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What is a supply import and what are the ways to do it?

Add a supply by importing an invoice photo with Postie AI or a spreadsheet, instead of adding products manually. 

A supply is the record in Poster of products or ingredients received into a storage location — for example, from a supplier. Importing a supply means filling in that record from a file instead of adding each product by hand. There are three ways to do this:

  • Postie AI, from a photo or PDF of an invoice (JPEG, PNG, PDF) — Postie AI recognizes the text and matches products to items already in your account.
  • Postie AI, from a spreadsheet (CSV, XLS, or XLSX) — Postie AI reads it and fills in the products, quantities, and prices automatically.
  • Classic import through the Supplies tab — you upload a spreadsheet (CSV, XLS, or XLSX) and select the columns to import yourself, without Postie AI's automatic matching.

Postie AI  import works from both the management console and at the Poster register, so you don't need to be at a computer to import a supply with it. Supported files: JPEG, PNG, PDF, CSV, XLS, XLSX.

Before importing a supply, make sure the products or ingredients you're adding already exist in your menu — import fills in quantities and prices for existing items, it doesn't create new menu items for you.

How importing a supply differs from adding it manually

When you add a supply manually, you search for and add each product or ingredient yourself, entering its quantity and price by hand — this takes longer, since every line is typed in one by one. Importing skips that: the products, quantities, and prices are filled in for you from a file, and you only review and adjust them before saving. Use manual adding only when you don't have an invoice photo or a spreadsheet at all.

Import via Postie AI

Postie AI is the fastest way to import a supply, because it accepts not only a spreadsheet with the supply, but also a photo or PDF of an invoice — you don't need to prepare a file at all, just take a picture of the paper invoice you already have.

  • A photo or PDF of an invoice (JPEG, PNG, PDF) — Postie AI recognizes the text and matches products to items already in your account.
  • A spreadsheet (CSV, XLS, or XLSX) — Postie AI reads it as a table of products, quantities, and prices.

 👆  You can upload up to two photos for a single invoice. This is handy if the document is double-sided or contains too much information to fit in a single photo.

Postie AI operates on a subscription model. You get 20 free recognitions each month. If that limit isn't enough, sign up for a package that includes 100 additional recognitions.

Importing with Postie AI in the management console:

  1. Open Inventory → Supplies.
  2. Click the Import with AI in the upper corner of the page.
  3. Upload a photo or PDF of the invoice, or a spreadsheet file —  Postie AI will read it automatically.
  4. If you uploaded a photo or PDF: wait for Postie AI to finish recognition, then check whether the products have been matched correctly and edit the names, quantities, or prices if needed.
  5. Review the imported products and ingredients, their quantities, unit prices, and the total supply amount.
  6. Click Save.

Postie AI import also works from the register. It's convenient that you don't need the management console to import a supply with Postie AI — you can do it right at the register, during your shift, from the POS register app:

  1. Log in to a Poster app.
  2. Tap ≡ in the top-right corner of the screen.
  3. In the Applications section, tap Add invoice from photo.
  4. Upload a photo or PDF of the invoice.
  5. Wait for Postie AI to finish recognition, then review the products, quantities, and prices.

The saved supply appears in the management console under Inventory → Supplies, same as any other supply, whether it was imported with Postie AI from the register or from the console.

Postie AI learns and has a monthly limit. Postie AI remembers the last storage location used for each supplier and fills it in automatically next time; it also learns from your corrections — once you match a product name from an invoice to an item in your account, Postie AI will match it automatically in future invoices from the same supplier. Recognizing a photo or PDF invoice uses one of 20 free actions per month, renewed automatically on the day the app was connected. If needed, you can activate 10 USD/month for 100 additional actions in Settings → Billing, for a total of up to 120 invoices per month.

Classic spreadsheet import

The classic way to import a supply is through the Supplies tab, uploading a spreadsheet prepared in advance — no photo recognition involved.

💡 To get a spreadsheet template, export an existing supply from a storage location, or download the sample file. Remove the example ingredients and products from the template, then fill it in.

  1. Open Inventory → Supplies in the Poster management console.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Click the Import Supply field and select the spreadsheet from your computer.
  4. Select the columns you want to import.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. Review the imported products and ingredients, their quantities, unit prices, and the total supply amount.
  7. Click Save.

☝️ In the mobile version of the management console, importing supply tables is not available. To add a supply, open the web version of Poster on your computer or use Postie AI .

Difference between Postie AI import and spreadsheet import

Postie AI import is faster and more flexible: it accepts a photo or PDF of an invoice as well as a spreadsheet, recognizes the content automatically, and works both from the management console and from the register — but it draws on a monthly action quota when recognizing a photo or PDF. Spreadsheet import only accepts a prepared table file, requires mapping the columns yourself, and is only available from the management console — but it has no action limit, and lets you import any number of products at once regardless of how many invoices you're processing.

Limitation

  • Import with Postie AI or through spreadsheet only fills in products, ingredients,  that already exist in your menu. If the invoice or spreadsheet contains a product Poster doesn't recognize, it won't be added automatically — you need to create that item in the menu first, then import or match it.
  • Postie AI recognition of a photo or PDF only works with suppliers and storage locations that already exist in your account — it cannot create new ones.
  • Postie AI only recognizes standard units (liters, kilograms, pieces) in photo/PDF recognition. If you need a different ordering unit, change it after saving the supply.
  • Blurry or low-quality photos may cause Postie AI recognition errors.
  • Spreadsheet import only accepts files in CSV, XLS, or XLSX format.
  • Postie AI's photo/PDF recognition is limited to 20 free actions per month, or up to 120 with the paid add-on. Spreadsheet import has no such limit.