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title: "Introduction to EPC"
canonical: "https://kb.myframeworks.com.au/space/PROSTIXV48DOC/31098353/Introduction%20to%20EPC"
format: markdown
---
Many major suppliers now make their product information and pricing updates available to your business on disk or on their web sites as, for example text files, data files, Excel files or as comma separated variable (csv) files. These files are referred to as an  Electronic Product Catalogue (EPC) .  It does not make business sense to clutter a product file with thousands of products that are not stocked but it makes enormous business sense to have access to these products. Other benefits of having access to an Electronic Product Catalogue (EPC) include: Control over the EPC process not only gives access to these products but carries with it the assurance that the data is up to date. Add to this the ability to take any product from the second product file (EPC), add it to a customer order, link it to a purchase order, receipt it and sell it, then you have a powerful tool. Control of the EPC coupled with intelligent use of ProStix allows this. It is important to understand that while the EPC is a totally different entity to the ProStix Product Master File, the same basic information is required for a product to be created on the EPC. The following pieces of information (fields) must be present: There are many other fields that are extremely desirable and may include: Refer to  EPC Fields  for a full list of the fields available for use with the EPC. Understanding what is available in the EPC product file assists you to determine what information from your supplier can be imported for each field in the EPC, and if your supplier does not include certain pieces of product information, you may be able to generate it in Excel or the Import Utility from the information that is available. The EPC product file does not validate the data that you import, it imports whatever you tell it, wherever you tell it to put it, however if you intend to mass load or update your PMF with this information, THAT process may fall over if the information is not valid. Refer to  Manipulating your EPC data  for details on the different ways you can improve/change the data provided by the supplier. EPC Flow 1. Open the supplier file and manipulate the data in Excel 2. Use the Import Utility to design a format to import the data 3. Register this format in ProStix 4. Import the supplier data into the ProStix EPC product file 5. Update the product master file from the EPC product file EPC Matching Hierarchy P (Product) EPC product code to ProStix product code EPC barcode to ProStix barcode EPC product code to ProStix supplier catalogue number EPC barcode to ProStix any supplier barcode EPC product code to ProStix alternate product number EPC barcode to ProStix alternate product number B (Barcode) EPC barcode to ProStix barcode EPC barcode to ProStix any supplier barcode EPC product code to ProStix product code EPC product code to ProStix supplier catalogue number EPC product code to ProStix alternate product number EPC barcode to ProStix alternate product number S (Supplier Barcode) EPC barcode to ProStix preferred supplier barcode (If pref selected) EPC barcode to ProStix any supplier barcode (If pref not selected) EPC barcode to ProStix barcode EPC product code to ProStix product code EPC product code to ProStix supplier catalogue number EPC product code to ProStix alternate product number EPC barcode to ProStix alternate product number A (Alternate Code) EPC product Code to ProStix product code EPC barcode to ProStix product barcode EPC supplier barcode to ProStix any supplier barcode EPC product code to ProStix alternate product code EPC barcode to ProStix alternate product number G (GTIN) EPC product code to GTIN barcode EPC barcode to ProStix any supplier barcode EPC barcode to ProStix barcode EPC product code to ProStix product code EPC product code to ProStix supplier catalog EPC product code to ProStix alternate product code EPC barcode to ProStix alternate product code