Preparation.
This step is essential before you even start filling anything in. To produce a reliable, compliant FAB-DIS 3.0 file, you must first equip yourself properly, organise your working environment, and know the resources available to you.
🛠️ Setting up your working environment
This step is essential before you even start filling anything in. To produce a reliable, compliant FAB-DIS 3.0 file, you must first equip yourself properly, organise your working environment, and know the resources available to you.
📂 The essentials to keep open while working on your FAB-DIS
Six items should stay accessible at all times while you fill in your FAB-DIS file:
✅ The official FAB-DIS 3.0 template
The file skeleton to fill in, from the FAB-DIS KIT.
🔧 The user manual
The reference document explaining each expected field, block by block.
📦 The attributes file
It lists the attributes per block and what is expected for each.
📊 The tables file
All the available coding by tab. The manual tells you when to use it.
✓ Access to Easy-Check
The online tool to validate your FAB-DIS file compliance.
📁 Your Excel working file
The file containing all your product data to be transferred into your FAB-DIS.
The FAB-DIS KIT and Easy-Check are available at https://connect.fabdis.fr. To subscribe, create an account (validated within 48h), then select the offers (FAB OFFER or FAB-DIS KIT) from your dashboard. We recommend the FAB OFFER, which includes both services without limit, as well as a service to share your verified FAB-DIS files with selected distributors.
📚 Always consult
Throughout the data entry of your FAB-DIS file, keep these four resources in front of you:
- The manual for every field you fill in.
- The attributes to know whether a field is mandatory.
- The tables for codes, values or units.
- Your latest Easy-Check error report (if generated), to fix your FAB-DIS until you obtain the compliance number.
Work on two screens if possible: the FAB-DIS template on one side, the manual and the tables file on the other. You will save considerable time and avoid tedious back-and-forth.
🚀 Starting a FAB-DIS
Here is the recommended method to produce your first FAB-DIS efficiently, in three steps:
- Start with a few flagship references. Fill in your FAB-DIS with a small sample of representative products to get a sense of the data you need. Then run a first check in Easy-Check to verify you have filled it in correctly.
- Adapt your working file. Once the FAB-DIS is corrected, adjust your working file’s format so the data is in the expected format. Then paste “values only” for the rest of your references’ data into the FAB-DIS.
- Validate the whole file. Run your file through Easy-Check again to check the entire file and obtain your compliance number.
Start small, fix early, then scale up: it’s the best way to avoid redoing everything when you discover a recurring error across 2,000 rows.
Once Easy-Check is satisfied, you obtain a unique compliance number that you can share with your distributors. Your file is then officially ready to be distributed.
Need to go further?
The FAB-DIS KIT contains all the FAB-DIS documentation (template, manual, tables…) so you can get hands-on right away. It is also included in the FAB OFFER.