Xero can keep stock counts for you, but only for items set up as tracked. Most UK stockists start from a supplier price list, a PDF or a spreadsheet with hundreds of part numbers, and the question is how that list becomes tracked items without a week of retyping. This page covers what tracked means in Xero, what the items import can and cannot do, and the short path from the supplier file to a ready import.
| Untracked item | Tracked item | |
|---|---|---|
| What Xero keeps | code, names, purchase and sale price, tax rates | the same, plus quantity on hand and average cost |
| What makes it so | InventoryAssetAccount and CostOfGoodsSoldAccount left empty | both accounts filled, for example 630 Inventory and 310 Cost of Goods Sold in Xero's default UK chart |
| On a bill | posts to the purchases account | adds quantity, posts to the inventory asset account |
| On an invoice | posts to the sales account | removes quantity, posts the cost of goods sold |
| Good for | price references, services, drop-shipped lines | goods you hold on the shelf and count |
A supplier catalogue rarely needs to be tracked line by line. Track the lines you stock, leave the rest untracked, and keep both in the same import: the only difference between the two is whether the two account columns are filled.
The import itself takes a minute. The week goes into the file before it: a 40-page supplier PDF with section banners, one description covering five sizes, prices in two currencies, a photographed page from the rep. Someone retypes it into the template, and one shifted row puts the wrong cost on the wrong code, which a tracked item then carries into every bill and every margin report.
The MicroCity engine reads the supplier file as it arrives, PDF, Excel, scan or photo, and returns a CSV in Xero's Import Items layout: part numbers as ItemCode, the supplier price as PurchasesUnitPrice, descriptions and names in their columns. The layout is certified on a live Xero company: a converted supplier file imported 3 of 3 items with zero errors, and a re-import updated them by ItemCode with no duplicates. Anything the engine cannot read properly gets flagged, not guessed.
Honest limit: the engine returns the import file. It does not connect to your Xero organisation, does not write to it and does not set stock counts. You import the CSV yourself and review every line first. The exact column rules are on the Xero items CSV guide.
Upload the supplier file, look at the two-page preview, and pay once for the whole file only if it is right. No account, no subscription. Recurring supplier feeds fit the monthly plans; bookkeepers with several clients, email contact@microcitylabs.com.