Key takeaways
- Switch three to six weeks before your busy season, never during it.
- Products, customers and stock move by CSV; sales history usually stays in the old system.
- Re-enter open pre-orders with their deposits before you switch the counter.
- Run both systems side by side for a day.
Switching POS systems has a reputation for ruining a weekend. It doesn’t have to. Almost every bad switch comes from one of three things: switching during a rush, losing open pre-orders, or discovering on Saturday morning that the printer doesn’t work. This checklist removes all three.
When should a bakery switch POS systems?
Three to six weeks before your next busy season, in a quiet week, starting on a Monday. That gives you a calm week to set up and then a full pre-order window in the new system. Never switch the week of Rosca, Eid, Mother’s Day or Thanksgiving. See the pre-order calendar for 2026–27 dates.
Before you start: the contract check
- Find your current contract’s end date and notice period.
- Check whether your card terminal belongs to your POS company or your processor.
- Note any hardware you rent rather than own.
The checklist
1. Export your data (day 1)
- Products with prices, categories, sizes and barcodes (CSV)
- Customers with phone numbers and emails (CSV)
- Suppliers (CSV)
- A stock count, or the current stock export
- A list of open pre-orders with deposits paid
- Reports you need for tax (sales by month, tax collected)
2. Clean before you import (day 1)
- Delete products you no longer sell
- Merge duplicates (“Concha”, “concha vainilla”, “CONCHA”)
- Decide sizes as variations (6-inch, 8-inch…) instead of separate products
- Mark items sold by weight
A clean catalogue becomes a clean online store, so this hour pays back.
3. Import and check (day 2)
- Start the trial and import (we do this for you free)
- Spot-check 20 products: price, tax group, category
- Set tax rates and tax groups
- Add staff logins with roles
4. Fill the bakery gaps (days 3–4)
- Deposit rule written on the receipt footer
- Scale barcode format and SKUs (how scale labels work)
- Par levels for the case
- Printer, cash drawer and scanner connected and tested (hardware guide)
5. Move open pre-orders (day 5)
- Re-enter every open pre-order with its pickup date and deposit
- From today, take all new pre-orders in the new system
- Print the next day’s production list to check it
6. Run side by side (day 6)
- One register on the new system, the old one as backup
- Staff practise refunds, deposits and pickups
- Close the day and compare cash
7. Switch (day 7)
- Move every register
- Keep the old account read-only for history, or export what you need
- Share the new online store link
What about sales history?
Most bakeries leave past sales in the old system (read-only) and start fresh, because historical transactions rarely import cleanly between systems. Export the tax reports you need first.
Training staff in an afternoon
Teach five things, in this order: a cash sale, a card sale, a pre-order with deposit, a pickup with balance, and a refund. Give each person their own login, in their own language if that helps — Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic or Urdu. See languages.
Moving from a specific system
Or read the switching page for the six-day plan and what moves across.
Written by
Editorial team, GetBakeryPOS
The team that writes GetBakeryPOS guides: season checklists, deposit policies, scale setup and switching guides.
Works from the product's own documentation and setup sessions with bakeries in the US, UAE and Pakistan
