Help · Catalogue and CSV

A sale that already exists in a spreadsheet, or in another system, does not have to be typed again. Open the sale and use Bring a catalogue in from a CSV or Excel file. Only the house's own login can do this; a cataloguer sees the page with the reason.

What you give it. A spreadsheet (CSV, TSV or Excel .xlsx, up to 5 MB) and, if you have one, a ZIP of photographs (up to 50 MB). A ZIP on its own adds photographs to lots that are already in the sale. The old binary .xls is not read: save it as .xlsx or CSV first.

What it works out. The file's encoding and separator, the row that holds the headings, whose file it is (Auction Flex, Auction Flex 360, LiveAuctioneers, Wavebid, HiBid or Lotdesk's own, from the headings) and, for each column, the lot field it will fill. A heading it does not know is listed, not guessed.

Photographs. Name each file after its lot: 27-1.jpg is lot 27's first photograph, 27A_2.jpg lot 27A's second, 027.3.png lot 27's third. The file's contents decide what it is, so a text file named .jpg is refused. A photograph over 3 MB, or one past the 12 a lot holds, is refused with the reason.

The preview comes first. Nothing is stored until you have seen it: every column and the field it will fill (change any, and ask again), the first ten lots exactly as they will be stored, and how many would be added, changed, left alone or skipped, and why.

Then import, or undo. The report says in plain sentences what was read, used and skipped and what became of every photograph. If it is not what you meant, undo the whole import: it is possible for 30 days and takes back the lots, the photographs and any sections and consignors the import created.

Things worth knowing:

• Doing it twice is safe. A lot is matched by its number in the sale: the same number is updated, not added again, and an empty cell never blanks what the book already has.
• A row the rules refuse is skipped and named, and the rest go in: a title past 200 characters, a start bid above the low estimate, a lot number no platform takes.
• An import counts against the first 25 lots. Lots past that are held, with the plan named as the reason, and the same file imported again after the house is on the plan brings in exactly those. See The plan.
• A consignor code the book has not met becomes a consignor named for the code. Rename it on the Consignors screen.
• A sale holds up to 3,000 lots.

On the site, bringing a sale in from a spreadsheet and bringing a sale from Auction Flex walk through it with the limits. To send a sale the other way, see Exporting a sale for your platform.

Not what you needed? Write to support@lotdesk.app, with the details in what to tell us.