Migration · free with onboarding
What to export from your POS before you cancel it
The most expensive mistake in a POS migration costs nothing to avoid: cancelling the old system before pulling your data out. The day the licence lapses, the reporting screens stop loading and years of sales history, staff records and gift card balances sit behind a login you no longer have. This is the checklist to work through first, what to get in writing from your current vendor, and what we move for you at no cost once you have it.
Migration details describe work we have done: a multi-year sales archive reconciled to the cent, 46 funded gift cards rebuilt from photographs after a CSV export failed in a July 2026 migration, and a 309-item menu imported from CSV in a single onboarding. Where we have not verified a vendor's export capability, this page says so rather than guessing.
Cancel last, not first
The single most expensive mistake in a POS migration is cancelling the old system before pulling your data out of it. The day the licence lapses, the reporting screens stop loading, the support line stops answering, and years of sales history, staff records and gift card balances become someone else's database that you no longer have a login for. Nothing about the new system can fix that afterwards.
The order that works is the reverse: export everything while the licence is still active, stand the new system up beside the old one, run both for a few days until the new one is demonstrably correct, and only then cancel. The overlap costs one extra month of the old subscription. That is the cheapest insurance in the whole project.
It is also worth getting the vendor's read-only access period in writing before you give notice. Some systems keep your data viewable for a window after cancellation and some do not, and the answer you get verbally from a salesperson is not the answer you will get from support in six weeks.
The export checklist
Work through this while your current system is still live. Export to CSV or Excel where the system offers it, and photograph the screen where it does not, because a photograph of a gift card list is worth considerably more than a file you cannot open.
| Export this | Why | If you skip it |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and tax reports, monthly, for as far back as you keep books | Your accountant needs them and the tax authority may ask for them years later | You are reconstructing revenue from bank deposits |
| Full menu with prices, modifiers and category structure | Rebuilding a large menu by hand takes days and introduces pricing errors | Someone retypes several hundred items the week you open on a new system |
| Employee list with roles, pay rates and PINs | Staff records are rarely stored anywhere else, and PINs are how your team logs in on day one | You rebuild the roster from memory and reissue every PIN on a busy shift |
| Gift card codes and remaining balances | These are money your customers have already paid. They will walk in holding one. | You honour balances you cannot verify, or refuse ones you should have honoured |
| Customer list, with phone numbers and order history if available | It is the only marketing asset most restaurants own outright | You start your new system with no one to tell about it |
| Open house accounts and outstanding tabs | Money owed to you that exists only in the old system | Uncollected, because nobody remembers it was owed |
| Floor plan: table names, seat counts, sections | Rebuilding it is quick but rebuilding it wrong confuses every server | Table numbers shift and the kitchen calls the wrong table |
Photograph anything the export cannot produce cleanly. In a July 2026 migration we handled, a gift card CSV export produced an unusable file and the list was rebuilt from photographs of the gift card screen, 46 funded cards, to the cent.
What to ask your current vendor for, in writing
Export capability varies enormously between the systems common in Chinese and Asian restaurants, and the difference is rarely documented anywhere you can check. MenuSifu generally exports sales and tax reports from the reporting screens; its gift card export is the one we have seen fail in practice. For Chowbus, ZBS and KwickPOS, treat export as something to confirm rather than assume, because we have not verified self-service export on those systems and would rather tell you that than guess.
Send your account manager a short written request naming each item on the checklist above, and ask two questions alongside it: in what format each export arrives, and how long your data stays readable after cancellation. Written answers matter because they are what you will point at if an export turns out to be unusable after you have given notice.
If a vendor will not commit in writing, that is itself information, and it argues for a longer overlap period rather than a shorter one.
What Ginger moves for you, and what it costs
Migration is free. Not discounted, not bundled against a contract term: we do the work as part of onboarding because a migration that goes badly is a restaurant that regrets switching, and we would rather spend the days than have that outcome.
What we move, with the tooling we have built and used: the full menu including variants, modifier groups and category structure; staff records with their PINs so your team logs in on day one exactly as they did before; the floor plan with its layouts and tables; menu photos; and gift card balances. Where reporting continuity matters, we also port sales history — we have done this for a multi-year archive and reconciled the imported totals against the old system's reports period by period until they matched to the cent.
What we need from you is the source data, which is why the checklist above matters more than anything we can promise. A CSV export is ideal and our menu importer is built to consume one; it brought a 309-item menu across in a single onboarding. Where a clean export does not exist, we have worked from photographs and from reports, which is slower but has not yet stopped a migration.
Two honest limits. Individual historical transactions generally do not belong in a new system's live database, and for accounting you rarely need them there — what you need is the exported reports kept as a permanent record, which is why the checklist starts with them. And an early termination fee in your current contract, if you have one, is between you and that vendor; we cannot make it disappear, though it is worth checking whether it is real, since terms vary by dealer.
The sequence that works
| When | What happens | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Export everything on the checklist while the old licence is active; request written answers on export formats and post-cancellation access | You, with our list in hand |
| Week 1-2 | We build the menu, modifiers, staff, floor plan and gift cards in the new system from what you exported | Us |
| Week 2 | You check it: prices, modifier chains, printer routing per station, staff PINs, a few real tickets end to end | You |
| Cutover | New system goes live, usually between services; old system stays subscribed | Both |
| Days 1-7 after | Both systems remain available. Reports are compared against the old ones until the numbers agree | Us with you |
| Only then | Cancel the old subscription | You |
The overlap is the whole point of the sequence. One extra month of a subscription you are leaving is cheaper than discovering in February that last October's sales reports are behind a login that no longer works.
Frequently asked questions
What should I export from my POS before switching?
Sales and tax reports going back as far as you keep books, the full menu with prices, modifiers and categories, your employee list with roles and PINs, gift card codes with remaining balances, the customer list with phone numbers, any open house accounts, and the floor plan with table names and seat counts. Export while the licence is still active. Photograph any screen the export cannot produce cleanly.
Can I transfer my sales history to a new POS?
Individual historical transactions generally do not go into a new system's live database, and for accounting you rarely need them there. What matters is keeping the exported reports as your permanent record. Where reporting continuity genuinely matters, summary imports are possible: Ginger has ported a multi-year archive and reconciled the imported totals against the old system's reports period by period until they matched to the cent.
Do employee records and PINs transfer to a new POS?
With Ginger, yes. Staff records including their PINs are ported, so your team logs in on day one exactly as they did before, which removes one of the largest sources of friction on a cutover shift. You need to export the employee list from your current system first, since staff records are rarely stored anywhere else.
Does Ginger charge for migration?
No. Migration is part of onboarding at no cost: menu with variants and modifier groups, staff records with PINs, floor plan and tables, menu photos, and gift card balances, plus sales history where reporting continuity matters. What we need from you is the source data, which is why exporting before you cancel matters more than anything we can promise.
Can I export my data from MenuSifu, Chowbus, ZBS or KwickPOS?
MenuSifu generally exports sales and tax reports from its reporting screens; in a July 2026 migration we handled, its gift card CSV export produced an unusable file and the list was rebuilt from photographs of the screen. For Chowbus, ZBS and KwickPOS we have not verified self-service export, so treat it as something to confirm in writing with your account manager rather than assume. Ask what format each export arrives in and how long your data stays readable after cancellation.
When should I cancel my old POS?
After the new system has been live for about a week and its reports agree with the old system's, not before. The overlap costs one extra month of a subscription you are leaving, and it is the cheapest insurance in the migration. Cancelling first is the most expensive mistake available, because the reporting screens stop loading the day the licence lapses.
Tell us what you are on and we will tell you what moves
Send the name of your current system and we will tell you what we can move, what you will need to export yourself, and what realistically will not transfer. Migration is free with onboarding, and Ginger is $0 a month with online ordering and no contract.