Menu Converter guide

The Clover Menu Converter turns a photo, PDF or document of your menu into the spreadsheet Clover imports. It reads the menu for you; you check it. Nothing is downloaded until you have looked at every tab.

Before you start

Photograph each page straight on, in good light, with the whole page in the frame. Glare and angles cost accuracy.
A PDF from your designer is even better: the text layer helps with spelling.
Have your current Clover export handy if you are cleaning up an existing menu. Upload it and the converter reads it directly.
Up to 15 pages per menu. A typical menu takes about a minute per page to read and fifteen minutes to check.

Take photos with your phone, or choose files. Photos are shrunk in your browser before upload; PDFs are split into pages. You can mix photos and text. Press Read my menu.

While it reads, each page shows its sections as they are found and each section as its items come in. If a section fails, retry just that section or continue without it.

Step 2: check every item

The editor lays your menu out the way Clover will see it.

Register tabs (left): one per menu section, in order. Rename, reorder, merge, or delete. Each tab has a tile colour from a house palette that keeps related sections together; change it if you like.
Items (centre): name, price and modifiers for the selected tab. Items the reader was unsure about float to the top with an amber mark; anything Clover would reject is red. Open a row for alternate name, description, product code, printer labels, hidden and non-revenue.
Menu photo (right): the page the item came from, with the item's line outlined, so you can compare without leaving the screen.
Modifiers: every modifier group, shared across items. Tick a group to attach it to the selected item, or open it to edit options, prices, required and maximum counts.
Checks: what must be fixed before export, what is worth a look, and everything the converter changed on purpose.

When a tab is right, tick I have checked every item in this tab. The download unlocks when every tab is ticked and nothing is red.

How it handles the hard parts

Sizes. Small / medium / large, cup / bowl, glass / bottle become one item at the smallest price plus a required Size modifier that adds the difference. Portions that are really different products (6, 12 or 24 wings) become separate items. One click flips either way.
Pizza toppings by size. When toppings cost more on a large, each size becomes its own item with its own toppings group, so the register charges the right amount.
"No onions". Removal lines become $0.00 modifiers in a Removals group that never pops up, so the kitchen sees them without slowing the cashier.
"No cheese −$1". Clover cannot subtract, so the item's base price drops by the discount, a default With Cheese option adds it back, and the group becomes required.
Market price / ask your server. Imported as a Variable price; the cashier enters the amount at sale.
Happy hour, gratuity, hours. Kept as policies in your setup guide; set them up as discounts and settings, not items.

Step 3: download

Enter the restaurant name, your name and email. We send a confirmation link; one click and both files are ready:

Clover import spreadsheet (.xlsx) in the layout Clover's dashboard accepts.
Setup guide, a web page you can print, listing everything the spreadsheet cannot carry: tile colours, required modifier settings, printer labels, items needing a price, descriptions for online ordering, and what was changed and why.

Next: import the file into Clover.