ImportCheck vs Custom Scripts
Writing your own validation scripts feels like control. In practice, it means technical debt, maintenance burden and a tool that breaks the moment someone changes the catalog format or leaves the team.
ImportCheck delivers comprehensive ERP catalog validation with no code to write, no environment to maintain and no knowledge locked in a single engineer.
14-day trial · No credit card · No code required
The hidden cost of building your own validation
Custom scripts start small and cheap. They grow into a fragile, undocumented system that only one person understands — and that person may not be on your team in six months.
The custom script lifecycle
3–10 days
Time to build a functional validation script
Including edge cases, encoding handling and error output
2–4 hours/month
Ongoing maintenance per script
Rule updates, format changes, dependency upgrades
< 2 minutes
Time to start using ImportCheck
Create account, upload file, see results
0 hours/month
ImportCheck maintenance
Rules are updated automatically as ERP formats evolve
Every change to your ERP breaks your script
Custom validation scripts require constant upkeep. Every time your ERP updates, your catalog format evolves or a new supplier delivers a slightly different structure, someone has to edit the script.
Trigger: ERP version upgrade
⚙️ Custom Script
VAT rules, required fields or column names change. The script continues running and silently passes files it should reject.
IC ImportCheck
Rule set is updated centrally. Every user benefits immediately, with no action required.
Trigger: New supplier file format
⚙️ Custom Script
The script was written for your format. A new supplier uses semicolons, Windows-1252 encoding and a different column order — the script crashes or produces wrong output.
IC ImportCheck
Separator, encoding and column order are auto-detected on every file regardless of origin.
Trigger: Team member departure
⚙️ Custom Script
The script works until it doesn't. Nobody knows what it checks, what it ignores or how to fix it.
IC ImportCheck
No institutional knowledge required. Any team member can upload a file and interpret the report.
Trigger: Python / Node runtime upgrade
⚙️ Custom Script
Dependencies break. The script requires a specific runtime version that conflicts with other tools on the server.
IC ImportCheck
Browser-based SaaS. No runtime, no dependencies, no conflicts — ever.
Scripts fail silently. ImportCheck doesn't.
The most dangerous validation script is one that appears to work but has stopped catching errors. ImportCheck runs the same tested ruleset on every file, every time.
Silent failures
Scripts catch exceptions internally, log to a file nobody reads and return exit code 0 — making every file appear valid. The broken catalog reaches the ERP.
Incomplete rule coverage
A script written to detect empty SKUs may never have been extended to detect duplicate SKUs or encoding issues. Nobody knows what it doesn't check.
No version history
Scripts in a shared folder or a personal repo have no formal versioning. Was the rule for VAT rates added before or after the last supplier incident? Impossible to say.
Inconsistent output
One script prints errors to stdout, another writes a CSV, another throws an exception. Every analyst interprets the output differently and shares different artefacts.
ImportCheck guarantees
Identical rule execution on every file — no drift over time
Explicit error if validation cannot complete (e.g. corrupt file)
Versioned rule set with a documented changelog
Structured JSON + Excel output — the same format every time
HTTP status codes on the API so pipelines can detect failures
Scripts don't scale. SaaS does.
A script that handles 500 rows on a developer laptop may choke on 50,000 rows on a shared server — or simply not exist for business users who don't run Python environments.
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Team access
Custom Script
Only the engineer who installed the dependencies can run the script. Business users are excluded.
ImportCheck
Any team member opens a browser, uploads a file, reads the report. No technical skills required.
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File volume
Custom Script
Scripts are typically run one file at a time. Batch validation requires additional orchestration code.
ImportCheck
Upload files one at a time or via API. History, re-analysis and multi-file tracking built in.
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Multi-team rollout
Custom Script
Deploying a script to five teams means five environments to maintain, five runtime versions and five sets of potential failures.
ImportCheck
Add team members to a single account. Same tool, same rules, same reports — across all teams.
Custom scripts introduce security risks you may not have considered
Catalog files contain pricing, stock levels and supplier references — data your business would not want mishandled. Scripts often handle this data carelessly.
Risk: Catalog data logged to local files
⚙️ Custom Script
Scripts routinely print full row content to stdout or write debug logs — leaving sensitive pricing data in plain text on shared servers or developer machines.
IC ImportCheck
Files are processed in an isolated environment. No sensitive cell values are written to logs.
Risk: No access control
⚙️ Custom Script
Anyone with access to the server can run the script against any file, with no audit trail of who validated what.
IC ImportCheck
Per-user authentication, isolated file storage and a full timestamped history of who ran which analysis.
Risk: Dependency vulnerabilities
⚙️ Custom Script
Python libraries like pandas, openpyxl or csv parsers have known CVEs. Scripts rarely have a dependency update process.
IC ImportCheck
ImportCheck manages its own dependency lifecycle with regular security patches. No action required from you.
Risk: No data retention policy
⚙️ Custom Script
Processed files and output logs accumulate on servers with no automatic deletion. Retention policy is whoever remembers to clean up.
IC ImportCheck
Configurable retention: 90 days on Starter, unlimited on Pro. One-click deletion of any file or full account.
Full feature comparison
Custom validation scripts vs ImportCheck — at a glance.
| Capability | ⚙️Custom ScriptsPython / SQL / VBA | IC ImportCheckSaaS · No code |
|---|---|---|
Deployment time Scripts take days to weeks; ImportCheck is ready in 2 minutes | ||
Zero code required | ||
Covers all ERP validation rules out of the box Scripts only check what was originally coded | ||
Auto-detected CSV separator & encoding Requires explicit handling in every script | ||
Duplicate SKU cross-row detection Often missed or implemented incorrectly | ||
Row-level error location with fix suggestions Scripts rarely produce human-readable output | ||
Downloadable, shareable Excel error report | ||
Runs without developer involvement | ||
No dependency on Python / Node / runtime environment | ||
No maintenance when ERP rules change Scripts must be updated manually for every rule change | ||
Works after team member leaves Scripts often become orphaned when their author departs | ||
Scales to 100,000 rows without infrastructure Scripts need local memory and may time out on large files | ||
REST API for pipeline integration Pro plan | ||
Audit trail with timestamped reports | ||
No sensitive data in script logs Scripts often log full row data to stdout or files |
Total cost of ownership
The upfront cost of a custom script looks low. Add build, maintenance and incident time over 12 months and the picture changes entirely.
Custom script — Year 1 TCO
ImportCheck — Year 1 TCO
Typical Year 1 savings vs custom script
€2,932
Before accounting for undetected errors reaching the ERP
Frequently asked questions
We already have a validation script. Why would we switch?
Ask yourself: Does your script cover all ERP validation rules — or only the ones someone coded at the time? Does it still work after your last ERP upgrade? Can your operations team run it without developer help? Can you share its output with a supplier? ImportCheck answers yes to all of these. If your script does too, you may not need to switch. If it doesn't, the cost of gaps is higher than the cost of a subscription.
Can ImportCheck replace a script that does more than just validation?
ImportCheck handles ERP catalog validation specifically. If your script also transforms data, routes files or integrates with other systems, those steps are separate concerns that ImportCheck doesn't replace. Many teams use ImportCheck for the validation step and keep their existing pipeline for the rest.
Our developer can extend the script to add any rule we need. Can ImportCheck do that?
Custom rule definition is on the roadmap. Today, ImportCheck covers the standard ERP catalog rule set that accounts for the vast majority of real-world import failures. If you need a specific rule not yet in the engine, contact us — rules are frequently added based on user feedback.
What if we need to run validation in a CI pipeline without a browser?
The Pro plan includes a REST API. Submit a file, poll for the result, retrieve the error list as JSON. No browser required. The API integrates into any CI/CD system, ETL pipeline or scheduled workflow.
Is our catalog data safe if we stop using our own script?
Your files are stored in an isolated, per-user bucket, encrypted at rest and in transit. They are never used to train models or shared with third parties. You can delete any file or your entire account at any time — with immediate, permanent effect.
Replace your validation script with something that actually works
Stop writing, debugging and maintaining validation code. Start validating catalog files in under 2 minutes — with zero technical setup.
Your operations team can run it. Your supplier can read the report. Your ERP project lands on time.
Start your free 14-day trial