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

A few fields have a format Catertoo expects, so it's worth checking your spreadsheet before you upload:

• Country (Clients, Venues): use a two-letter code such as US or CA, not a country name. A longer value passes the earlier steps but fails when the row is saved. For a client, the client itself is still created, just without its address; add that address by hand afterward rather than fixing and re-importing the row, since re-importing skips a client that already exists.
• Unit price (Menu items) and Cost (Ingredients): plain numbers, with no currency symbol or thousands separator (12.50, not $12.50 or 1,250.00).
• Default unit (Ingredients): use one of tsp, tbsp, fl_oz, cup, quart, gallon, ml, l, oz, lb, g, kg, each, or dozen. Any other value still imports fine, but that ingredient's cost won't be usable 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.
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.

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.