Switching to Opero From Toast, Square or Clover: What Actually Moves

Every POS vendor says switching is easy. The useful question is narrower: of everything in your current system, what actually moves, what has to be rebuilt, and what is simply gone? This guide answers that for a restaurant moving to Opero from Toast, Square for Restaurants or Clover: menu, data, hardware, payments, staff and the order to do things in. Cut-over day itself is the job of our downtime playbook, linked below.

The short version: your menu moves, through an import you review before anything goes live. Sales history, saved customer cards, gift card balances, loyalty points, reports and integrations do not, and neither do your old terminals, because Opero runs on Android tablets only. Payments start with a merchant application per location that is underwritten before you can charge a card.

What moves when you switch to Opero?

Three things carry over, in the sense that Opero has a way to take them in rather than making you retype them.

• ✓The menu: categories, items, prices, descriptions, sizes and modifier groups, from a spreadsheet export of your old POS, from photos or a PDF of the printed menu, from your website, or from pasted text.
• ✓Your corrections: anything the reader got wrong is fixed on the review screen before it is created, and the import can be undone afterwards.
• ✓Your tablets, if they are Android. Opero runs the register, kitchen display, kiosk, customer display and menu board on Android tablets you already own, with no per-device fee on any plan.

How does the menu come across?

Opero's menu import takes several kinds of source in one job: a spreadsheet exported from your old POS, photos of the printed menu, a PDF, your website's menu page, or pasted text, and you can mix them. Spreadsheets are read deterministically, with no AI involved, so an export imports exactly. Photos and PDFs are read by Opero's AI reader under a daily allowance per account, and pasted text and web pages are tidied by it; if the allowance runs out, spreadsheets still import, text and web pages fall back to a plain line-by-line read, and photos and PDFs can be read again the next day. An owner, admin or general manager runs the import; a manager needs the Edit menu and prices switch.

From a Toast, Square or Clover export

The spreadsheet reader does not look for a vendor name; it recognises the column headings those systems use for an item library export: Square's Item Name, Variation Name, Categories and Price, plus its one column per modifier set marked Y or N; Toast's Menu Group, Menu Item, Base Price and Size; Clover's Name, Price, Price Type, Categories and Modifier Groups. A generic sheet with Item, Category, Price, Description and Size columns works too, as CSV or Excel.

• ✓One row per variation becomes one item with sizes. Square's default variation named Regular is treated as a plain price, not a size.
• ✓An item whose export says its price is variable or open arrives with no price, and the import will not apply until you set one.
• ✓Two or more sizes become a required Size option group: the base price is the smallest size and each larger size carries the difference, the same shape the builder makes by hand.
• ✓The import reads which modifier sets each item uses; to bring the options and prices inside them, add your POS's modifier export as a second file in the same import. Sets attach to the items that name them. A name that matches no set is reported, never invented; you build those options in the builder.
• ✓Combos do not arrive from a spreadsheet; rebuild them under Deals. On a photographed or PDF menu the reader can spot a deal, and it becomes a combo only if you keep it, it has a price, and at least two of its parts match menu items.
• ✓Item photos do not come across from any source; you upload them once to Opero's photo library and reuse them.

From photos, a PDF, your website or pasted text

If you cannot get an export, photograph the pages or upload the PDF; save phone photos as JPG or PNG, since HEIC is refused, and save a protected PDF unprotected first. The reader returns every item with the page and region it came from and a confidence score per field, so the review screen shows the menu page beside the draft and highlights what it was unsure of. Pasted text and web pages are parsed line by line first (a heading becomes a category, a name with a price becomes an item) and the AI only tidies that result; it cannot add a dish that was not in the text.

Review first, then apply, then undo if you need to

Nothing in a draft touches your menu until you choose Create menu or Add to menu. On the review screen you edit names, prices, descriptions and sizes, merge a category photographed across two pages, and decide what happens to an item that already exists on the target menu: skip it, update its price, or add it as new. With several locations you pick the targets and the catalog item is created once and placed on each location's menu.

Applying writes through the same menu service a hand-built menu uses, so imported items get everything a typed one gets, including the automatic Spanish draft for the kiosk and online page. Every created row is logged as it is made; if something fails part way, the log is reversed and the import returns to review, or, if a step could not be reversed, tells you what was left. After a successful apply the same log powers Undo this import, which removes only what the import created and reports anything it kept. The one thing the import does not guess is kitchen routing: afterwards it sends you to Kitchen stations to confirm a recommended routing.

What does not move, and what Opero does not do

This is the list to read before you give notice to your current vendor.

• ✓Sales history does not move. Opero's reports start with your first order; export what you need from the old system before your access ends.
• ✓Saved customer cards do not move, and Opero keeps no cards on file for guests; every in-person sale is a fresh tap, chip or swipe on the reader, and online orders are paid on the guest's own phone.
• ✓Gift card balances do not move, because Opero has no gift cards. Settle outstanding balances on the old system or honour them by hand.
• ✓Guest lists and loyalty balances do not move. There is no customer import and no manual add; Opero builds a guest record the first time someone enters a phone or email at the kiosk or online, points start from zero, and consent is captured fresh on Opero's own screens.
• ✓Reports and dashboards do not move.
• ✓Integrations do not move, and Opero's list is short: QuickBooks Online for received invoices as vendor bills, and DoorDash Drive courier dispatch in early access, both on Opero Full-Service. There is no live marketplace integration; Uber Eats is in early access pending approval.
• ✓There is no offline mode. A register, kiosk or kitchen screen without internet cannot take an order or a payment, and nothing is queued for later; if your old system's offline card capture mattered to you, weigh that honestly.
• ✓Dayparts, scheduled menus and happy-hour pricing are not built; one menu per location, all day, with per-location price overrides and 86.
• ✓Partial refunds are not in the product: a card or cash sale is refunded in full by a manager, and the refund stays attached to the original order.
• ✓Table service (floor plan, reservations, waitlist, tableside handhelds, split checks) is on Opero Full-Service at $249 per location per month, not on the $149 Opero plan.
• ✓No one migrates it for you: the import is a tool you run, the review is yours, and there is no data migration service to buy.

What happens to your hardware?

Opero is Android only. The proprietary terminals your current vendor supplied do not carry over, and neither do tablets from any other platform. You bring any modern Android tablet for each screen: register, kitchen display, self-order kiosk, customer display, menu board, with no per-device fee. The Opero Android app is installed from a link your account owner approves, not from an app store, and the same screens also run in Chrome.

• ✓Card reader: one for each register or kiosk that takes cards, bought from us. It is linked to the location's approved merchant account, registered in Opero by serial number, and paired to each register or kiosk from Devices.
• ✓Printers: receipts and kitchen tickets print on supported network printers, set up from the tablet app, or on a printer plugged by USB into a kiosk or kitchen-display tablet running the app. Spec printers with us before you buy, because only supported models work.
• ✓Cash drawer: connected to the receipt printer, it opens on a cash sale; without one, the screen tells the cashier to open the till by hand.
• ✓Kitchen display: an Android tablet, or a screen with a streaming stick, opened from a link or signed in with a six-character pairing code from Devices.

How do payments get set up?

Payments on Opero are per location: each location applies for its own merchant account from inside Opero, on a hosted application that asks for the legal entity, tax id, owner details and bank account, after Opero has cleared your account to apply. Approval is underwriting, not a button: it is not instant, and a location can take cards in production only once the processor marks it approved with processing enabled. Until then your account runs as a sandbox where card tenders are simulated, which is a good place to train staff and check the menu.

So start the application early, in parallel with the menu work, and do not cancel card processing on the old system until the new location is approved and your reader has taken a real sale. Opero does not publish a processing rate; it quotes one for your business from your volume and average ticket. An optional credit-card processing fee can be switched on per location where your state allows it.

How do staff, PINs and roles get set up?

Staff do not import, but setup is quick. On the Staff page you add each employee with a role (server, bartender, host or manager) and a four- to six-digit PIN. A manager's PIN approves voids and refunds at the register; per-staff switches decide whether a person can 86 items, apply coupons, open the drawer without a sale, see their own sales and tips, or void without a manager. On Opero Full-Service the same PIN signs a server into the tableside handheld.

Account access is separate: owners, admins, general managers and managers sign in with their own email for the office tools, invited with a link valid for seven days. Registers and kitchen displays get device logins locked to one screen and one location, or sign in with a pairing code from Devices, and can be signed out remotely if a tablet goes missing.

What about your current contract?

Read your own agreement. Notice periods, early-termination terms, hardware returns and when your access to historical data ends all live in the contract you signed and your vendor's current terms, so nothing on this page describes them. Pull your exports while you still have access, and confirm in writing when the old processing stops.

On the Opero side there is no long-term contract. Both public plans are month-to-month per location; you are billed only once you add a card on the Billing page, upgrades apply right away, downgrades take effect at your next renewal, and adding or closing a location changes the bill at the next cycle.

The switch, in order

There is no fixed number of days; menu size, underwriting and hardware delivery set the pace. The order is stable.

• ✓Ask for a quote with your current system, locations and average ticket; the team sets up your account, which starts as a sandbox with no card required.
• ✓Export your menu from the old POS (the item library, and the modifier library if there is a separate export), and gather a photo or PDF of anything the export misses.
• ✓Run the import, review every item and price, apply to your locations, then confirm kitchen station routing.
• ✓Start the payments application for each location and let underwriting run while you do the rest.
• ✓Order the card reader from us and spec printers with us; buy or repurpose Android tablets; install the Opero app from the approved link; add each screen under Devices and pair it.
• ✓Set up staff, PINs and switches; set each location's tax rate and service hours; invite your managers.
• ✓Add a card on Billing when you are ready to be billed, then plan the cut-over with the downtime playbook.

What to do on day one

Before the first guest, walk the screens. On Devices, every register, kitchen display and kiosk should show as online, with each register's reader paired. Ring one real card sale and one cash sale, watch them reach the kitchen display, check the drawer pops and a ticket prints if you use paper, and refund the card sale as a manager so everyone has seen the flow once. Then show staff three places: the 86 board (also reachable by long-pressing a register tile), the Unpaid orders panel, and the Payment problems feed where a declined kiosk card shows up with a reprintable slip.

Keep the old system powered and its reports open for a while. And keep expectations straight with the crew: when the internet drops, Opero stops, so the plan for that is the connection, not a hidden mode.

The switching checklist

• ✓Exported from the old POS: item library, modifier library, sales and tax history.
• ✓Read your contract: notice period, termination terms, hardware returns, when data access ends.
• ✓Menu imported, reviewed, applied; station routing confirmed; combos rebuilt under Deals; item photos uploaded.
• ✓Payments application submitted for every location; approval and settlement confirmed before the old processing is cancelled.
• ✓Android tablets for every screen; app installed; devices added and paired; reader registered and bound to each register and kiosk.
• ✓Printers spec'd with us and tested; drawer kicks on a cash sale.
• ✓Staff added with roles, PINs and switches; the manager PIN known to whoever will void and refund.
• ✓Tax rate and hours set per location; managers invited.
• ✓Gift card balances settled on the old system; guests told that points start fresh.
• ✓Downtime playbook read and the launch window picked.

If you want to stop paying per device, run on tablets you own, and have one menu feed the register, kiosk, online page and kitchen, Opero fits and the import takes the retyping out of it. If you need your history migrated, your guest list carried across, gift cards, offline card capture or a deep marketplace integration, those are not things Opero does, and a vendor that does them is the better choice.