Manually Uploading Data

The Data Management section is where you upload and maintain the data that drives your plans. Every plan PLAIO produces is a direct result of the data you provide, so keeping it accurate and up to date is essential.

Access Data Management from the left-hand navigation. The Overview page lists every data category available to you, organised into Master Data, Demand, Supply, and Production. Each category has its own upload area with a full description of the fields it expects.

Quick reference

Question	Answer
What file format?	.xlsx (Excel) only. The first sheet is used
Do my columns need to match exactly?	No. You map them on first upload, and the mapping is remembered
Can I upload new and existing records together?	Yes. PLAIO creates, updates, or skips each row automatically
What if a referenced record is missing?	The row is flagged with a clear error. Fix the reference and re-upload
Are partial uploads saved?	No. If any row fails validation, nothing is saved until all issues are resolved
Can I upload custom attributes?	Yes, once they are configured in PLAIO. Add them as extra columns and map them during upload

What you can upload

Master Data

• Items — your product catalogue: SKUs, names, shelf life, units of measure, unit COGS
• Bill of Materials — component relationships: which items are made from which components, in what quantities
• Locations — warehouses, DCs, and other nodes, including type and order allocation timing
• Forecast Types — named forecast models (e.g. ML Forecast, Manual Forecast) with optional frozen periods

Demand

• Demand Segments — customer or channel groupings tied to specific SKU-location combinations
• Forecasts — projected demand quantities by SKU, forecast type, and period
• Customer Orders — confirmed orders with expected delivery dates
• Actual Sales — historical sales records used for forecast evaluation and trend analysis

Supply

• Inventory — current stock positions: quantities, batch numbers, expiry dates, planning eligibility
• Firm Orders — purchase orders or scheduled receipts with expected delivery dates and quantities
• Supplier Constraints — lead times, MOQs, IOQs, and other supplier-level rules
• Inventory Policies — safety stock rules, reorder points, target coverage settings
• Order Policies — ordering rules such as minimum and incremental order quantities

Production

• Production Constraints — processing, setup, and cleaning durations per SKU-resource combination
• Resource Downtime — planned maintenance or unavailability windows for individual resources
• Floor Downtime — planned downtime applying to an entire production floor
• Shift Patterns — named shift definitions with start and stop times
• Resource Shift Overrides — date-specific shift assignments overriding the default pattern for a resource
• Floor Shift Overrides — the same, for an entire floor

Selecting a category displays its full field list with descriptions, data types, and whether each field is required. Use that as your guide when preparing the file.

Preparing your file

File format

PLAIO accepts Excel files in .xlsx format only. Each file should contain a single sheet with column headers in the first row and one record per row beneath.

Column headers

Your headers do not need to match PLAIO’s field names. On a first upload — or with a file whose column names differ from a previous upload — PLAIO asks you to map each column to the corresponding PLAIO field, showing sample values from your file to help you choose.

Once you confirm a mapping, PLAIO remembers it for future uploads with the same column layout, and applies it automatically.

Required vs optional fields

Each category has required fields that must be present for the upload to succeed. Optional fields can be omitted entirely or left blank for individual rows. The Data Management page for each category marks which are required.

Data types

Type	Notes
Text	Names, references, SKU numbers
Numbers	Quantities, prices, durations. Whole numbers and decimals both accepted
Dates	Use Excel date formatting — the system reads dates natively from Excel
Yes/No	Boolean fields such as Include in Planning accept TRUE or FALSE
Date Durations	Lead times, shelf life, coverage periods. Here 1m means 1 month. Common formats: 7d, 2w, 1m, 3m
Time Durations	Production timing such as processing, setup, cleaning. Here 1m means 1 minute. Common formats: 45m, 90m, 2h

Custom attributes

Most categories support custom attributes — additional columns you define to capture information specific to your business. They support all data types including dates.

Custom attributes must be configured with PLAIO before they appear as available fields during upload. Once set up, include them as additional columns and map them during the upload process.

Tips for clean uploads

• Remove summary rows, totals, and notes outside the data area. PLAIO strips blank rows at the edges automatically but cannot interpret formula rows or footnotes.
• Avoid duplicate column headers — the system rejects a file where two columns share a name.
• Ensure every header cell has a value. Empty header cells cause a validation error with a specific cell reference (e.g. “empty header in cell C1”).
• Keep one record per row. PLAIO reads each row as a single entity — one SKU, one order, one batch.

The upload process

1. Upload your file. Go to Data Management, choose the category, and upload your .xlsx. PLAIO reads the first sheet, strips empty rows and columns from the edges, and validates the headers.
2. Map your columns. On a first upload for the category, or if the column names differ from a previous upload, PLAIO presents your column names alongside its expected fields with sample values to help you match them. With a known layout, the mapping applies automatically.
3. Review results. PLAIO validates every row against the expected schema, resolves references (checking each SKU in your inventory file exists in Items), and processes the data. You then see a summary of how many records were created, updated, or unchanged.

How records are matched

PLAIO uses an upsert approach: every upload can create new records and update existing ones in a single step. There is no need to separate your data into “new” and “existing” files.

Each category has an identification pattern — a set of columns that uniquely identifies a record. Items are identified by SKU No; Inventory by SKU No + Batch No; BOMs by the combination of parent SKU and component SKU.

Case	Result
New record — no match found	The row is inserted
Existing record with changes	The record is updated
Existing record, no changes	The row is skipped

This means you can safely re-upload a full extract from your ERP without duplicating data. Only genuinely new or changed rows are written.

Partial updates — you don’t need every field to update a single column. Include the identification columns for the category plus only the columns you want to update. To update shelf life for a set of items, your file only needs item_code and shelf_life; all other fields are left unchanged.

Validation and error handling

PLAIO validates at two levels before anything is saved.

Schema validation — every row is checked against the expected data types, required fields, and allowed values. Failures return a clear message per issue, including the column name, the specific value that caused the problem, and a suggested fix.

Reference validation — for categories that depend on others (Inventory referencing Items, BOMs referencing a parent and component SKU), PLAIO checks that every referenced record already exists. A row referencing a SKU that hasn’t been uploaded yet is flagged with a message explaining which reference could not be found.

Recommended upload order

Because some categories reference others, this order avoids reference errors:

1. Items
2. Locations
3. Bill of Materials (references Items)
4. Forecast Types
5. Demand Segments (references Items and Locations)
6. Forecasts, Customer Orders, Actual Sales (reference Items and optionally Demand Segments)
7. Inventory (references Items)
8. Firm Orders (references Items and Locations)
9. Supplier Constraints, Inventory Policies, Order Policies
10. Production Constraints (references Items and Resources)
11. Shift Patterns, Downtime, and Shift Overrides

Updating custom attributes

When you re-upload data including custom attributes, PLAIO merges the values rather than overwriting them entirely. Any custom attribute column present in your file updates the corresponding value; attributes not in your file are left untouched. This lets you update a subset without affecting the rest.

Permissions

Your access to each data category is controlled by your role. If a category is not listed in Data Management, your account does not have upload permissions for that section. Contact your administrator if you need access.