Neviscater gives you several tools to protect, back up, move, and reset your catering data. All of them are found in the left sidebar under Application Data. This guide explains what each tool does, when to use it, and how to use it step by step.

Which tool should I use?#

Rule of thumb: for safety and undo within your own account, use Restore Points — it is faster, one-click, and always undoable. Use Export/Import Database when you need a file: to keep an offline copy, or to move data into a different account.

Restore Points#

What is a Restore Point?#

A Restore Point is a complete snapshot of all your application data — orders, events, menus, items, materials, recipes, vendors, purchase orders, payments, invoices, staff, settings and everything else — saved securely on the server at a moment in time.

If you ever make a major mistake (for example, a bulk edit gone wrong, or accidentally deleting important records), you can restore a Restore Point and your account goes back exactly to how it was when that snapshot was taken.

Think of it like a "save game" for your business data.

Who can use Restore Points?#

Only the main account owner (the account you originally registered with). Sub-users do not see this feature and cannot create or restore snapshots.

Creating a Restore Point#

1. In the sidebar, open Application Data → Restore Points.
2. Click Create Restore Point.
3. Optionally give it a name you will recognise later, e.g. "Before season cleanup".
4. Click Create.

The snapshot is created in the background — you can keep working while it runs. Within a few seconds the row shows a green ready badge. Large accounts may take a little longer; the page refreshes automatically when the work finishes.

When to create one: before bulk edits, before cleaning up old data, before experimenting with new features, before importing a database file — any time you're about to make changes you might regret.

Restoring a Restore Point#

1. Open Application Data → Restore Points.
2. Find the snapshot you want (its date and name are shown) and click Restore.
3. Read the confirmation carefully, then click Yes, Replace All My Data.

The restore runs in the background and the page refreshes when it completes.

What exactly happens during a restore? (Important)#

• ALL of your current data is replaced with the data from the snapshot. Everything you added or changed after the snapshot was taken will be gone — including new orders, edits, and any sub-users added after the snapshot.
• A "pre-restore" snapshot is created automatically first. Before anything is deleted, the system snapshots your current data. This means a restore can always be undone: if you restored the wrong snapshot, or you change your mind, simply restore the automatic "Before restore of #…" entry that appeared in your list, and you're back to where you were.
• The restore is all-or-nothing. Either it completes fully, or — if anything goes wrong — nothing changes at all. Your data can never be left half-restored.
• Your account details (login email, password, subscription) are not affected by a restore.
• Ask your team to stop working while a restore runs.

Managing Restore Points#

• Statuses: pending (waiting to start), running, ready (green — can be restored), failed (hover the badge to see why).
• Types: manual (created by you), pre-restore (created automatically before every restore) and pre-import (created automatically before a Full Database import that updates existing items and materials).
• Automatic cleanup: the system keeps your 10 most recent manual snapshots, 3 most recent pre-restore and 3 most recent pre-import snapshots. Older ones are removed automatically, so create a fresh one whenever you're about to do something risky.
• Delete: you can delete any snapshot you no longer need with its Delete button.
• Restore Points are stored securely on the server. They are not downloadable files — if you want a copy on your own computer, use Export Database instead.

Export Database#

What is Export Database?#

Export Database creates an encrypted file containing your data, which downloads to your computer. You can keep it as an offline backup, or import it into another Neviscater account (for example, to set up a new account with your standard items and recipes).

How to export#

1. In the sidebar, open Application Data → Export Database.
2. Enter a Database File Name — this is what the downloaded file will be called.
3. Choose whether to tick "Export Orders, Events & Menu Data also":
   • Ticked (default): exports everything — your full business data.
   • Unticked: exports only your master/catalogue data (items, materials, recipes, types, units, equipment). Useful when you want to share your catalogue as a starting point without your business history.
4. Click Export. The encrypted file downloads to your computer.

What is included in a full export?#

With "Export Orders, Events & Menu Data also" ticked, the file includes:

• Catalogue data: units, material types, item types, item descriptions, event names, order types, sub-menu categories, materials, items, recipes, cookware, serveware, cutlery, operational resources.
• Business data: customers, orders with all their events (guests and the Veg / Non-Veg guest split), menus, payments and expenses; staff; vendors and their services; vendor payments; purchase orders with all their line details; invoices; inventory transactions for materials and items; menu catalogues; PDF and custom templates; roles and permissions; preferences; text conversions.

Not included: sub-user login accounts, billing/subscription records, uploaded image files (menu thumbnails, template previews), and public menu-embedding links.

About the exported file#

• The file is encrypted — it can only be read by importing it back into Neviscater. Keep it somewhere safe.
• Store it like any important document: on a drive or cloud folder you trust.

Import Database#

What is Import Database?#

Import Database loads data into your account from a file. There are four import types.

How to import#

1. In the sidebar, open Application Data → Import Database.
2. Choose the Import type (see below).
3. Select the file.
4. Click Import.

Import type: Full Database#

Loads a file previously created with Export Database.

How importing behaves — "add, don't delete":

• Importing adds data that isn't already there. It never deletes your existing records.
• Records are matched by name: an item called "Paneer Tikka" in the file is the same item as the "Paneer Tikka" you already have. The same applies to materials, vendors, staff, customers, units, types, and so on.
• Orders already present (same customer, dates and place) are skipped. If an incoming order's number clashes with an existing order, the imported order gets a suffix like "-1" added to its number.
• Purchase orders are matched by PO number, invoices by invoice number — existing ones are skipped, so importing the same file twice does not create duplicates.
• Because of this matching, importing into an empty account reproduces the exported data faithfully, while importing into an account with data merges the file's contents into what you already have.

Items and materials you already have. When your account has items or materials, the dialog asks what to do with the ones the file also has:

• Keep mine (the default) — they are left exactly as they are; only what is new is added. This is what every import did before the choice existed.

• Update them from this file — they take the file's values: a material's type, rate, unit, pack size, default vendor and flags; an item's type, description, unit, sub menu, veg / non-veg mark, quantity per guest, quoted rate, making cost, properties, default vendor and its cookware, serveware and cutlery lists. An item's recipe is replaced when the file has one for it, and kept when it does not. Stock quantities, thresholds, orders and menus are never changed, and nothing is deleted. Use this to push a corrected export back over the account it came from.

  A Restore Point named Before import of <file> is created automatically before an update import, so the whole thing can be undone from Restore Points. The import is refused while another restore point operation is running.

  Unit changes follow the same rules as the item and material drawers (see Items and Recipes → Changing an item's unit): a change between weight / volume units, or one whose piece weight is known, converts the quantities already on your menus and in stock; a change that cannot be converted (a Piece with no stated weight, in use on a menu) leaves that item or material untouched, and the result message names it with the reason.

  The result message says how many items and materials were updated and how many recipes were replaced — counting only records that actually changed.

Time: a large file (hundreds of orders and purchase orders, thousands of recipes) can take a long time to import. Leave the page to finish; don't close the browser mid-import.

Note: if you want to replace your data with the file's contents rather than merge, use Clear Database first (see below) — or better, if you're just trying to undo recent mistakes in your own account, use Restore Points instead.

Import type: Materials List#

A quick way to add many materials at once from a spreadsheet or a text file. Application Data → Import Database → Import: Materials List → Select File → Import.

• File types: CSV (comma, tab or semicolon separated), Excel (.xlsx) or OpenDocument (.ods). Only the first sheet of a workbook is read. The dialog offers a ready-made template to download — Excel · CSV — with the headings in place and two example rows.
• Recommended: start with a header row naming the columns, e.g. Name, Type, Rate, Unit. Columns may then be in any order and any of them may be left out. Common spellings are understood — Material Name, Category, Price, UOM — as are Cost, MRP, Measure and similar. Unrecognised columns are ignored.
• Without a header row the columns must be in this order: Material Name, Material Type, Rate, Unit.
• Only the name is required; blank cells get the defaults — type "-", rate 0, unit Kilogram. A rate written as Rs. 1,200.50 is read as 1200.5.
• Material types and units named in the file that do not exist yet are created. Check the spelling of units against your Units Table — Kgs becomes a new, non-convertible unit.
• Existing materials with the same name are left unchanged. Vendors, stock and pack sizes cannot be imported this way; set them on the material afterwards.

The result message reads N Materials Created in the database and opens the Materials Table. The count includes every row that had a name, so it can be higher than the number of genuinely new materials.

Import type: Items List#

Same idea for menu items, with the same file types, template download and header rules. The columns are Item Name, Item Type, Description, Rate, Unit, Submenu, Veg / Non-Veg (header spellings such as Dish, Category, Desc, Price, UOM, Menu Section, Course and Diet are understood). Only the name is required.

• Defaults for blank cells: type "-", description "-", rate 0. The unit and sub-menu come from the item type's defaults when it has them (see Items and Recipes → Item Types), otherwise Kilogram and "-".
• Item types, units, descriptions and sub-menus that do not exist yet are created.
• Veg / Non-Veg takes Veg, Non-Veg (also NV, Non Veg) or Egg; a blank cell leaves the item unmarked, and unmarked items print on the veg side.
• An existing item with the same name is updated with the file's type, description, rate and sub-menu; its unit is changed only when nothing is recorded against the old unit yet. Recipes are not touched.

Import type: Recipes List#

Recipes for many items at once, from a spreadsheet or a text file: one line per material of a recipe. Application Data → Import Database → Import: Recipes List → Select File → Import. Unlike the other two lists, nothing is written until you confirm: the next screen shows exactly what the file will do, item by item.

The columns are Item, Material, Quantity, Unit, Makes, Material Type. Download the template from the dialog (Excel · CSV) to see the layout.

• Name the item once and list its materials on the lines below it: a blank Item cell belongs to the item above.
• Makes is what the quantities make — 5 Kilogram, 100 Piece, or just 100 in the item's unit — given once per item. The lines are stored per one unit of the item, as every recipe is, and the item's recipe is then shown for that batch in the recipe drawer, so it reads exactly as you wrote it (see Items and Recipes → Writing a recipe for a batch). Without Makes the quantities are taken per one unit of the item. A Makes in a weight for an item sold per Plate or Piece converts through the weight per plate on the item; if that is not set, the item is skipped rather than guessed.
• Quantity may carry its unit (300 gm, 2kg) when the Unit cell is blank. Common spellings of the standard units are understood: kg, kgs, g, gm, gms, l, lt, ltr, ml, pc, pcs, nos.
• Header spellings such as Dish, Ingredient, Qty, UOM, Yield, Batch, Category are understood. Without a header row the columns must be in the order above.
• Items must already exist — import the Items List first. An item not found is skipped and said so.
• Materials that do not exist are created, at rate 0 and in the unit the recipe measures them in (Gram becomes Kilogram, Mililitre becomes Litre), with the Material Type from the file or "-". The preview and the result list them: set their rates in the Materials Table, or the items using them will cost less than they should.
• A unit not in your Units Table is taken as the unit the material is kept in when the material exists, and created when it does not. A line whose unit does not convert to its material's (Gram of a material kept per Piece) is imported with a warning; it costs nothing until one of the two is changed.
• The same material twice under one item is added up when the units agree.
• Items that already have a recipe are left alone unless you choose Replace their recipes with the file's on the preview. Recipes are never merged.

The result message opens the Items Table and says how many items got a recipe, which materials were created, and what was skipped and why. Open any item's Recipe to see it.

Import Regional Database#

Ready-made starter data for your region: typical items, materials, recipes, units and categories used in that region's catering.

1. In the sidebar, open Application Data → Import Regional Database.
2. The page opens on your own country (from Tools & Settings → Locale). A country with regional datasets, such as India, opens into its states; pick the state. A country with one dataset, such as the UAE, opens straight into the import.
3. Choose the dataset — Pure Vegetarian or Veg & Non-Vegetarian where the choice exists — and Import.

The Veg & Non-Vegetarian datasets mark their Non-Veg and Egg dishes. If your What we cook setting (Preferences → General) is Pure Veg or Veg + Egg, those marks would be stored but never shown, so the drawer offers to set it to Veg + Non-Veg with the import — ticked by default, untick it to keep your setting. See Items and Recipes → Veg / Non-Veg.

Each tile shows when that dataset was last imported into your account. That is a record of the import, not of what is in your account now: if you later delete the data, importing again simply adds back what is missing. Importing never changes or duplicates what you already have.

The drawer also says which currency the dataset's rates are in. Rates are not converted, so a dataset in another currency than your account's needs its material rates reviewed afterwards.

Like all imports, it only adds what you don't already have — it never touches your existing records. This is the fastest way to make a brand-new account useful.

Clear Database#

Clear Database erases data from your account. It is available only to the main account owner.

1. In the sidebar, open Application Data → Clear Database.
2. Choose what to clear:
   • Orders, events and menus — your business transactions (orders, events, menus, payments, expenses, vendors, vendor services and payments).
   • Master tables — your catalogue (items, materials, recipes, equipment, types, units, menu catalogues).
   • Preferences — your saved options.
3. Confirm.

Before you clear anything, create a Restore Point. Clearing is immediate, and a Restore Point is the only way to get the data back afterwards.

Common scenarios#

"I'm about to do a big cleanup of old data." Create a Restore Point first. Do your cleanup. If you're happy, done. If not, restore the snapshot.

"I made a mess of my data an hour ago." If you created a Restore Point before the changes, restore it. Any work done after that snapshot will be lost, so weigh what matters more — the automatic pre-restore snapshot lets you flip back if you decide the mess was preferable.

"I want a copy of my data on my own computer." Export Database with the orders checkbox ticked. Keep the encrypted file safe.

"We're setting up an account for a new customer with our standard catalogue." From the source account: Export Database (untick orders to share only the catalogue, or tick it for everything). In the new account: Import Database → Full Database with that file. For a generic starting point, Import Regional Database is even quicker.

"I imported the wrong file." If you chose Update them from this file, restore the Before import of … Restore Point the import created. Otherwise, if you created a Restore Point before importing (recommended!), restore it. Failing both, note that a Keep mine import only adds — your original records are still there, but you may need to manually delete the added ones.

"I corrected units, rates and recipes in an exported file and want them back in the account." Import Database → Full Database with the corrected file and choose Update them from this file. Items and materials with the same names take the file's values, orders and menus stay as they are, and a Restore Point is taken first.

Frequently asked questions#

Q: What's the difference between a Restore Point and an Export? A Restore Point lives on the server, restores your account exactly (one click, all-or-nothing, undoable), and is the right tool for backup-and-undo within your own account. An Export is a file you keep, useful for offline copies and for moving data between accounts; importing it merges by name rather than restoring exactly.

Q: Will restoring a Restore Point affect my login or subscription? No. Your account email, password and subscription are untouched. Only your application data (orders, items, settings, etc.) is replaced.

Q: Can a restore be undone? Yes — always. A "pre-restore" snapshot of your current data is created automatically before every restore. Restore that entry to go back.

Q: My restore point has said "pending" for a long time. The work runs in the background on the server. If it stays pending for several minutes, the background worker may be busy or down — contact support if it doesn't complete.

Q: Can sub-users create or restore snapshots? No. Only the main account owner can use Restore Points, Import, Export and Clear Database.

Q: Can I download a Restore Point? No — they stay on the server. For a file copy of your data, use Export Database.

Q: If I import the same export file twice, will everything be duplicated? No. Items, materials, vendors, customers, orders, purchase orders, invoices and most other records are matched by name/number and skipped if already present. The exception is inventory transaction logs, which are appended each time.

Q: Does an export include my sub-users' data? Yes — data created by your sub-users belongs to your account and is included. Sub-user login accounts themselves are not included; recreate those manually in the new account if needed.

Q: My exported menu thumbnails / template preview images didn't come across after import. Image files are not part of the export. Re-upload images in the target account.

Q: How many Restore Points can I keep? The 10 most recent manual snapshots, plus the 3 most recent automatic pre-restore and the 3 most recent pre-import snapshots. Older ones are cleaned up automatically.

Q: How long does creating or restoring a snapshot take? Creating is usually seconds. Restoring is usually well under a minute, even for large accounts. Full-database imports (from a file) are much slower — that's normal.