How to migrate your restaurant menu to a new POS in the UK
Moving POS sounds painful. With the right tools you can be live on a new system in a single afternoon.
The fear of switching keeps a lot of venues on software they've outgrown. Rebuilding a menu by hand is nobody's idea of a good time, so we built the import to do most of that work for you.
Three steps to live
- Upload a menu file or point Servio at your existing menu URL
- Review the categories, items and modifiers it rebuilds for you
- Go live: print your QR codes and open the till
There's no hardware to wait for and no installer to book, so most venues are trading on Servio within an afternoon. Most of what makes a switch feel like a project is the manual re-entry, and the import takes nearly all of it away.
The tidy-up worth doing while you move
A migration is the one moment you’ll ever look at every item on your menu at once, so use it. Kill the dishes that haven’t sold in three months (your bottom-sellers number already knows which). Merge the duplicate modifiers that have crept in over the years: “oat milk,” “Oat Milk” and “oat” are one thing, and every duplicate is a mis-tap waiting to happen at peak. Rename items the way guests actually ask for them, because on a QR menu the name sells the dish with no server there to translate. Twenty minutes of pruning during review beats months of scrolling past dead items after.
Run both tills for one honest shift
A quiet Tuesday morning proves very little. Friday lunch is where you find out whether the system holds. What works in practice: set up and test in the afternoon lull, run the first live shift on Servio with the old till standing by as a fallback, and brief the team that tonight the orders live on the new screen. Because Servio runs in the browser on devices you already own, running both costs nothing but counter space, and there’s no hardware swap moment where you’re committed mid-service. Most teams stop glancing at the old till before the shift ends; it gets boxed the same week.
The questions people actually ask
“What about my sales history?” Export it from the old system before you cancel. Every provider allows it, and it’s the one thing that can’t follow you later. Your menu, from day one on Servio, builds fresh history immediately.
“What if my menu is a photo, not a file?” Point the importer at your menu URL, or upload what you have. The rebuild handles categories, items and modifiers, and you review everything before it goes live. It’s free on every plan.
“When’s the right week?” If you’re on a contract, time it to the renewal date (our switching notes cover the overlap question), and if you’re month-to-month, the right week is the one with a quiet Tuesday in it. The 14-day trial needs no card, so the rehearsal costs nothing either way.
The go-live checklist
Pin this to the office door for switch week. Before: export sales history from the old system; import and review the menu (names, prices, modifiers, allergens); set up stations and routing; connect Stripe and run one live 10p transaction end-to-end; verify receipt and kitchen printing during the guided setup; print QR codes for every table plus spares. Go-live shift: old till on standby but not in use; one person owns “screen says vs habit says” questions; keep service simple, and don’t launch a new menu and a new system in the same hour. After: box the old hardware once nobody has touched it for a week; cancel the old subscription after your final export, not before; and check your first week’s numbers against the old system’s baseline so you know what normal looks like on the new one.
Everything on that list is there to take surprises out of the one hour that matters. A migration that fails does so at 7pm on its first Friday, and it fails on something nobody tested: the printer, the card reader, the one dish with seven modifiers. Test exactly those three things in the quiet of Thursday afternoon and Friday should pass without much to talk about. If you’re weighing up the move from a specific system, our head-to-head pages for Square, Toast, Lightspeed and Revel cover what switching from each one involves.
Common questions
How long does a restaurant menu migration take?
With a clean file or public menu URL, most independents review and publish the same afternoon. The slow part is checking modifiers and allergens, not retyping every item.
Can I import from my old POS export?
If you can export CSV or share a live menu URL, Servio rebuilds categories, items and modifiers for you to approve before service. Always spot-check prices before you open.
What should I check before going live?
Prices, modifier groups, allergen notes, sold-out items and which kitchen station each dish routes to. A ten-minute walkthrough on the floor catches more than a spreadsheet review alone.