Scheduled Import: File Hosting Setup Instructions for IT Admins

Overview

Uptempo provides a feature that allows customers to setup an automated scheduled import of Purchase Orders (POs) and Actuals from customer financial systems into Uptempo.

The following article will provide detailed instructions relating to the hosting and pickup of the data files on the customer system.

Preparation of the Data Files

This section will describe the format and contents of the data files created by the customer. 

File Format

The file name itself has no restrictions but the format must be a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file. The delimiter is configurable on the Uptempo side but defaults to a comma. If the delimiter itself occurs within a text value, that value must be enclosed in double quotes. It's a good practice to double quote all text fields for this reason. The date format can be configured in Uptempo to fit a variety of formats (e.g.  2013-12-25) but cannot be a number (e.g. number of days since a prior date). 

File Size

There are two limitations in terms of the size of the file. The total size of the file cannot exceed 10MB and the total number of rows in the file cannot exceed 10,000. To keep file size down, it's recommended that only records changed since the last import will be included, but Uptempo does handle duplicates properly in case the same record is included in subsequent imports. 

Included Fields

For invoices, there are two required fields:

• Invoice Date
• Amount

For POs, there is one required field:

• PO number

Typically several additional fields are included that map to custom fields in Uptempo. These additional fields would need to be previously setup in the import template in Uptempo. Some examples of additional fields that are often imported are:

• Invoice Number
• Owner
• Department

Transport of the Data Files

This section will describe the process used to hosts the files for Uptempo pickup.

Sever Type

Uptempo supports picking up the files from an FTP server or an SFTP (SSH File transfer Protocol) server.

Credentials

In order for Uptempo to be setup to connect to the customer FTP/SFTP server, it needs to know where to connect and which credentials to use. The following must be provided:

• Hostname (referred to as System Address in the Uptempo UI)
• Username
• Password

File Paths

A file path containing the data file(s) must be provided. If can be a path to a single file (e.g. /files/invoices.csv), a path including a wildcard in the filename (eg. /files/invoice_*.csv) or a path to a folder (e.g. /files/). In the later case, each file is run through the import process sequentially. This is an effective way to get around the size limitation mentioned previously. 

Removal/Archive Files

After a file is successfully retrieved by Uptempo , it is deleted by default. Optionally Uptempo can be configured to move the file to a specified archive folder rather than deleting it. 

File Permissions

The FTP/SFTP account that Uptempo is given needs to be able to list the contents of the folder specified in the file path, read any files within it, and then delete those files or move them to the archive folder depending on configuration. It's a good practice to test this process using the FTP/SFTP user account before attempting with Uptempo. 

Encryption

You can optionally encrypt the data files to increase security. Use a PGP encryption tool (for example GnuPG) with the Uptempo public key.

You can find the Uptempo public key in the attached TXT file.

Key Rotation Policy

Schedule

Uptempo can be configured to pickup files daily, weekly, or monthly. If an alternate scheduled such as bi-weekly is desired, set the schedule to weekly and every second week Uptempo will connect and not find any files, which is not an error. 

Errors

If an error occurs reading CSV data (e.g. an invalid record), that file will fail to import. If there are multiple files included, subsequent files will attempt to be loaded. Errors can be viewed in the Uptempo schedule event log as well as received via email as described in the following section.

Notification

Uptempo can optionally be configured to send an email notification to one or more email addresses for each import or just for imports that generate errors. In the notification email details of the import, including file names, record counts and any errors, are included. It's good practice to setup, at least, a failure notification to a customer administrator.