Checking import quality with sample asset records

Check an asset-register import with a small, varied set of fictional records before moving the full list. Compare source values against the resulting records, including rows the importer rejects. A successful upload message does not show that the data is accurate.

Build a revealing sample

Include a tagged laptop with a serial number, a second asset with a similar model name, an item assigned to a person, one recorded at a location and a blank optional field. Put a duplicate tag in a separate test file. Keep an untouched copy of each input and write down the expected result for every row.

Agree on the identifier used to match an imported item with the existing register. A display name may change. If the application generates tags, establish how those new values will be matched back to the old records.

Check the required format for dates, status, custodian, location and custom fields in the import route you plan to use.

Check the importer's actual rules

Snipe-IT's asset importer maps fields including tag, model, category, status and serial. Its documentation says the asset tag is normally used to find an existing record unless an internal ID is supplied.

Its general import guidance warns that inconsistent names can create duplicates. Inspect the resulting model list as well as the asset rows.

Sortly's Advanced Import uses a CSV or Excel template to add new items or folders. Custom fields and units must be prepared first, and the template headers and column order must remain unchanged. An error report identifies rejected rows.

Treat Sortly's Advanced Import as a route for adding new items, not as an update route. It also warns that re-importing rows already accepted will duplicate them; remove successful rows before retrying failures.

Snipe-IT has a separate basic historical-checkout importer. Assets and users must already exist; it matches assets by tag and expects specified date, tag and name columns. Importing a current assignee should therefore not be treated as a complete reconstruction of earlier handovers.

Reconcile before scaling up

For Snipe-IT, change one harmless field on a fictional asset and import that row again to check its documented update route and resulting record. For Sortly's Advanced Import, test a partial failure and retry only rejected rows; do not treat that route as an update test.

Compare accepted records with the input and, where export is available, with exported values. Have another person review unexplained mismatches.

Clean the source data and rehearse the exact route intended for migration. Follow the vendor's backup guidance before a consequential import. Fix unexplained mapping or data errors in the sample before importing the full register.

Common import failures in asset registers