Switching From Another System: How Kitchen Control Helps

Why this exists

We lost a sale to a kitchen with 500 ingredients and 250 recipes already entered on another system. Not because Kitchen Control was the wrong fit — because starting again from zero felt like too big a job to take on. That's a genuine cost, and it's one every kitchen management system creates for itself if it doesn't address it directly.

So Kitchen Control has a proper Import Data tool, built specifically so you're not typing anything out twice. And because data belonging to you shouldn't only flow one way, there's a matching Export All Data button too — your ingredients, yields, recipes, dishes, menus and suppliers, as a spreadsheet you can open anywhere, any time you want it.

What you need to bring it across

A spreadsheet — CSV or Excel — exported from whatever you're using now. That's it. Kitchen Control doesn't need it in any particular format: you'll match its columns to the right fields on screen, so it works whether your export calls a column "Item Name," "Product," or just "Name."

What's automatic

✓Column matching — Kitchen Control recognises common header names from other systems and pre-fills the mapping for you, so most files need zero manual setup

✓Duplicate detection — a row that looks like something you've already got is flagged, not silently overwritten

✓Ingredient and recipe matching — bring recipes in after their ingredients, and each line is matched to the ingredient it needs automatically

✓A full review screen before anything is written — see exactly what will be created, updated or needs a second look, and back out any time before you confirm

The order that works best

If you're bringing everything across, importing in this order means each step can match against what you just brought in:

Settings → Import Data

IngredientsThe foundation everything else links back to.

YieldsPrepped/trimmed costings, each linked to a base ingredient you just imported.

RecipesBuilt from the ingredients and yields already in the system.

DishesYour customer-facing menu items, built from recipes, yields and ingredients.

You don't have to do all four — import just your ingredients if that's all you need, or only your recipes if your ingredient list is small enough to re-enter by hand. And if a name doesn't quite match anything on the way in, that row is never silently dropped — it's created and clearly flagged, so you can link it up properly afterward instead of losing it.

Already just using a spreadsheet?

Even easier — there's no "other system" to export from in the first place. Tidy your existing spreadsheet's headers roughly to match (or don't; the column-matching step handles most of it either way) and upload it directly.

What Import Data doesn't try to do

Worth knowing before you start

Allergen data is never guessed. If a row's allergen information is missing or unclear, that item goes to your Awaiting list for you to confirm — it's never assumed to have no allergens just because the column was blank.
It expects one row per item (ingredients, yields) or one row per component line (recipes, dishes) — a single cell with a whole recipe crammed into it needs the separate Import Recipe (photo/paste) tool instead, built for exactly that.
It's not a live sync with another system — it's a one-time bring-across. Run it again later if you add more on the old system before fully switching over.

Leaving, or just want a backup?

The same trust runs the other way. Export All Data is available any time in Settings, to anyone with access to it — not gated behind a support request, not something you have to ask for. If you ever decide Kitchen Control isn't the right fit, your data leaves with you, not us.

Try it before you commit anything

Import Data is included in every Kitchen Control plan. Export a sample from your current system and see what comes across before you decide.

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