Switching from Aloha to Toast: what it really takes

By Matt Barrett · Updated October 2026

When you move off Aloha, new terminals are the easy part. Your menu, gift cards, loyalty, card processing, online ordering and reports all move or change too. Here is the list, in the order it bites.

1. Read your current contracts first#

Before you sign with Toast, pull three documents: your Aloha (NCR Voyix) agreement, your card processing agreement and any online ordering or loyalty contracts. Look for the end date, auto-renew terms and early termination fees.

Toast requires Toast payment processing on every plan, so when you switch you end your current processor contract early unless its term is already up.

2. Expect to replace all the hardware#

Toast runs on its own Android-based terminals, handhelds, kitchen displays and printers. Your Aloha terminals, servers and most printers will not carry over. Budget for:

• Countertop terminals for each station
• Handhelds if servers will take orders at the table
• Kitchen display screens or new kitchen printers
• Card readers
• Network gear, if your current network does not meet Toast's specs

Ask for a hardware list per location in writing before you sign, and ask whether installation is remote or onsite. Remote is cheaper, but your team does more of the work.

3. Fix the network before install day#

Toast's own onboarding guide says its installers do not run Ethernet cable or mount devices. If you need new drops for terminals, printers or kitchen screens, hire a low-voltage tech and finish that work before install day.

Old Aloha sites often have cabling that was added piece by piece over years. Walk each station and check that every device has a working drop or a solid Wi-Fi signal.

4. Rebuild the menu, do not just copy it#

There is no button that moves an Aloha menu into Toast. Toast builds a starter menu from templates and your team edits it. Plan real hours for this.

Use the move to clean up:

• Delete items and modifiers nobody has rung in a year.
• Make modifier groups consistent, for example one "temperature" group, not five.
• Map every item to the right sales category and tax rate. Your future reports depend on this.
• Match item names to your online ordering menu, so third-party orders map cleanly.

Export your Aloha item list and a recent product mix report first. The product mix shows which items actually sell, which makes the cleanup faster.

5. Move gift card balances carefully#

Outstanding gift cards are money you owe guests, so a sloppy move costs you twice: in guest complaints and in your books.

Toast can import existing balances. Its import tool needs:

• A liability report from your current gift card provider, with full card numbers (no asterisks) and balances.
• One file of active cards (card number and balance) and one of inactive cards.
• No more than 15,000 rows per file, in CSV or Excel format.

Watch for two traps. First, spreadsheets love to drop leading zeros and turn long card numbers into scientific notation, so import the file as text. Second, imported cards may not swipe on Toast readers, so staff may need to key the number in.

Reconcile before and after: the total balance in your old provider's report should match the total Toast shows after import, to the cent.

6. Decide what happens to loyalty and online ordering#

If you use a separate loyalty program or online ordering platform, check that it integrates with Toast before you switch. Many large platforms do, but the setup is new, and menu mapping has to be redone.

You may also decide to move these to Toast's own products. One vendor is simpler, but compare the full monthly cost, and plan how guests will move their points and saved accounts.

7. Keep your Aloha history#

Your sales history does not move to Toast. Before you shut Aloha down, export the reports your accountant and managers need: sales by day, product mix, labor, taxes, voids and comps. Keep at least the years your accountant asks for.

If you use a back-office system for inventory or accounting, check how it will pull data from Toast, and plan a clean cutover date, ideally the start of a period.

8. Train, then go live on a slow day#

Toast's onboarding runs in stages: a kickoff call, menu and back-end build while hardware ships (7-14 business days), staff training, install, then go-live. Tips:

• Add every employee and their job codes before training.
• Train on real terminals, with your real menu, not a demo.
• Go live on your slowest day and keep a manager on each station for the first shifts.
• Order spare receipt paper and kitchen printer ribbons before go-live. Do not count on extras in the box.

A realistic timeline per location#

Sources#

• Toast: Remote and onsite onboarding guide
• Toast: Import gift cards