How to move an account from the MainGroup free-text field on products to actual main groups and product groups in HonestBox Admin.
⏱Time: 1–2 minutes
↩Can be undone: No
Read the entire article before migrating
The migration cannot be undone and can only be run once per account. It creates permanent main groups and product groups based on the text already entered in the products’ main group field.
What is this?
Historically, older accounts saved a product’s main group as free text directly on the product (the MainGroup field)—for example, Drink, drink, or Drinks, depending on who entered the product. Newer accounts instead use structured Main Groups and Product Groups, which are stored in separate tables, can be sorted using sequence numbers, and are used for filtering in the product list.
The migration guide reads all free text that already exists on the account’s products, creates a Main Group and a Product Group for each unique name, and links the products to the correct Product Group. Afterward, the account can be administered in the same way as accounts that were built with the new structure from the beginning.
Before you start
Review this list before clicking Start migration.
· Clean up spelling in advance if possible. The migration is case-insensitive (Drink and drink become the same group), but different spellings or spaces (Drink and Drinks) become two separate groups. Review the main group column in the product list for duplicates before running the migration.
· The migration only affects products without an existing Product Group. Products that already have a Product Group are left unchanged, so it is fine to run the migration even if the account is already partially structured.
· It cannot be run again. The account is flagged as migrated immediately after a successful run, and the button disappears from the account page.
· No downtime is required. The migration normally takes about a second and does not affect ongoing purchases in the store, but new Product Groups appear immediately in the filters on the Products page—the list may look different afterward.
Step by step
1 Open the account
Go to Company settings → and expand the Main Groups / Product Groups section. The section is only displayed for accounts that have not already been migrated.
2 Open the migration guide
Click Open Migration Wizard for Main Groups. You will be taken to a separate page with information about what the migration does.
3 Read the guide and confirm
Read the summary box on the page (the same information as in this document) and check “I have read the guide…”. The Start migration button is only activated when the box is checked.
4 Start the migration
Click Start migration. The process usually takes less than a second. Do not leave the page until the result is displayed.
5 Check the result
A green box shows how many main groups, product groups, and products were created/updated. Compare the number of products with what you expected.
What happens in the background
Migration logic in brief
Basis—All products on the account that do not have a Product Group but have text in the main group field.
Grouping—Products are grouped by unique main group name, regardless of capitalization.
New main groups—One for each unique name that does not already exist as a Main Group, using the next available sequence number.
New product groups—One for each unique name under the respective Main Group, using the next available sequence number.
Linking—Each affected product receives the new Product Group’s ID.
Lock—The account setting “Main Groups migrated” is set to true—this hides the button and prevents a second run.
After the migration
· Go to Products and check that the main group filter contains the new groups.
· Open one of the newly created Product Groups under Product Groups and verify that the sequence number and name look reasonable.
· If you find misspelled or duplicate groups, you can merge or rename them manually afterward—the product linking is not affected by this.
Frequently asked questions
Can we run the migration again if something went wrong?
No. The account is flagged as migrated immediately after a successful run.
What happens if there are no main groups at all?
The guide completes without creating anything (0 main groups, 0 product groups, 0 products), and the account is still flagged as migrated.
Are products that already have a Product Group affected?
No, they are left completely unchanged by the migration.
Why doesn’t the button appear on the account?
The account has already been migrated.
The migration failed with an error message—what should I do?
Nothing is changed in the database when an error occurs. Forward the issue to Support with the account name and time.