives, and getting it wrong scatters your inventory across places that do not exist.

Merging duplicates

Spreadsheets accumulate near-duplicate location names. The step spots likely duplicates and asks directly: Are these the same place?

• Confirm they are the same, and you choose which name it should keep, or type a name for the merged location. You can also point the merged location at an existing location in your lab.
• Or answer No, keep them separate and both are kept.

You are the one deciding. Labsistant proposes the match and never merges on its own.

Creating a new location

For each location being created you can set:

• The name.
• A description, optional.
• A temperature, optional.
• Put it inside another location, optional, which nests it.
• Who is this location for, which sets its ownership.

See Create a storage location for what those mean, and "Personal, group and lab" for the ownership choice.

Locations you do not want

Use Skip on a name you do not want created. Rows assigned to that skipped location are left out of the import too. Check the affected rows before skipping; use a real existing location or correct the name if the items should be imported.

If no rows name a location, the step says so. You can assign a location there or continue and set one per row or in bulk in the final review. Every imported inventory item still needs a real storage location.

When you confirm, the chosen new locations are created. If one cannot be created or its group cannot be attached, the step explains what failed and stays open. Correct it and confirm again; locations already created are kept rather than duplicated.

Stage 3: Review everything

The last stage is a grid of the items proposed for import, with the values read from your files. Review everything in one place lets you check them before approval. Add now imports an individual ready row, Bulk import imports the ready rows together, and Finish & see summary closes out the review with a report.

Working a row

Each row is editable. You can fix anything that was read wrong and fill in anything missing, including:

• The name, quantity, and unit.
• Whether it is whole items, meaning boxes and packs, or a measured amount, meaning a volume or weight.
• The expiry date.
• The location, with Choose a location on any row that has none.
• No lot yet (add later) for a row whose lot number has not arrived. See Lot numbers, CAS, hazard and expiry.

Rows that still need something are flagged so you can find them.

Bulk actions

Fixing a hundred rows one at a time is not reasonable, so the grid supports selecting rows and acting on all of them:

• Set location for selected rows.
• Set share level for selected rows, which sets ownership in bulk.
• Exclude selected rows from the import.

Select rows with the checkboxes, and shift-click a checkbox to select a range. Select-all is available too.

This is the fastest way through a large import: sort out everything that shares a location or an owner in a few sweeps, then deal with the leftovers individually.

Finishing

Click Finish & see summary when you are ready.

If every row is complete, the import runs and your items are created.

If some rows still need information, you get a prompt: "Finish setting up?", telling you how many items still need info, and offering two choices:

Neither option invents a value to unblock a row. Prefer Keep to finish later unless you are sure those rows are not wanted, since it is the reversible one.

After the import

You get a report of what actually happened, itemised rather than summarised. It distinguishes locations, reagents, and lots that were created from ones that were reused, so you can see whether the import added a duplicate or matched something existing.

Some messages you may see:

• "Still waiting for more info below", listing rows you kept to finish later.
• "Nothing was added this session", when nothing was ready to import.
• "Nothing was ready to import yet. Check the flagged rows below."
• If something goes wrong, read the reported outcome. Some rows may be saved for retry, some items may already have been imported, and others may still be waiting. Successfully imported items remain in inventory. Use the offered retry or correct the remaining rows; do not assume the entire import was rolled back.

Stopping and resuming

You do not have to finish in one sitting. Progress is saved automatically on this device, in this browser. It is not a server backup: clearing browser data or switching devices loses the resume point. If the page says saving failed, keep the tab open and finish there.

Next time you open Set up your lab, it asks whether to pick up where you left off:

• Resume import returns you to the stage you stopped at, with your files, mappings, and location decisions intact.
• Start fresh begins a new import. It confirms first, asking whether to discard the saved import, because that throws away the work in progress.

For a big inventory, resuming is the normal way to work. Do the spreadsheet on Monday, the freezer photos on Tuesday. Once it is all in, the spreadsheet stops being the thing everyone edits, which is the part that actually changes how the lab works.