Questions about the BOM Import

[Idea-Junkie]

Hello all,

I had a quick question about importing BOM Materials, I was given a BOM to import into a production server as a test, it included Reference/Part#, QTY, and the Description.

refrence/part# was matched to 'Part' in the data import field as well

When I imported the BOM, every line item got an error of some sort.
like something along the lines of

should be 'pk' value not 'str'
'pk' value: 2084390 not found

which makes sense, as the documentation I think somewhere recommends assigning an IPN to parts for a better and easier match to importing data. Link

However, my electrical team, for lack of a better term, has not been assigning IPN to parts (using MFN instead), which makes it difficult to do the import. Is there a way around this, or am I going to have to convince them to make IPNs for all the parts? (It's probably going to be me that does it anyway unless theres a way to automatically do it in solidworks electrical)

If I'm going to have to convince them to make IPNs, can any of you give me good references to build the case for why we need IPN's, especially if we are going to have a inventory system to track everything? I have found some articles online but wondered if any of you had any references to share.

Thanks everyone for your hard work!

This may also be related to this as well

[SchrodingersGat]

@Idea-Junkie with regard to the error message you are seeing:

should be 'pk' value not 'str'
'pk' value: 2084390 not found

Can you please share:

• The exact version number of InvenTree you are currently running
• A screenshot of the data import process
• A sample of the csv file you are trying to import, which has this line in it?

[Idea-Junkie]

Sure thing, I will get this to you first thing in the morning. (8am EST)

[Idea-Junkie]

@SchrodingersGat Here is the info you requested, let me know if there is anything else you need! Im going to do some tests of my own since this has like a microsoft excel table format so Im wondering if thats messing with the import process

Inventree Version and Info

InvenTree Version: 1.1.11
API Version: 421
Python Version: 3.11.13
Django Version: 4.2.26
Commit Hash: 0f45e3e
Commit Date: 2026-02-02

Screenshot of Data Import Process

These are the error messages I am getting through out the BOM, not a single match even though I imported the parts before hand and made sure they all matched (90+ parts)

Inventree Error: "Invaild pk "2907588" - object does not exist.

Inventree Error: "incorrect type. Expected pk value, recieved str.

BOM file

BOMtest2232026.xlsx

[SchrodingersGat]

InvenTree Version: 1.1.11

Importing by "natural key fields" is going to be included in the upcoming 1.3.0 release - #11288

Until that point, you need to know the internal database ID of each part during the import process - you cannot do a lookup by IPN / part name / etc.

[Idea-Junkie]

Ahhh Okay I see, I think this is the answer I was looking for! Thanks!