Import your existing data

Finish setting up your business to import. Setup clears the sample data, so importing unlocks once setup is done.

What you can import

Catertoo can import six kinds of records from a spreadsheet: Clients, Venues, Staff, Ingredients, Menu categories, and Menu items. Each accepts a CSV, TSV, XLS, or XLSX file with one row per record and a header row naming each column.

Only Name is required for Clients, Staff, Ingredients, and Menu categories. Venues also need an Address line 1 and City. Menu items need a Name and a unit price. Everything else on each object is optional.

Prepare your file

Catertoo cleans up the most common formats for you, and tells you exactly what to fix in any row it can't use:

• Country (Clients, Venues): a two-letter code such as US or CA, a three-letter code such as CAN, or a country name like United States, USA or Canada. Leave it blank for US.
• Address (Clients): an address needs a street (address line 1) and a city. A row with a street but no city, or a city or postal code but no street, still imports the client, without an address, and the results list it under Imported with a note so you can add the address afterward.
• Unit price (Menu items) and Cost (Ingredients): amounts like 12.50, $12.50 or 1,250.00 all work, with a dot for decimals. If your business bills in euros, write amounts without a thousands separator (1250.50). Prices take up to 2 decimal places; ingredient costs up to 4, for per-gram prices like 0.0125.
• Default unit (Ingredients): one of tsp, tbsp, fl_oz, cup, quart, gallon, ml, l, oz, lb, g, kg, each, or dozen. Common spellings like lbs, pounds, Tablespoons or gal are converted automatically. An ingredient with a cost needs a unit, so the cost can be used for recipe costing.
• Import your menu categories before your menu items. A menu item still imports if its category doesn't exist yet, but it comes in uncategorized rather than waiting to be matched later.

Start an import

The Import button sits next to New client on the Clients page - click it to import clients. To import venues, staff, ingredients, menu categories, or menu items, add /import to the end of your Catertoo web address to open the Import hub, then pick the object you want.

Upload, map, and review

The importer walks you through four steps:

1. Upload your file. Choose your spreadsheet. If it's a multi-sheet Excel workbook, pick the sheet; if your header isn't on row 1, adjust the header-row number. Catertoo reads the file in your browser, not on the server.
2. Match your columns. Catertoo matches your column headers to fields automatically (common variants like "e-mail" or "zip code" are recognized). Adjust any dropdown that matched wrong, and map every field marked with * - you can't continue until all required fields are mapped.
3. Review and import. You'll see how many rows are ready to import and how many will be skipped, with a preview of the first 20 rows and any issues found. Only rows with no issues are submitted when you click Import. If the import can't go through, a message above the button says why and what to do next.
4. Import complete. Catertoo shows how many rows were imported, skipped, and failed. If any were skipped or failed, you can download a CSV of just those rows to fix and re-import.

Duplicates and skipped rows

A row is skipped as already exists if it matches a record you already have (checked by name or email, not case-sensitive). A row is skipped as duplicate in file if an earlier row in the same file already matched it. Skipping a few rows never stops the rest of the file from importing.

Limits

A single import is capped at 5,000 rows. If your file has more, split it into smaller files and import them one at a time.

Your business runs one import at a time: if you see "Another import is still running", wait a few minutes, check the list you were importing into (for example Clients) for the records, then try again (anything already imported is skipped).

What's next?

• Manage clients and contacts once your client list is imported.
• Build your menu to fill in anything an ingredient or menu item import left out.