One rule: a list that exists is never typed again
Many shops stay on a program they do not like because of the list. The old program is slow and the support never answers — but it holds 900 products with their prices, and nobody wants a week of typing them again. Typing is also where the mistakes come from: a price with a zero too many, a barcode on the wrong product, the same item twice under two names.
So the rule is simple: if your products are written anywhere a computer can read, they come in by import, not by hand. If they are written nowhere, most of them are already written for you in the ready catalogue. Typing is for what is left — your prices, and a few things only your shop sells.
Where is your list today?
Find your case, then jump to its section. Most shops are in the first row even when they think they are not: almost every program can save its product list as an Excel or CSV file, from a menu called Export, Save as or Reports.
| Your list is in… | On the desktop | Online |
|---|---|---|
| An Excel sheet or a CSV file | The import wizard: any column names, a preview first | Settings → Bring your data: Excel or CSV, the columns matched for you, a dry run first |
| Another program's database | The same wizard reads it directly | Export it to CSV first |
| An older PosMasr copy | The old-copy importer, or a backup and restore | One file from the desktop, imported in Settings → Data |
| Nowhere — a notebook, or your head | Pick from the ready catalogue | Pick from the ready catalogue |
From Excel or a CSV file: any column names, and a preview first
In the desktop program open Settings → Products → “Import from another program”. One wizard, four sources; pick a text file (CSV, TSV or TXT — comma, semicolon or tab, Arabic in any encoding) or an Excel file.
Then comes the part that usually stops an import: the other program calls it “Item Description” or “COL3”. It does not matter. Every column of theirs gets a row with a real example and a drop-down saying where it lands — already filled with a guess from the column's name, so you only correct what is wrong. A column you do not need stays on “ignore”.
Before anything is written you see what will happen:
- The first 20 rows as they will land, and one line with the story: so many rows, so many new products, so many updates.
- A barcode that already belongs to another product is reported and that row skipped — never two products with one code.
- A blank cell keeps what you already have, so a partial list is safe to import.
- A run that touches more than 200 products takes a backup first.
One source is read up to 20,000 rows, and the column map is remembered, so next month the same file opens already mapped. The full walk-through is on Import from another program, and why a list in Excel is worth moving at all is in Excel or a real POS.
From another program's database
Some programs never offer an export. If the data sits in a database the PC can reach, the wizard's database source reads it directly: a file on the PC (Access .mdb / .accdb, dBase and FoxPro .dbf), or a server through an ODBC driver installed on that PC — SQL Server, MySQL and MariaDB, SQLite and others. Connect, pick the table or the view that holds the products, and the same map and preview follow.
From an older PosMasr copy
- The same shop on a new PC (or after a format) is not an import but a backup and restore — everything comes back, sales and credit included. The order matters: follow Moving PosMasr to a new PC.
- The products of an old copy into a copy that already runs — a second shop, an old version on a forgotten PC, a folder on a USB stick: the wizard's fourth source, an older PosMasr copy. It finds old copies on the PC by itself, or you browse to one.
It matches by barcode, then by name, so products you already have are updated instead of doubled, and you read a summary before you press Import.
Into PosMasr Online
The online edition takes a list in two ways, both from the browser:
- Bring your data — Settings → Bring your data (also Products → Import): an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file, from your own sheet or another program's export. Ready layouts know the exports of Loyverse, Square, Shopify and QuickBooks Online (Lightspeed and Foodics too, marked “check the preview”); any other file is matched by its headings and what its columns hold. Every column gets a guess with the reason shown, and you change any of them. A dry run says in plain words what will be added, updated and skipped, and why — before anything is written — and the whole import can be undone for 30 days (whatever was sold or paid since stays, and is listed). Arabic CSV files saved by Excel, Arabic-Indic digits and Egyptian mobile numbers in any form are read as they are, and an empty name is filled from the Egyptian catalogue by its barcode. Starting from nothing? Download the empty template, fill it in, bring it back.
- A whole desktop shop — Settings → Data → Import a desktop copy. Products, customers with their balances, suppliers, sales and shifts arrive under their original dates, and the report compares the last 30 days of Z totals with the desktop's own files.
In the desktop program (5.1), Settings → Backup → Move to PosMasr Cloud… makes that file in one go, with the products' pictures and about a year of sales. Nothing on the desktop changes while you try the online edition. The whole move is in Moving your desktop to the cloud.
Customers, suppliers and opening stock too
An import is not only the product list. Bring your data takes four kinds of file, online and in the program on your PC:
| The file | What comes in | Online plans |
|---|---|---|
| Products | Name, barcode, code, category, price, cost, unit, sold by weight; sizes and colours as variants; expiry and batch | Every plan |
| Customers | Name, phones, tax number, address — and the balance each one owes you | Every plan |
| Suppliers | The same — and the balance you owe each one | Every plan for shops; from F&B Gold for restaurants |
| Opening stock | The product by barcode, code or name; quantity, cost, expiry, batch | Every plan for shops; from F&B Gold for restaurants |
Each balance arrives as one clear line on the account, “Opening balance (imported …)”, dated the day you choose — so the old notebook's totals become the first line of the new credit book. It is never posted twice: the same file brought again is recognised, and a customer you already had gets an opening balance only while his account stands at zero.
In the program on your PC it is Products → Bring data in → “Bring your data”. Coming from one of the common Egyptian accounting or cashier programs? They publish no export format, so there is no ready layout for them — but their usual Arabic headings are still recognised. See Import from another program and Bring your data in the manual.
The gaps: the ready catalogue
An import brings what you had. A shop with no list — or a list that covers half the shelf — fills the rest from the ready catalogue: more than 50,000 products sold in Egyptian shops, each with its Arabic name, the barcode printed on the pack and its category, and more than 18,000 of them with a picture. Type to find, tick what you sell, add.
The catalogue carries no prices on purpose: products arrive without one, and the no price filter lists what is waiting for yours. A pack that neither the import nor your ticks brought in can be scanned in the product screen, and if the catalogue knows the barcode, the name, category and picture fill themselves in. On the desktop the catalogue is open to shops that share their own product list; online it comes with every plan.
The first hour after the import
An import is fast; checking it is what makes it safe. Before the first customer, on the Products screen:
- Filter No price and No barcode: type what is missing, or scan the packs.
- Filter Duplicate name and Duplicate barcode: two programs often called one thing by two names.
- Open ten products you know by heart and compare the price with the shelf.
- Ring up one test sale with a scanned barcode, print it, then return it.
An hour of this saves a month of “why is this price wrong?”. Keep the old program's file for a few weeks — not to go back, but to answer the odd question about an old price.
Quick answers
My old program's column names are nothing like yours. Is that a problem?
No. On the desktop the import wizard maps any column names, with a guess already filled in, and shows 20 rows before it writes anything. Online, Bring your data does the same: a guess for every column with the reason shown, and a dry run before anything is written.
What if I import the same file twice by mistake?
Nothing doubles. A row that matches an existing product — by its code, then barcode, then name — updates it instead of adding a new one, and the confirmation shows “0 new”.
Do customers' balances come over from another program?
Yes. Bring your data takes a customers file with the balance each one owes you, and a suppliers file with what you owe each of them; every balance becomes an opening line on the account. From another program, export its list of who owes what to Excel (or type it in the empty template) and bring it in. The sales themselves do not come over from another program — only from a PosMasr copy.
Does the catalogue set my prices?
Never. It brings names, barcodes, categories and, for more than 18,000 products, a picture. Every price is yours, and the no-price filter lists what still needs one.
My list is bigger than 20,000 products.
Split the file and run the wizard twice. The column map is remembered, so the second run takes a click, and the wizard says when a source hit the limit instead of dropping rows silently. Bring your data takes up to 50,000 rows (20 MB) in one file.
Import your own list during the trial
Try PosMasr free for 14 days with your real products: run the import wizard on your file, read the preview, and sell a test receipt the same day.
