Import and export your catalog via CSV

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Eugenia Brown
  • Updated

You can use a CSV (comma-separated values) file to import and export a large number of products at a time. This can be helpful if you want to migrate your product catalog from another platform to PandaDoc or if you need to apply bulk edits to your products. Learn more about CSV file format. 

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Create new products via import

To import new products, first, you need to prepare a CSV file.

Note:

We only support UTF-8 encoded CSV files. You can import up to 100,000 products at a time. The maximum file size is 30 MB. Download our Sample CSV file. 

Fill out the downloaded sample CSV file according to the instructions below.

Field

Format

Example

Name
  • This field is required for the import
  • Alphabet letters
  • The maximum number of symbols is 120
  • Name can contain any UNICODE symbol

Website development services

SKU
  • This field is unique and required for the import
  • Alphabet letters
  • Up to 255 symbols can be used

Q23-321T

Type
  • This field is required for the import
  • Alphabet letters
  • This field can't be empty

Note:

If you have a Type column in your CSV and you use it to populate other values, please rename it to the Product type/Service type, etc. Otherwise, the import might fail.

Regular/Bundle

SKUs_in_bundle
  • This field is required for the import if Type = Bundle
  • This field must be blank for the import if Type = Regular
  • Alphabet letters
  • You must use comma (,) as a separator for SKUs
  • 100000(SKU):2(number of items)

100000:2,100003:1

Category
  • Required for the import
  • Text fields must be separated with a slash to display category and subcategory
  • Max category depth = 8

Services/Website development

Price
  • Required for import
  • Numbers only
  • Up to five decimals are allowed
  • You must use a period (.) as a decimal separator

99.99999

Cost
  • Required for import
  • Numbers only
  • Up to five decimals are allowed
  • You must use a period (.) as a decimal separator

599.99999

Currency
  • Required for import
  • ISO currency code

USD

Description
  • Required for the import
  • contains alphabet letters
  • You can use HTML formatting to style text in the Description section

Friendly description of your products

Images
  • HTTPS URLs delimited by commas
  • Only .JPEG, .JPG, WebP, and .PNG files are supported
  • There is a maximum of 10 images per item
  • The maximum image size by link is 10 MB
 https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1504972090022-6edb81e4e534

Custom field name
  • Alphabet letters
  • Custom field columns named "Category" or "Folder" will be automatically renamed to "Group"
  Custom field value

Note:

For the images to be imported, links must be available on the Internet in a publicly viewable place. They can be hosted on your own website as long as the URL is HTTPS. Image links have to be available on a publicly viewable web-page. You can also use another image hosting website such as ImgBB, Imgur, Flickr, etc. Get the direct URL to the image and add it to the CSV. Follow this guide if you need to upload images from Google Drive.

How to import CSV to PandaDoc

Warning:

Only fixed pricing is supported in the CSV at the moment. You'll be unable to bulk import products with volume pricing with a CSV file.

In PandaDoc, go to the Catalog, then select the +Product in the top left and click on Import from the dropdown. Next, select your CSV file from your computer, then click on Start import.

It takes several seconds for the system to process a file and import your products. You’ll receive a notification when the import has started, and you’ll receive an email when it's finished.

After you receive the email notification, go back to PandaDoc to verify that all of your products have been added.

Imported products will be located under All items and in the categories you specified in the CSV.

Troubleshooting

If CSV import failed, you’ll receive an email notification. In this case, open your CSV file and check the following:

  1. Make sure your CSV has column headers.
  2. For default columns, make sure you’re using the exact names as in catalog item fields. (e.g. Name, not Names). See the table above for the correct column names.
  3. Make sure your CSV doesn’t have empty rows across the product list.
  4. For Price and Cost columns, make sure to use only a period (.) as a decimal separator, not a comma.

Update catalog products via import

The easiest way to mass update your catalog is to export the PandaDoc product catalog as a CSV. Then update the CSV file and import it back. SKU numbers serve as a unique identifier of a product item, so when you re-upload your CSV with the same SKUs, the system will recognize them and map the products with the existing ones. 

Follow the steps:

  1. Open your Catalog and choose Export
  2. Go to your email inbox, and open the PandaDoc email to download your CSV file
  3. Update your CSV and go through the import process as described above

Note:

If you change SKUs in the exported CSV and re-upload it back, the system will create a new product for every SKU it doesn’t recognize.

Note:

If the SKU contains more than ten digits, it may be displayed in scientific notation (e.g., 12345678901 as 1.23E+10) in your downloaded CSV. Ensure you adjust the cell formatting to preserve the correct numerical format before uploading the CSV back to PandaDoc; otherwise, the SKU will remain in scientific notation.

Note:

Once you re-upload the edited CSV file, all products in pricing tables/quote builder blocks in your templates and content library items will be automatically updated. 

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Export your products

To export products, go to your Catalog, click on three vertical ellipses in the top right and select  Export.

Note:

You need to have at least one Catalog item in the root folder of the Catalog to do the export.

Once the export has been completed, PandaDoc will send you an email to download the file. 

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Export format:  The file will be exported in a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file. Your export will include all default PandaDoc Catalog fields and any custom fields you have for your items. Some description fields may contain HTML tags, e.g. <p> or <div>. PandaDoc can export up to 100,000 records at one time. If you open a downloaded CSV file in Excel or Numbers and encounter unnecessary symbols, consider using Google Spreadsheets to open the file.

Time to process the export:  The export might take some time if there is a number of export requests from PandaDoc users.

CSV file format details

  • A CSV file is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values. Since CSV files use the comma character "," to separate columns, values that contain commas must be handled as a special case. These fields are wrapped within double quotation marks. The first double quote signifies the beginning of the column data, and the last double quote marks the end.
  • All lines contain the same number of values.
  • Fields that contain commas must begin and end with double quotes.
  • Fields that contain line breaks must begin and end with double quotes.
  • Rows are separated by line breaks (newline characters)

Sample CSV for importing your products

Want to learn more about importing products into PandaDoc? Check out our Perfecting Your Product Catalog course on the PandaDoc Learning Academy!

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