Vendor Pulse moves data in and out through files in six places: your vendor list, your Master Data question templates, assessment answers, evidence documents, the ZIN Knowledge Base and ZIN questionnaires. Each has its own downloadable template or export, and each accepts a specific set of file types.
This guide covers all six, with the rules each import applies and the exact messages you see when a file is rejected.
Navigation: Sidebar → Vendors → Bulk Upload
File limits: .xlsx and .xls only, maximum 15 MB. A larger file is refused with "File size exceeds the maximum allowed size of 15MB".
The header row must keep these columns, spelled as in the template:
Company Name, Company Domain, Description, Employee Count, Revenue, City, State, Country, Industry, Tier, Impact/Materiality, Contract Date, CIN, GSTIN, SPOC Name, SPOC Email, Extra POC Emails, SPOC Contact Number, Assign Manager Email, Purpose, Core/Critical, Outsourcing, Tech Related, Back Office.
Notes on individual columns:
| Column | Rule |
|---|---|
| Company Name, Company Domain | Must have a value in every row |
| SPOC Email, Extra POC Emails, Additional Business Owner Email | Must be business email addresses. Extra POC Emails takes several addresses separated by commas |
| Assign Manager Email | Matched by email address against users who already exist in your organisation. Upper and lower case do not matter. An address that matches nobody is left unassigned |
| Business Owner | Optional. If filled in, it must be the email address of a user who already exists in your organisation; otherwise the import stops and names the value |
| Industry | Blank falls back to "Others" |
| Tier | A number, or "Tier" followed by a number |
Either every row in the file is imported or none is. If one row fails a check, nothing is created — fix the row and upload the whole file again.
| Check | What you see |
|---|---|
| The file is not built from the current template | "Template file version mismatch. Please download the latest template." |
| A required column is missing | "The uploaded file is missing required column(s): …" naming each one |
| A row has no Company Name or Company Domain | "Company Name and Company Domain are required" |
| A vendor in the file already exists, or appears twice in the file | "N duplicate vendors found" |
| The import would take you over your plan's vendor limit | "Bulk import would exceed vendor limit …" with the numbers |
What counts as a duplicate: a row whose Company Name and Company Domain together match an existing vendor, or another row in the same file. Matching on the name alone or the domain alone is not a duplicate. A vendor you deleted earlier does not block re-adding it.
Fully empty rows and rows that are exact copies of another row are dropped automatically before these checks.
On the vendor list, click Export. Your vendor data downloads as an Excel (XLSX) file and you see "Vendor Report exported successfully."
The export always covers your full vendor list — the filters and search on the page do not narrow it.
For adding a single vendor, see How to Add a Vendor.
Navigation: Sidebar → Master Data → Templates tab
VRM_TEMPLATE_CREATION.xlsx).The dialog states "Only .xlsx files are supported".
Click the ⋮ menu on a template row and choose Export. The template downloads as an Excel file named after the template, in the same layout the upload accepts. This works for Standard templates too, which is the way to make your own editable copy of one: export it, adjust it, and upload it as a new template.
Standard templates are otherwise read-only; only Custom templates can be edited or deleted.
Columns are matched by their header name, not by their position, so you can reorder columns and the import still works. Several older and abbreviated spellings are accepted, including "Question"/"Question Title"/"Questions", "Weightage"/"Weight", "Mandatory/Optional"/"Is Mandatory"/"Mandatory", "High Risk Options"/"High Risk", and the equivalents for Medium and Low.
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| A sheet has no Question, Type or Mandatory/Optional column | Rejected, naming the sheet and the missing columns |
| Two columns on a sheet map to the same field (for example "Weight" and "Weightage") | Rejected, asking you to remove the duplicates |
| A column header is not recognised | The column is ignored, with no warning |
| A row has a blank question, type or mandatory value, an unknown type, a choice question with no options, or a risk option that is not in the options list | Rejected with "Invalid data in sheet '…', row …" |
| A template with the same name already exists | Rejected |
The full column list is in How to Create Assessment Templates (MasterVault).
Navigation: Sidebar → Vendors → [select a vendor] → Assessment Process tab → click an assessment → Import Assessment
Use this when a vendor answers outside the portal — always the case on on-premise deployments, where the vendor receives the questionnaire as an Excel attachment instead of a portal link.
Every question in the assessment downloads as an Excel file named after the assessment. Answers already given are filled in, so this also works as an export of the current answers.
| Column | Fill it in? |
|---|---|
| Category, Question Title, Type, Is Mandatory, Is Evidence Required, Evidence Name, Options | No — reference only |
| Answer (Text) | Yes, for text questions |
| Answer (Option Text) | Yes, for choice questions. Pick from the dropdown in the cell |
| Vendor Comment | Optional |
| Evidence File Name | Optional. The exact file name of the evidence; separate several with commas |
The sheet also contains a hidden question identifier column. Do not delete or reorder columns, and do not add or remove rows.
Accepted file types: .xlsx, .xls and .zip. CSV cannot be selected here.
To bring in evidence, use a ZIP that contains the spreadsheet and the evidence files together. Inside a ZIP the spreadsheet must keep the name it was downloaded with — the assessment name — or it will not be found. Evidence files must be one of the supported evidence types and must be named exactly as written in the Evidence File Name column.
Rows are processed one by one, and good rows are imported even when others fail. The message reads "Imported N answers", followed by the number of errors and the first error when there are any.
| Row error | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Invalid question ID format / Question not found in assessment | The row does not belong to this assessment. Download a fresh template |
| Text answer is required for this mandatory question | A mandatory text question was left blank |
| Option selection is required for this mandatory choice question | A mandatory choice question was left blank |
| Invalid option text … Valid options: … | The option typed is not one of the question's options |
| Option text should not be provided for text questions / Text answer should not be provided for choice questions | The answer is in the wrong answer column |
| Evidence file … not found in the ZIP archive | The file named in the sheet is not in the ZIP |
| Evidence file … has unsupported file type | The evidence is not an accepted type |
Vendors have the same Import Assessment option in their portal if their role is Admin or Collaborator.
Navigation: Sidebar → Documents → [select a vendor] → Assessment & Risk Based Documents → Export, or Sidebar → Vendors → [select a vendor] → Documents tab → Export
A ZIP downloads, named after the vendor, with one folder per category containing the evidence attached to answers in that category. See How to Use Document Central.
Navigation: Sidebar → ZIN Advisor → Knowledge Base tab
VendorPulse_KB_Template.xlsx.Accepted file types: .xlsx, .csv, .docx, .pdf.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Spreadsheet and CSV headers | A question column (Question) and an answer column (Answer) are required; Tags is optional |
| Word and PDF | ZIN extracts the question-and-answer pairs it can identify from the opening part of the document |
| Duplicates | A row whose question exactly matches an existing entry is skipped, never overwritten |
| Result | The message reports how many entries were imported and how many duplicates were skipped |
There is no bulk export of Knowledge Base entries. See How to Use the ZIN Knowledge Base and Checklist.
Navigation: Sidebar → ZIN Advisor → Questionnaire tab
See How to Use the AI Questionnaire Assistant.
The Checklist tab accepts PDF only and has no export.
| Area | Import formats | Export format | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor bulk upload | XLSX, XLS (max 15 MB) | XLSX | vendor:add |
| Master Data templates | XLSX | XLSX | master:add to import, master:view to export |
| Assessment answers | XLSX, XLS, ZIP (with evidence) | XLSX | vendor:assessment:view |
| Evidence documents | — | ZIP | vendor:assessment:view, vendor:assessment:review or vendor:assessment:add |
| Knowledge Base | XLSX, CSV, DOCX, PDF | not available | zin:add or questionnaire:add |
| ZIN questionnaires | XLSX, XLS, CSV, PDF, DOCX | XLSX | zin:add to upload; zin:add or questionnaire:add to export from the review screen |
| ZIN checklist documents | not available | zin:add |
The vendor import says the template version does not match → The file was built from an older template. Click Download Template, copy your rows into the new file and upload that.
The vendor import says columns are missing → The message names each missing column. Download a fresh template and keep the header row exactly as supplied.
The vendor import says duplicate vendors were found → One or more rows match an existing vendor on both name and domain, or the same name and domain appear twice in the file. Remove those rows. Nothing from the file was imported.
The vendor import fails on a Business Owner value → The value must be the email address of a user who already exists in your organisation. Leaving the cell blank is fine.
The vendor import was rejected because of an email address → SPOC, extra POC and additional business owner addresses must be business email addresses.
I fixed one row but none of the other vendors were imported either → The vendor import is all-or-nothing. Upload the whole corrected file again.
A vendor file is rejected before it uploads → It is either over 15 MB or not an .xlsx or .xls file.
A Master Data sheet is rejected for duplicate columns → Two columns in that sheet map to the same field — for example a "Weight" and a "Weightage" column. Remove one and upload again.
Risk options all came in with no rating → The risk column headers were not recognised and were ignored. Compare the High, Medium and Low risk option headers with the downloaded sample template, correct them, and create the template again.
The assessment import is rejected as an unsupported format → Use .xlsx, .xls or .zip.
The assessment import says the Excel file was not found in the ZIP → Inside the ZIP, the spreadsheet must have the same name as the assessment. The message lists the files it did find.
Evidence in a ZIP was not attached → Put the evidence files and the spreadsheet in the same ZIP, and make sure the file names match the Evidence File Name column exactly.
The document export downloaded nothing → No evidence is attached to answers in the categories you selected.
The vendor Export button downloads an empty file → There is nothing to export. The vendor export is not affected by page filters, so an empty file means the underlying list is empty.
A template download does nothing → Check your browser is not blocking the download, and try a different browser.
Need more help? Contact support@zeron.one