Import Product Updates by Internal Reference in Odoo

Keeping product information accurate is essential for maintaining a healthy product catalog. Whether you’re updating descriptions, brands, categories, or other product data, Odoo’s built-in import tool makes bulk updates easy—but traditionally, it has relied on one important requirement: the product’s External ID.

For many businesses, however, External IDs aren’t part of their day-to-day operations. Instead, users identify products by their Internal Reference (SKU), which is often the primary identifier used throughout purchasing, inventory, manufacturing, and sales.

Steersman has developed an enhancement that allows Odoo’s standard import tool to match existing records using a product’s Internal Reference, making bulk product maintenance significantly easier and more intuitive.

The Challenge with Standard Imports

When importing updates into Odoo, the system typically expects an External ID to determine which existing record should be updated.

While External IDs work well for system integrations and technical migrations, many users don’t have easy access to them. Instead, product spreadsheets are almost always organized by Internal Reference or SKU.

This creates unnecessary work:

• Users must export products just to retrieve External IDs.
• Existing spreadsheets often need to be reformatted before they can be imported.
• Product maintenance becomes slower and more error-prone.

For organizations that manage thousands of products, these extra steps can consume valuable time.

The Solution: Match Products by Internal Reference

Steersman’s enhancement extends Odoo’s existing import functionality by allowing users to identify products using their Internal Reference during an import.

Instead of requiring a technical identifier, users can simply use the SKU they already work with every day.

This makes updating existing products much more straightforward while preserving Odoo’s familiar import workflow.

Continue Using Odoo’s Standard Import Tool

One of the biggest advantages of this enhancement is that users don’t need to learn a new import process.

The feature works directly with Odoo’s standard Import interface, allowing organizations to continue using the same familiar workflow while gaining additional matching capabilities.

There are no custom import screens or separate utilities to maintain.

Perfect for Routine Product Maintenance

This enhancement is especially useful for organizations that regularly update product information in bulk, including:

• Product descriptions
• Brands
• Product categories
• Marketing information
• Product attributes
• Other catalog data

Rather than exporting records simply to obtain External IDs, users can update products using the identifiers already present in their spreadsheets.

Built to Protect Existing Workflows

The enhancement was designed to integrate cleanly with existing import behavior.

When the Internal Reference matching option is enabled, the import process intelligently matches products using the SKU instead of requiring an External ID. Existing behavior remains unchanged when the feature is not being used, ensuring compatibility with current import processes.

This allows organizations to adopt the new functionality without disrupting established workflows.

How to Use the Feature

Using the enhancement is simple:

1. Prepare your spreadsheet using the product Internal Reference as the identifier.
2. Open Odoo’s standard Import tool.
3. Select the file to import.
4. Configure the import to use Internal Reference for matching existing products.
5. Validate the import preview.
6. Run the import to update the selected product information.

The overall experience remains the same as Odoo’s standard import process—only the method used to identify existing products has changed.

The Benefits

By allowing imports to match products using Internal Reference, businesses can:

• Eliminate the need to retrieve External IDs
• Reuse existing product spreadsheets
• Reduce preparation time for imports
• Lower the risk of matching errors
• Simplify ongoing product maintenance
• Speed up bulk updates across large product catalogs