Migrating from Toast to RetailPOS
Last reviewed 2026-05-30 · by the RetailPOS team
Toast is genuinely strong for full-service restaurants — table management, coursing, kitchen display, the works. Owners tend to leave it at one of three trigger points: a counter-service cafe or bakery realises it's paying for full-service features it never touches; the processing rate stings because card sales are locked to Toast Payments with no bring-your-own-processor option on standard plans; or the multi-year hardware agreement turns a “cheap” headline price into a bill that doesn't flex when business slows.
This guide is the honest version. The catalogue and customer list carry over via CSV. Two things that carry over cleanly on a Square migration do noton a Toast one: your card processing (Toast is the merchant of record, so you're moving to your own Stripe account from scratch) and your hardware (Toast Flex, Toast Go and the KDS screens are locked to Toast's platform — plan to bring an iPad). Read the hardware section before you set a cutover date.
What carries over cleanly
Menu / items + modifiers— Toast's menu export gives you your items, prices, and modifier groups. RetailPOS imports the item + variant shape via POST /v1/imports/items. Modifier groups map to RetailPOS' reusable modifier-group model; you'll re-attach them to items once (see gotchas).
Customer list — if you captured customers through Toast (loyalty sign-ups, online ordering accounts), export name + email + phone and import via POST /v1/imports/customers. Point balances do not come across (see below).
Your data, going forward — from day one on RetailPOS, one click in Settings → Download all data exports every order, item, customer and receipt as a single file. No retention wall, no export fee.
The hardware question (read this first)
This is the biggest practical difference from a Square migration. Toast hardware is locked to Toast's platform— the Toast Flex terminal, Toast Go handhelds, and the kitchen display screens run Toast's software and can't be re-pointed at another POS. Most Toast hardware also ships under a multi-year agreement; check your contract for the term and any early-termination terms before you plan a cutover.
What RetailPOS runs on instead: a standard iPad or Android tablet for the till, an ESC/POS receipt printer (a Star or Epson TM-m30 you may already own works), a USB barcode scanner, and a Stripe Reader for card-present. If you're mid-lease on Toast hardware, the clean move is to run the iPad till alongside the Toast gear until the agreement lapses, then return it — rather than eating an early-termination charge.
Moving card processing to your own Stripe account
On Toast you process through Toast Payments— Toast is the merchant of record and the processing rate is bundled into the relationship. RetailPOS doesn't process payments or take a cut; you bring your own Stripe account and pay Stripe's rate directly (typically 1.5%–2.4% card-present depending on volume and region).
Practically: open a Stripe account before cutover, order a Stripe Reader, and run a test sale in Stripe test mode. Card sales rung on Toast settle through Toast Payments; sales from your cutover date forward settle into your Stripe account. Draw the line at end-of-day and the split stays clean for your accountant.
What doesn't migrate
Sales history— past sales stay on Toast; export them for your accountant before cutover. RetailPOS doesn't backfill historical sales (different SKUs, tax IDs and timestamps would make the ledger ambiguous). Day one is a clean slate.
Loyalty + gift card balances— Toast Loyalty point balances and Toast gift-card liabilities don't export in a form RetailPOS can ingest. Run a final “redeem your points” push in your last week on Toast; for outstanding gift cards, keep a Toast terminal available to redeem them during the wind-down, or honour them manually against the printed balance.
Online ordering + delivery integrations— Toast's online-ordering module and its delivery-marketplace links are Toast-specific and don't carry over. RetailPOS has its own connector layer (/integrations); re-establish the integrations you actually use.
Full-service constructs— table maps, coursing/fire timing, and server-banking flows are full-service features RetailPOS doesn't replicate (it's counter-service-first). If you genuinely run table service, that's a reason to stay on Toast — we say so on the why page. If you don't, those are the features you stop paying for.
Step-by-step cutover (do this on a Sunday night)
The week before: Sign up for RetailPOS, pick your vertical kit (coffee / bakery / restaurant counter), open a Stripe account, order a Stripe Reader. Test the till with sample sales in Stripe test mode.
Mid-week: Export your Toast menu + customers. Import items, then customers, via Settings → Imports. Confirm the counts match the export.
Thursday/Friday: Re-build modifier groups, tax classes, tip presets, and end-of-day close rules. Set up recipe BOM if you run coffee / bakery / restaurant so ingredients deplete on sale. Re-configure kitchen ticket printing to replace the KDS flow.
Saturday: Parallel run — ring 5–10 internal test sales on RetailPOS beside the Toast till. Test refund, void, and end-of-shift cash count.
Sunday close → Monday open: Final Toast close + full data export (sales, payouts, gift-card liability) for the accountant. Monday: ring on RetailPOS. Keep a Toast terminal on hand during the wind-down for trailing gift-card redemptions and refunds of Toast-rung sales.
Common gotchas
KDS replacement. Toast routes orders to kitchen display screens; RetailPOS prints kitchen tickets to an ESC/POS printer in the kitchen. For a counter-service line this is usually a simplification, not a loss — but budget an hour to set up ticket routing and confirm the kitchen is happy with paper over screens.
Check vs order model.Toast is built around an open check that stays open through a table's visit; RetailPOS is order-per-transaction (open → paid). For counter service that matches how you already ring; if your staff are used to holding checks open, it's a small habit change.
Tax classes don't auto-map.Toast's tax setup doesn't translate 1:1. Plan to re-classify items into Standard / Reduced / Zero-Rated / Exempt during cutover — tedious but one-time.
Hardware-agreement timing.The cheapest cutover is one that lines up with your Toast hardware agreement lapsing. If you're mid-term, run RetailPOS on an iPad in parallel and switch fully when the lease ends.
Frequently asked
- Can I keep my Toast hardware?
- No — Toast Flex, Toast Go and the KDS screens are locked to Toast's platform and can't run another POS. RetailPOS runs on a standard iPad or Android tablet with an ESC/POS printer, a USB scanner, and a Stripe Reader. If you're mid-lease on Toast hardware, run RetailPOS in parallel on an iPad until the agreement lapses.
- Can I bring my own payment processor?
- Yes — that's the point. On Toast you process through Toast Payments with Toast as merchant of record. On RetailPOS you connect your own Stripe account and pay Stripe's rate directly; we take no per-transaction cut.
- I run table service — should I switch?
- Probably not yet. RetailPOS is counter-service-first; it doesn't replicate Toast's table maps, coursing, and server banking. If your business is full-service dining, Toast is the better fit and we'll say so. If you're a cafe, QSR, bakery, or counter, you're paying for table-service features you don't use.
- What happens to outstanding Toast gift cards?
- Gift-card liability doesn't migrate. Keep a Toast terminal available during the wind-down to redeem outstanding cards, or honour them manually against the printed balance and ring the sale on RetailPOS. New gift cards issue fresh on the new system.
- How long does the migration take?
- About 6–10 hours of focused work across a week — a touch more than a Square migration because you're standing up a new Stripe account and replacing the KDS flow with kitchen ticket printing. Item + customer imports take minutes; the bulk is modifiers, tax, recipes, and kitchen routing. The Sunday cutover itself is roughly two hours.
- Will my historical sales data move over?
- No — it stays on Toast. Export everything before cutover for your accountant. RetailPOS starts day one as a clean slate rather than backfilling an ambiguous historical ledger.
Open your shop in 30 seconds.
No card. Free until your first 100 sales. Bring your own Stripe; keep your hardware.