Importing Special Bids and Deal-Reg Pricing

Load distributor special bids, deal registrations, and renewal pricing from a spreadsheet into your catalog or directly onto a quote.

Written By Mike Forte

Last updated 11 days ago

Special bids and deal registrations (deal-reg) are short-lived, negotiated prices from distributors and vendors — often tied to a specific opportunity, end customer, or renewal window. Renewal pricing files from suppliers follow the same pattern: a spreadsheet of part numbers, quantities, and prices that do not match your everyday catalog rates.

Salesbuildr's CSV import wizard lets you bring that pricing in quickly. You can update your product catalog, push lines straight onto an open quote, or both in one pass when you import from the quote editor.

When to use CSV import for special pricing

Use a spreadsheet import when:

A distributor sends a special bid or deal-reg file with MPNs and one-off prices for a quote you are building today.
You receive a renewal price list and need updated cost and sell prices before quoting.
You regularly get supplier files in a non-standard layout and want a repeatable way to load them (see Recommended workflow for regular imports below).

For customer-specific pricing you reuse across many quotes, consider a pricing book after the products exist in your catalog. CSV import is best for loading or refreshing prices in bulk; pricing books apply those overrides automatically when you quote that customer.

Prerequisites: Your tenant must have the Import feature enabled, and your user account needs the Products importer permission. Importing into a quote also requires Quote editor access and permission to manage products. See Users & Permissions.

Accepted file formats

The import wizard accepts:

CSV (.csv)
Plain text (.txt) — tab- or comma-separated
Excel (.xlsx, .xls)

You can upload a file or click Paste data on the first step to paste rows copied from Excel or Google Sheets.

Download the sample CSV template for the column layout Salesbuildr expects. The template workbook contains several sheets — open the sheet that matches your import type and map from there.

Two ways to import: catalog or quote

The import wizard is the same everywhere; where you open it decides what happens after you click Import:

Start fromResult
Products → Import products	Creates or updates products in your catalog. Nothing is added to a quote.
Quote editor → Import products (under the product search bar)	Creates or updates catalog products and adds each row as a line item on the open quote.

To load special pricing directly onto a quote, open the quote first, then use Import products from the editor — not from the Products list.

Tip: After a quote import finishes, the quote refreshes automatically. Expand the product table widget to see the new line items.

Import wizard walkthrough

Open the import dialog (Import products from Products or from a quote). The wizard has up to five steps.

Step 1 — Select file

Turn Content with header on if your first row contains column names (recommended).
Optionally turn on Overwrite data based on MPN field if you are re-importing and want existing products with the same MPN updated instead of rejected as duplicates.
Choose your .csv, .txt, or Excel file — or click Paste data and paste from your supplier spreadsheet.
Click Next.

Step 2 — Field mapping

Confirm the locale matches how numbers are formatted in your file (decimal separator, thousands separator).
Map each Salesbuildr field to a column in your spreadsheet. The wizard auto-matches common header names.
Category is required — every product row needs a category. Categories must already exist in Salesbuildr; the import matches names to your catalog and does not create new categories.
For special-pricing files, map at least MPN, Sales price, and/or Cost (plus Quantity when importing to a quote).
When importing from Products only, you can enable Bill of materials — will be added as description for the product row above to attach component rows. See Bill of Materials on Quotes.
Click Next.

Step 3 — Field type mapping (when shown)

If your file contains category, unit, term, manufacturer, or distributor values that need matching to existing records, this step appears. Review each tab, confirm auto-matched values, and fix any that could not be resolved. Click Next.

Step 4 — Sample data

Preview the first five rows and set import options:

ToggleWhat it does
Overwrite data based on MPN field	Same as step 1 — update existing catalog products when MPN matches.
Overwrite pricing information with the values from the import	On by default. Applies cost, sales price, markup, margin, and MSRP from your file. Turn off to keep existing catalog prices and only update non-price fields. On a quote import, prices from the file are written onto the new quote line items when this is on.
Include white label bundles	Quote imports only. Groups rows that share the same Bundle name column into a single bundle line on the quote (and creates the bundle product in your catalog). Leave off for a flat list of individual products.
Product can be sold / Is serialized	Default flags applied to imported products when those columns are not mapped.
Select product distributor	Optional default distributor for imported products.

Fix any Mapping error messages before continuing. Click Import.

Step 5 — Import log

The log shows live progress: Status, Rows to import, and lists of Successfully imported, Failed to import, and Import information messages.

Wait until Status shows completed. The summary banner reports whether all rows succeeded or only some did. Failed rows stay in the list with a short reason (for example, missing category or duplicate MPN when overwrite is off).

From a catalog import, click View imported data to filter the product list to items from this run. From a quote import, close the dialog and review the quote line items.

How imported products appear on a quote

When you import from the quote editor:

Each spreadsheet row becomes a line item in the quote's product table (respecting the Quantity column when mapped).
Sales price and Cost from the file are applied to those lines when Overwrite pricing information with the values from the import is on.
Underlying catalog products are created or updated at the same time (matched by MPN), so the same pricing is available the next time you search for that product.
If Include white label bundles is on and you mapped Bundle name, rows with the same bundle name are combined into one bundle line with child products inside it. Rows without a bundle name are added as separate lines.
Special bid numbers are not imported from the spreadsheet today. After import, set the bid reference on a line item in the quote editor, or attach it via a pricing book if the customer uses that program regularly. The number flows to procurement when you place distributor orders.

Imported lines use the product name and description from your file when those columns are mapped. You can still edit quantity, price, and discounts per line after import.

Recommended workflow for regular imports

MSPs who receive special-pricing files every week or month can make the process almost hands-off:

Standardize on the template — Download the sample CSV template and note the required Category column plus the pricing columns you use.
Use an AI Project to reformat supplier files — In your AI assistant (for example ChatGPT or Claude), create a Project with instructions and a copy of the Salesbuildr template. Paste each new supplier export and ask the project to output rows in the template format. Copy the result into Salesbuildr via Paste data, or save as .csv and upload.
Re-import with overwrite — Turn on Overwrite data based on MPN field and Overwrite pricing information with the values from the import so existing products pick up new bid prices instead of failing as duplicates.
Quote in one step — For a single opportunity, open the quote and run Import products there so catalog and line items stay in sync.
Reuse for the customer — For standing deal-reg pricing, import into the catalog once, then attach a pricing book to the company so future quotes resolve the special rates automatically.

Common columns for special-pricing files

Column (template / field)Purpose
MPN	Matches products in your catalog (case-insensitive).
Product name	Display name on the quote and in search.
Description	Short description on the line item.
Sales price	Customer-facing price from the bid or deal-reg file.
Cost	Your buy price from the distributor.
Markup / Margin	Optional — use when the file has margin instead of sell price.
MSRP	Optional list price for reference.
Category	Required — must match an existing Salesbuildr category.
Quantity	Quote imports only — quantity per line (defaults to 1 if unmapped).
Bundle name	Quote imports with Include white label bundles — groups rows into one bundle.
Manufacturer / Distributor	Optional — resolved to existing records in field type mapping.

Only Category is required. Map the pricing columns your supplier file actually contains.

Troubleshooting

IssueWhat to check
Row failed: product already exists	Turn on Overwrite data based on MPN field, or fix a typo in the MPN.
Prices did not change on re-import	Turn on Overwrite pricing information with the values from the import.
Category could not be resolved	The category name in your file must match a category already in Salesbuildr.
Bundle lines missing	Include white label bundles must be on, and Bundle name must be mapped.
Import button missing	Confirm the Import tenant feature and Products importer permission.
Products not in search yet	New products may take a short moment to appear in search after import; open them from the import log link or quote lines.

See Products & Catalog for more import troubleshooting.

Importing Products — PSA, marketplace, and other import methods
Quote Editor — Building and sending quotes
Dynamic Pricing — Pricing books and customer-specific rates
Bill of Materials on Quotes — Component breakdowns on quote lines
Procurement — Placing orders with special bid numbers