Migrating Your Product Catalog

Frequently new Mobileforce customers will have an existing product catalog that they want to use in Mobileforce CPQ. To do this, users will import the products from their catalog into the Mobileforce Products table and import the prices into the desired Mobileforce Price Book.

Exporting Mobileforce Files

Mobileforce CPQ comes installed with sample Product entries as well as a sample Price Book with sample pricing entries. Not only can you use this to better understand how to use Mobileforce CPQ, but these entries can be exported and downloaded from Mobileforce CPQ as .csv files to your local system.

The .csv files can be opened in any plain-text reader (like Notepad) or spreadsheet application (like Excel), so you can review the format of the files and edit them to your needs.

Best Practice:

Mobileforce recommends that users copy the sample Price Book before exporting or modifying it, so that users can always reference a valid Price Book if errors or problems occur.

Importing rules and techniques

When importing/reimporting either Product or Pricing entries please note the following rules:

Mobileforce will overwrite entries with the same name and code that are included in the file.
Mobileforce will not delete existing entries if they are not included in the file.
The columns Name and Code are keys, so each row in your import file must include data for these columns and their headers or else Mobileforce CPQ will return an error during import.
If data in other columns is missing from the import file, Mobileforce CPQ will import the entries without populating those entries.
Mobileforce CPQ is indifferent to the order of the columns in the import file.
The cell data must match the assigned data type for the column. For example, the Eff Date column requires data in date format (e.g., 01/01/2050).

Best Practice:

Mobileforce recommends that Admins set all values in the Active column for Product and Price Book import files are set to No, so the entries are not active for sellers upon import. Admins can activate these entries at a later time, when the product catalog and price books have been reviewed and ready for general use.

Migrating Product Entries

To migrate product entries from your existing product catalog to Mobileforce CPQ, admins will perform the following actions:

Export the Mobileforce CPQ Product listings.
Convert your existing catalog.
Import the catalog, correcting any necessary errors.

Export Product file

To export the existing product entries, click the Export button from the Products page. Mobileforce converts the data from the table to a .csv file and saves it to the specified Downloads folder for your browser.

Converting your Product Catalog

You can then open the products file in your desired application.

Best Practice:

Mobileforce recommends that admins create a copy of the exported file. Then admins can open the copy in the desired application and modify it as needed for your product catalog.

Admins can then modify the product file, copying data from their existing product catalog into the file, matching the data as best as possible. When finished, ensure that the file is saved as a .csv file to a location where it can be imported to Mobileforce CPQ.

Importing the Product File

Finally, admins import the product file by clicking the Import button from the Products page, ensuring that the file follows the rules specified in /v1/docs/migrating-your-product-catalog#importing-rules-and-techniques.

Select the desired product file to import and the desired Price Book. Click Import when finished.

Migrating Price Book Entries

To migrate Price Book entries from your existing price catalog to Mobileforce CPQ, admins will perform the following actions:

Export the pricing listings for the desired Price Book.
Convert your existing price catalog.
Import the pricing entries, correcting any necessary errors.

Export Price Book Entries

To export the existing Price Book entries, navigate to the Prices page and click the button for the desired Price Book. From the Prices page, click the Import button.

Mobileforce converts the data from the table to a .csv file and saves it to the specified Downloads folder for your browser.

Converting your Pricing Catalog

You can then open the pricing file in your desired application.

Best Practice:

Admins can then modify the pricing file, copying data from their existing pricing catalog into the file, matching the data as best as possible. When finished, ensure that the file is saved as a .csv file to a location where it can be imported to Mobileforce CPQ.

Importing the Product File

Finally, admins import the pricing file by clicking the Import button from the Products page.

Select the desired pricing file to import and the desired Price Book. Click Import when finished.

Adding Product Categories

Mobileforce CPQ allows you to organize your product catalog with hierarchical Product Categories. For customers with large product catalogs, these categories make it easier for sellers to find the products to add as line items.

Admins can add Product Categories using the Mobileforce CPQ interface or manually enter them into the Categories column of the Product File.

Manually Adding Categories

If you are converting an existing product catalog, you can simply add a column in your Product File, named Categories, if it does not already exist.

Note:

Another technique is to import your product catalog to Mobileforce CPQ to add your product to the application, and then export the Product File back to your local system. The new exported Product File is populated with an empty Categories column. You can then populate the column with the desired categories, which will automatically be created in Mobileforce CPQ when imported.

You can create hierarchical categories by separating each level with a "/".

Adding Categories within Mobileforce CPQ

From Mobileforce CPQ, you can access the Product Category page where you can create, edit, and manage your categories, click Product Categories from the CPQ Setup page.

From this page you can create the desired categories by clicking the Add button, creating hierarchical relationships using the Parent dropdown list.

For more information, see Managing Product Categories.

Filtering Products using Categories

From the Products page, sellers can use the Category dropdown list to display only the products that match the selection.