BMW Motorrad dealers ordering parts through the new OPUS portal have a gap to bridge. Lightspeed EVO still writes the BMW parts order out as a text file, LSBMW.TXT. OPUS takes bulk orders through its own Excel upload template. Nothing connects the two, so someone has to move the order across.

What's in LSBMW.TXT

Open LSBMW.TXT in Notepad and you'll see it's close to a CSV file, with a tag at the start of each line:

  • PO.HEADER: carries the purchase order number and the order type from Lightspeed.
  • PO.LINEITEM: lines carry one part each: part number, quantity, storage bin, and a comment.

Everything after the tag is comma-separated, with quotes around fields that contain commas.

What OPUS expects

Download the upload template, Opus_Upload_Template.xlsm, from the OPUS parts portal. Each row is one part, with columns for Part Number, Quantity, Comment, VIN, and Storage Bin. The order type isn't in the file: you choose it in OPUS when you upload.

Watch for these when filling it in:

  • Comments are limited to 20 characters. Lightspeed's repair-order comments, like "R.O. (12345) for: smith jonathan", run longer. Shorten them so the RO number survives, for example "RO12345 smith jonath".
  • Keep storage bins short. Long bin names may not fit the column.
  • VIN can stay blank. Lightspeed doesn't export it with the parts order.
  • Check quantities and part numbers. BMW part numbers are normally 7 or 11 characters. Anything else is usually a typo.

Doing it by hand

  1. In Lightspeed EVO, generate the BMW parts order as usual.
  2. Open LSBMW.TXT in Notepad and open the OPUS template in Excel.
  3. For each PO.LINEITEM line, copy the part number, quantity, comment, and storage bin into a new row of the template.
  4. Shorten any comment over 20 characters.
  5. Save the file, then in OPUS choose the order type and upload it.

This works, but it's slow for a big stock order, and every retyped part number is a chance for a mistake.

Doing it in one step

OpusConvert is a small Windows tool from Team I.T. that does the steps above for you. Drag LSBMW.TXT onto it and it fills BMW's template, shortens comments to fit, flags odd part numbers and quantities, and saves an upload file named after the PO number, ready to drag into OPUS. It runs on your PC with the PowerShell built into Windows, so you don't need Excel and your orders don't leave the PC until you upload them.

Whichever way you do it, compare the line count in OPUS against the order in Lightspeed before you submit.