Almost every supplier we talk to is coming from the same starting point: a spreadsheet with a product list, and a second tab, or a second file, with which buyers get which rate. Here is how to move that over without retyping it, and without losing track of who has what.
A product list with a SKU column, a description, and a base price is already 80% of what a catalog needs. The setup step is importing it, not rebuilding it from scratch. If your spreadsheet is reasonably consistent — one row per SKU, a price column, maybe a category — it can usually be imported directly rather than re-keyed by hand.
Most spreadsheets mix two things in one file: the base price list, and a set of buyer-specific exceptions tracked as a percentage off, a flat rate, or a separate column per account. Before importing, it helps to pull those apart mentally: one list of products and list prices, and a second, shorter list of which buyers get a different rate and what it is. The first becomes your catalog. The second becomes buyer-level pricing settings applied after the catalog is loaded.
Spreadsheets accumulate small inconsistencies over years — a discontinued SKU still listed, a price that was manually overridden once and never reverted, a product with no category. Cleaning all of it up before importing can turn a half-day task into a multi-week one. It is usually faster to import what you have, hide anything you are unsure about, and correct entries as you notice them over the following weeks.
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