Clear Test Orders and Keep Your Items, Materials and Recipes

Many caterers try Neviscater with practice orders, made-up vendors and trial purchase orders, and build their real catalogue of items, materials and recipes along the way. When you are ready to go live, you want the practice data gone and the catalogue kept.

This guide does exactly that in five steps: take a Restore Point, keep a backup file, clear only the orders side of your data, check the result, and export the clean database. It takes a few minutes.

Only the main account owner can do this. Sub-users do not see Restore Points and cannot clear the database.

What is removed and what is kept#

Clearing with only Clear orders, events & menus ticked works on your whole account, including records your sub-users created.

Two things change on the records you keep:

• Stock goes back to 0 for every material and item. The purchases and usage that explained the old stock are removed, so the old numbers would no longer mean anything.
• Default vendors are cleared on materials, items, item types and material types, because the vendors are removed.

All vendors are removed, real ones too. If some of your vendors are real, note their details down before you start, or keep the backup file from Step 2, and add them again afterwards. You cannot keep only some vendors with this tool.

Step 1: Create a Restore Point#

A Restore Point is your undo button. If anything goes wrong, it puts the whole account back exactly as it is now.

1. In the sidebar, open Application Data → Restore Points.
2. Click Create Restore Point.
3. In Name (optional), type a name you will recognise, for example Before clearing test orders.
4. Click Create.
5. Wait until the new row shows a green ready badge in the Status column.

Do not continue until it says ready. If it shows failed, hover over the badge to see why, and contact support before going further. More about Restore Points: Saving and Restoring Your Data.

Step 2: Download a backup file (recommended)#

A Restore Point stays on the server. A backup file is a copy you keep yourself, and it is also where you can find your old vendors' details later.

1. Open Application Data → Export Database.
2. In Database File Name, type a name such as before-clean-backup.
3. Leave Export Orders, Events & Menu Data also ticked.
4. Click Export and keep the downloaded file somewhere safe.

Step 3: Clear only the test data#

1. Open Application Data → Clear Database.
2. Set the three options like this:
   • Clear orders, events & menus: ticked
   • Clear master tables (items, recipes, cookware...): not ticked
   • Clear user preferences: not ticked
3. Check the second option once more. Clear master tables is the one that would delete your items, materials and recipes.
4. Click Clear Selected Data.
5. Your browser asks you to confirm and warns that the database will be erased. Only the option you ticked is cleared. Click OK.
6. Wait for the Please wait... clearing database screen to finish. You land on the Orders List with the message Database cleaned successfully!

If you see a message ending in Nothing was cleared., your data is exactly as it was: the clear either completes fully or changes nothing. Contact support with the message shown.

Step 4: Check the result#

• Orders List is empty.
• Procurement → Vendors and Procurement → Purchase Orders are empty.
• Items Table and Materials Table still list everything you created.
• Open two or three items and check that their Recipe still lists its materials.
• Stock shows 0 and default vendors are blank. This is expected.

If something looks wrong, open Application Data → Restore Points, click Restore on Before clearing test orders and confirm with Yes, Replace All My Data. Your account goes back to how it was before Step 3.

Step 5: Export the clean database#

1. Open Application Data → Export Database.
2. In Database File Name, type a name such as clean-catalogue.
3. Choose what the file should contain:
   • Ticked (the default): your catalogue plus staff, roles, PDF templates, preferences and the stock settings of your items and materials. Choose this for a full copy of the clean account.
   • Not ticked: only the catalogue, meaning items, materials, recipes, types, units and equipment. Choose this to start another account from the same catalogue.
4. Click Export. The downloaded file is your clean database.

After you have cleared#

• Add your real vendors again under Procurement → Vendors, then set default vendors on materials and items where you use them.
• Enter your real opening stock for materials and items you track.
• Keep the Restore Point for a few days until you are sure nothing is missing. After that you can delete it from Restore Points with its Delete button.

Questions#

Will clearing remove the items and recipes I created myself? No, as long as Clear master tables is not ticked. With only Clear orders, events & menus ticked, items, materials and recipes are kept.

Can I keep some vendors and remove the others? Not with Clear Database: it removes all vendors. To keep some, either delete the test vendors, purchase orders and orders one by one instead of clearing, or clear everything and add the real vendors back afterwards.

Why did my stock quantities go to 0? Stock is the result of the purchases and usage recorded against it, and those records are cleared with the orders. Enter your real opening stock again after clearing.

I cleared and something I needed is gone. Can I get it back? Yes, if you created the Restore Point in Step 1. Restore it, and the account returns to how it was just before clearing. Anything changed after that point is lost, so do this as soon as you notice.