Clover POS Guide

How to Import a Menu into Clover (Step by Step)

Typing a fifty item menu into Clover one line at a time takes an entire afternoon, and that's before you get to modifiers. Clover has a bulk import that skips almost all of the manual entry, but the importer is picky about formatting, and it will quietly create a mess if you skip a step. Here's the actual screen, the columns that matter, and the mistakes that trip up most people the first time.

Where is the menu import screen in Clover?

Log into the Clover web Dashboard at clover.com from a computer, not the register app on the counter. People sometimes spend twenty minutes looking for a bulk import button on the physical terminal. It isn't there.

From the Dashboard, open Inventory in the left menu.
Click into Items.
Look for Export/Import, usually under a menu labeled Import Items or an "..." (more options) icon near the top of the items list.
Download Clover's item template rather than building your own spreadsheet from scratch. Clover matches columns by header name, and a header that's off by even one word gets ignored.

What do you need before you start the import?

Four things should exist in your Clover account before you touch the item spreadsheet:

Categories already created, matching the names you'll use in the file.
Tax rates set up, so items can reference them instead of defaulting to no tax.
Modifier groups already built, since items reference groups by exact name. If a group doesn't exist yet, either build it manually under Inventory, Modifier Groups, or fill out Clover's modifier group template and import it before the item file.
A clean list of items and prices pulled straight from the menu you're programming, not from memory.

Step by step: importing a menu into Clover

Set up your modifier groups first. Toppings, sizes, temps, sides, whatever your menu needs. Items imported before the groups exist come in with no modifiers attached.
Set up tax rates and categories. Create these ahead of time so the item file can reference them by exact name.
Download the item import template from Inventory, Items, Export/Import.
Fill in one row per item, or one row per size or variant if you're breaking sizes into separate rows.
Save the file correctly. Watch for currency symbols, thousands-separator commas, and special characters, all of which can break the file's encoding.
Upload the file through the same Import screen you found the template on.
Review the summary Clover shows before confirming. It should tell you how many items will be added or updated.
Confirm the import.
Spot check on the register. Pull up ten or fifteen items across different categories on the physical register or the Clover app before service starts.

What columns does the Clover item template actually use?

Every Clover account's exact template can vary slightly by version, but the core columns you'll be filling in look like this:

Column	What goes here	Notes
Item Name	Required. The name that prints on the register and receipt.	Very long names can get cut off on some receipt and kitchen printer templates.
Price	Required. A plain decimal like 12.99.	No dollar sign, no comma. Text formatting from Excel autocorrect is the number one cause of failed rows.
SKU / Item Code	Optional but useful for barcode scanning and for matching rows on a future re-import.	Keep it consistent, no spaces if you can help it.
Category	Must match an existing category name exactly, capitalization included.	"Appetizers" and "appetizers" will create two separate categories.
Cost	Optional. Used for margin reporting.	Leave blank if you don't track it.
Tax Rate	References a tax rate you already created.	Blank usually defaults to whatever the account's default tax setting is, which isn't always what you want.
Modifier Group	Comma separated group names, matched by exact spelling.	Group must already exist in the account.
Price Type	Fixed, or Variable/Open for items priced at the register.	Leave it Fixed unless you have a specific reason, like a daily special with a changing price.
Hidden/Available	Y/N flag controlling whether the item shows on the register right away.	Useful for staging a menu before a launch date.

Common errors when importing a Clover menu

Price typed with a dollar sign or comma. Gets rejected outright, or imported as text with a zero price.
Category name off by a capital letter or a trailing space. Creates a duplicate category you have to notice and merge later.
Modifier group referenced before it exists. The item imports fine but shows up with no modifiers, and nobody catches it until a server can't ring in a topping mid-shift.
Special characters breaking the file's encoding. Curly quotes pasted from Word, accented letters in words like jalapeño or café, turn into garbled symbols on the item name.
Duplicate SKUs or duplicate item names. The importer either rejects the row or creates a near-identical second item.
Re-uploading the same file after fixing one mistake. Depending on how Clover matches rows, this can create duplicates rather than updating what's already there.
Oversized files. A menu with several hundred items or more can time out or partially import. Split it into two or three smaller batches and confirm each one before moving on.
Blank required fields. A "market price" item with an empty price cell usually fails the whole row silently.

How do you check the import actually worked?

Once the summary confirms items were added or updated, go into the live Inventory list and spot check ten to fifteen items spread across different categories. Then pull the same items up on the physical register or the Clover POS app to confirm the modifiers actually attached and the price rings correctly. Do this before a shift starts, not during service, when a missing modifier turns into a line at the register.

Skip the spreadsheet entirely

MenuProof reads a photo or PDF of your menu and builds the Clover import file for you, modifier groups included. You get a preview of the menu inside Clover's own layout before you export anything, so you catch a wrong price or a missing modifier group on screen instead of on a busy Friday night. You still export the file and run the import yourself. MenuProof never touches your live Clover account.

First menu is free, no card required. Packs start at $49 after that.

Convert your Clover menu free

See the full Clover menu import page or the MenuProof homepage for pricing and details.

FAQ

How long does a full Clover menu import take?

Once the spreadsheet is correct, the upload itself takes a couple of minutes even for a few hundred items. Building the spreadsheet is the part that takes hours, because you're typing every item, price, and modifier group by hand from a paper or PDF menu.

Can I import modifiers along with items, or do I need to add them after?

You can attach modifier groups in the same item import, but the groups have to already exist in Clover before the item file references them. If a group doesn't exist yet, the item usually imports with no modifiers attached and nobody notices until a server can't ring one in.

Will importing overwrite my existing menu?

It depends on how Clover matches your rows to existing items, usually by SKU or item code. If there's no match, it adds new items rather than replacing old ones, which is how duplicate menus happen. Always review the import summary before confirming.

Can I import a menu with sizes and variations, like small, medium, and large?

Yes. Most people handle this either as separate items per size or through Clover's variable pricing, depending on how the register needs to ring them. Plan the structure before you build the spreadsheet, because changing it after import means redoing rows.

Is there a faster way to build the Clover import file?

Yes. MenuProof reads a photo or PDF of your menu and builds the Clover import file for you, modifier groups included, and shows you a preview inside Clover's layout before you export anything. You still import the file yourself. First menu is free, no card required, and packs start at $49. Try it free.