The thing that keeps shops on software they have outgrown is rarely the software. It is the item list. Five thousand products, each with a GST rate, an HSN code, a purchase price, a sale price and a stock count, all typed in over years. Nobody wants to type that twice, so "we will switch someday" stays someday.
Here is the part nobody tells you: you do not have to retype it. Marg can export your item master to Excel, and Layerdots can read that Excel directly. The move is one export, one import, one afternoon of checking.
What actually moves
- Items, with their names, packing and HSN codes.
- GST rates per item, so your billing taxes correctly from the first bill.
- Prices: MRP, sale rate and purchase rate.
- Opening stock, so your shelves and your software agree on day one.
The importer recognises Marg's column headings by itself. Marg writes the GST percentage in a column called IGST, the sale rate as Rate, the purchase rate as P.Rate and the quantity as Stock, and Layerdots maps each one to the right field without you renaming anything. You see the mapping on screen before anything is saved, and you can correct a column with a click if your export looks different.
The steps
- Export the item master from Marg to Excel. The export option's exact place in the menus varies between Marg versions, so if you do not see it, your Marg operator or support can point to it in yours. You want the item or stock report with rates and quantities, saved as an Excel file.
- Install Layerdots and start the free trial. The trial is the full app, so you can do the entire migration before paying anything.
- Open Import and choose your file. The columns are detected, you review the mapping, and the preview shows exactly what will be created.
- Import, then spot-check. Pick ten items you know well and check the rate, the GST and the stock. If the export was wrong, fix the file and import again rather than correcting items one by one.
What about your old bills?
Past bills can come across too, and they are treated with care: imported history feeds your reports, GST summaries and customer statements, but it does not take stock off the shelf and does not change what customers owe you. Your current stock arrived as opening stock and your dues as opening balances, so counting the history again would double both. The importer knows this and refuses to make that mistake.
Many shops skip bill history entirely: keep Marg installed for reference, start Layerdots fresh from today's stock, and let the old system retire quietly. Both approaches work. The wrong approach is delaying the switch for months because of data that a report would have carried over in minutes.
Which day to do the import on
Any quiet day works. Export in the morning, import before lunch, and bill on the new system the same afternoon. Month-end and year-end feel like natural boundaries, but they are also your busiest days; a random Tuesday is kinder. Keep Marg installed for a few weeks as a reference, and take a Layerdots backup as soon as the import looks right.
Common questions
Will my GST rates come across correctly?
Yes, the rate column is mapped per item, and you can see it in the preview before saving. Items
with a missing rate are visible in the app afterwards, so a blank cannot hide.
Can I try the import without committing to anything?
Yes. The 7-day trial is the full app with no card and no online account, so the sensible first
step is to run your real export through it and judge the result.
My export has odd columns. Will it still work?
The importer shows you its guess for every column and lets you correct it before anything is
written. If a file genuinely will not map, send it to us on WhatsApp and we will look at it.
What about customers and suppliers?
They can be imported from Excel the same way, with opening balances, so your udhaar book carries
over rather than starting from zero.