Why do my BOM entries show up twice?

[RobertJC6YK]

Hello Everyone,

Can someone explain to me why when I load a BOM from a spreadsheet all the entries show up twice but if I put a part in manually it only shows up once? I really don't want to have to go through and delete hundreds of entries every time I load a BOM. Thank you for any help.

[dvirh]

There could be multiple reasons for it, but most likely you are not using the 'Match On' option in the import tool. Or possibly using it incorrectly. When the import tool cannot match an item in the excel file with an existing item (either preexisting or somewhere else in the file) it creates a new item. 

[RobertJC6YK]

So do I need to turn off the "Match On" feature? Why does it create an item if it can't find one? If you are loading in new items there won't be anything to match on.

[dvirh]

When importing items you should always use the Match On option. Even if the workspace is empty, it helps the system identify two instances of the same item even when they are both listed in the Excel file. I'm not 100% sure that this is the issue that you are having, but you should first make sure to use the Match On option and see if the problem persists.

[RobertJC6YK]

If I delete the duplicate entry will there be any strange result? The next time I load a spread sheet I will make sure to leave the Match On.

[dvirh · Accepted solution]

If the issue was really caused due to not using Match On, the data in the duplicate items may not be identical. I recommend you do a side-by-side comparison to make sure you will not be losing data when you delete an item. For example, it is possible that one of the entries will have the correct Item Details data but the duplicate item will have the correct BOM relationships. As long as the items are truly duplicates, it will be OK to delete one of them. HOWEVER, note that the BOM relationships are based on the unique (internal) identifier of the items and not the PN. Therefore, you need to make sure to delete the set of items that are part of the same BOM tree and not mix-and-match. If there is a way for you to clearly identify the set of items that are part of the same BOM tree, and as long as the items are truly duplicates (or, at least, one item has super set of data to the 'duplicate'), it will be OK to delete one of the sets.

Another solution would be to delete all the items and re-import with Match On defined. Unless you have already put significant effort in massaging the imported data, I would recommend to take this route.