CSV field reference — every column

What goes in each column of the three files: orders going out, deliveries coming in, and new products. Use it alongside Send orders by CSV, which covers the steps.

Start here

The three example files

Download the one you need and replace the example rows. Keep the header row exactly as it comes — it is what the import template matches on.

CSVOrders to shipThree example lines, showing how a two-product order is written. Start here. CSVInbound deliveriesStock arriving at the warehouse. Lot and best-before go in the note — we read them off the cartons at goods receipt. CSVNew productsCreating items in bulk. Do this before any order that mentions them — and set the lot flags here, not later.

What goes in each column

The order file. Leave an optional column empty rather than deleting it — an empty cell is fine, a missing mapping is not.

Column	Needed	What goes in it
`warehouse_id`	Yes	Always `ZN4D04DE-90443-0003` — StartFill’s warehouse. The code, never the name.
`merchant_outbound_number`	Yes	Your own order number. Must be unique, and must repeat on every line of the same order.
`external_number`	—	The marketplace’s own order number, where there is one.
`currency`	Yes	`EUR`.
`sales_channel`	—	Where it came from — your shop, eBay, a phone order. Useful later when you are looking for it.
`item_merchant_sku`	Yes	Your SKU, exactly as it is spelled in your FFN item list. Unknown SKUs stop the whole row.
`item_name`	—	What the line should be called on the paperwork.
`item_quantity`	Yes	How many of that SKU. Whole numbers.
`item_price`	—	Net price for one unit — not the line total, not the gross.
`item_vat`	—	The rate as a plain number: `7` or `19`.
`shipping_address_first_name` `shipping_address_last_name`	—	Who receives it.
`shipping_address_company`	—	For a business delivery. Worth filling — couriers find offices by company name.
`shipping_address_street`	Yes	Street and house number in one field. Write `Strasse`, not `Straße`.
`shipping_address_zip` `shipping_address_city`	Yes	City is mandatory, postcode effectively so.
`shipping_address_country`	Yes	Two-letter code: `DE`, `AT`, `FR`.
`shipping_address_email` `shipping_address_phone`	—	What the carrier uses for delivery notices. Digits only in the phone — no slashes or spaces.

More fields exist — delivery dates, notes for the warehouse, sender addresses, eBay Plus and Amazon Prime flags. Ask us and we will tell you which ones earn their keep.

The portal stars fewer fields than we do. When you build the template, FFN puts a * on only five of these — warehouse_id, merchant_outbound_number, currency, item_quantity and shipping_address_street. The rest of our Yes column is what makes a parcel actually deliverable rather than merely importable. Fill all of them.

The other two files: inbound delivery columns

Eight columns. One row per SKU, and every row of the same delivery repeats merchant_inbound_number.

Column	Needed	What goes in it
`warehouse_id`	Yes	Always `ZN4D04DE-90443-0003`.
`merchant_inbound_number`	Yes	Your own reference for the shipment. Repeats on every line of it.
`external_inbound_number`	—	A second reference if your supplier gave you one.
`purchase_order_number`	—	Your PO number. Worth filling — it is what we match the count against.
`item_merchant_sku`	Yes	Your SKU, exactly as it is spelled in your FFN item list.
`item_quantity`	Yes	Units, not cartons. Cartons × units per carton.
`item_note`	—	Free text for that line. Put the lot and best-before here — there is no column for them in the announcement, so this is what the warehouse reads before opening the pallet.
`note`	—	Free text for the whole shipment: pallet count, carrier, expected week.

Lot and best-before are captured at goods receipt, not from this file. We read them off the cartons line by line and book them into stock, which is what makes oldest-first picking work. What you write in item_note tells the warehouse what to expect and lets us query anything that does not match — it is not the stock record itself.

The other two files: product columns

Fifteen columns, one row per SKU. Create the item before any order or delivery that mentions it.

Column	Needed	What goes in it
`sku`	Yes	Your own article number. This is what every other file refers to.
`name`	Yes	The name the warehouse and the paperwork will use. Include the size — Example product 250 g.
`price_net` / `price_currency`	—	Net unit price and `EUR`. Used for customs and insurance values.
`ean`	—	The barcode printed on the unit. Fill it — it is how the warehouse scans your goods.
`asin`	—	Only if the article is on Amazon.
`weight` / `net_weight`	—	In kilograms, decimal point. Gross first, then the content: `0.300` / `0.250` for a 250 g jar.
`height` / `length` / `width`	—	Of one unit, in centimetres. These decide the carton we pick and the shipping price you pay, so a guess costs money.
`origin_country`	—	Two-letter code of where it was made: `DE`, `IT`. Needed for any parcel leaving the EU.
`manufacturer`	—	Whoever makes it.
`is_batch`	Set it	`true` or `false`. True means we record a lot number for every unit of this article at goods receipt.
`is_best_before`	Set it	`true` or `false`. True means we record a best-before date and pick oldest-first.

Decide the two flags before your first delivery arrives. They are per-article, so dated goods can carry them while something like salt does not. Switching them on after stock has been booked means re-doing the whole goods receipt at the pallet — every line, every lot label read again. It is the one field on this page that is expensive to get wrong.

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Last updated 19 September 2026

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