Chowly Integration Guide

Chowly is a third-party online ordering aggregator that connects delivery platforms (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, etc.) to the Katalyst POS. The integration handles two core flows:

1. Menu Sync (outbound) — Katalyst pushes your menu to Chowly so delivery platforms display the correct items and prices.
2. Order Ingestion (inbound) — When a guest places an order on a delivery platform, Chowly sends it to Katalyst, which automatically creates a Takeout, Check, and Payment.

Prerequisites

Before the integration can be used, the following must be true:

• Chowly must be enabled for the restaurant. Contact Katalyst support to enable Chowly for your restaurant.
• A Chowly API key must be configured for each Revenue Center that will receive orders or push menus. Chowly provides this key during onboarding.

Enabling the Integration (Admin/Setup)

1. Enable Chowly for the Restaurant

Contact Katalyst support to enable Chowly for your restaurant.

2. Set the API Key per Revenue Center

The API key ties a specific Revenue Center to Chowly's system. To set it:

1. Log in to the Restaurant Management app.
2. Navigate to Kitchen Hub → Chowly Sync.
3. Select the Revenue Center from the dropdown.
4. Enter the API key in the "Set API key" field.
5. Click Add Key to Revenue Center.

The saved key is displayed masked (e.g., abcd****) for confirmation.

Menu Sync

How It Works

When a menu sync runs, Katalyst sends all active menu items assigned to the selected Revenue Center to Chowly, organized into your menu sections, and records the result in the sync history.

What Gets Included in the Menu

Only items meeting all of the following criteria are included:

• The item is active and available on the POS
• The item is assigned to the Revenue Center
• The item is a standard menu item (open items are not sent)
• The item has not been deleted

Modifier groups are included only if:

• The group is active for online ordering
• The group name is at least 2 characters

Modifier options are included only if:

• The option is active
• The modifier name is at least 2 characters

Menu categories are included only if:

• The category is active
• The category is not used for open items
• The category has not been deleted

Menu Section Availability

Each top-level menu section sent to Chowly includes an availability schedule, set on the menu category:

1. Available daily — The section is available every day, using the Revenue Center's takeout hours, or a specific time window if the section is not set to all day.
2. Repeat on selected days — The section is available only on the selected days of the week.
3. Neither is set — The section is excluded from the sync entirely.

If a section has no valid availability schedule, it will not appear in the Chowly menu.

Triggering a Menu Sync

Manual (UI):

1. Navigate to Kitchen Hub → Chowly Sync.
2. Select the correct Revenue Center.
3. Click Execute synchronization.
4. Wait for the spinner to finish — the sync history list will refresh automatically.

Scheduled (automatic):

Katalyst checks for menu changes every 5 minutes and automatically syncs a Revenue Center whose menu has changed since the last check. Nothing is uploaded when the menu hasn't changed.

Viewing Sync History

The Chowly Sync page shows the last 20 synchronizations for the selected Revenue Center, with timestamps and a link to the uploaded menu file. This is useful for verifying what was actually sent to Chowly.

Incoming Orders

How an Incoming Order Is Processed

When Chowly sends an order to Katalyst:

1. Feature check — If Chowly is not enabled for the restaurant, the order is not accepted.
2. Duplicate check — If the same order has already been received, the duplicate is ignored.
3. Order mapping — Each item in the Chowly order is matched back to its Katalyst menu item. If an item cannot be matched, the order is rejected.
4. Takeout created — A Takeout is created with the customer's details, scheduled pickup/delivery time, and item list.
5. Check created — An online Check is created and linked to the Takeout. Amounts (subtotal, tax, tips) come from Chowly.
6. Payment created — A Payment is recorded as paid externally, as either a card or cash payment.
7. Auto-approve — If the Revenue Center has auto-approval configured, the Takeout moves to preparing automatically.

Order Source Tagging

Checks and payments created by Chowly are tagged with Chowly as the order source, along with the specific delivery platform (e.g., DoorDash).

Delivery Orders

If the Chowly order is a delivery order, the Takeout is marked as needing delivery, the delivery address is saved on it, and any delivery charge is recorded as a delivery fee on both the Takeout and Check.

Removing the API Key

To disconnect Chowly from a Revenue Center:

Via UI:

1. Navigate to Kitchen Hub → Chowly Sync.
2. Select the Revenue Center.
3. Click Delete API key.

This removes the key entirely. Menu syncs will stop for that Revenue Center, and incoming orders will fail.

Troubleshooting