This is the second half of the guided import, after your files are in and the columns are matched. See Import files: CSV, vendor PDFs and shelf photos for the first half.
Two stages remain: Confirm locations and Review everything. Nothing exists in your inventory until you finish the second one.
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 Don't add this location on any name you do not want created. That is the right answer for a stray value or a typo that is not really a place.
If there is nothing to match, the step says so and lets you continue.
Stage 3: Review everything
The last stage is a grid of every item about to be created, with the values read from your files. Review everything in one place is the point: one screen, everything visible, before anything happens.
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 expiration 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 expiration.
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 the finish action 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:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Keep to finish later | The incomplete rows stay in the session. Everything ready is imported now, and you can come back for the rest. |
| Set aside | The incomplete rows are excluded. Everything ready is imported now, and the rest is dropped from this import. |
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: "The import hit an error. Nothing was changed, so you can try again." A failed import does not leave half your items created.
Stopping and resuming
You do not have to finish in one sitting. Progress is saved automatically.
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.