How to move from Katana to MirrorWorks
A step-by-step plan for a small fab shop: what to export, how it maps across, and how to cut over without stopping work. No project team, no consultants by the day.
What you need before you start
One person who knows the data
Usually the owner or whoever runs the office. You do not need IT staff or an implementation partner.
Admin access to Katana
Enough to export lists to CSV or Excel. Read access to products, BOMs, contacts, orders and stock.
A few quiet hours
Spread over a week or two, alongside normal work. The floor keeps running the whole time.
Step 1: export from Katana
Most lists in Katana can be exported to CSV. If one cannot, Katana support can help you get it out.
| What | Where it lives in Katana | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Items and parts | Items (products and materials). Export SKUs, names, unit of measure, cost and price. | Clean up duplicate variants and old SKUs first. |
| Bills of materials | The recipe or BOM on each product, with ingredients and quantities. | Katana BOMs are often built for products, not one-off fabrication jobs. Bring across the ones you repeat. |
| Customers and suppliers | Contacts. Export names, emails, addresses and terms. | Skip contacts you have not dealt with in two years. |
| Open jobs | Manufacturing orders and open sales orders that are not done. | Add a column for where each job is up to on the floor. |
| Stock on hand | Inventory. Export quantity in stock per item and location. | Count your top 20 items before cutover so starting stock is right. |
Menu names can differ between Katana versions and setups. If something is not where we say, look for the same list under a nearby menu.
Step 2: map it across
You map columns once in the Bridge wizard. This is how the main Katana fields line up.
| In Katana | In MirrorWorks |
|---|---|
| SKU | Part number |
| Item name | Part name and description |
| Unit of measure | Unit (kg, m, sheet, each) |
| Recipe or BOM rows | Bill of materials components |
| Customer or supplier | Customer or supplier |
| Manufacturing order status | Open job and its current status |
| In stock | Starting stock |
Anything that does not have an obvious home, such as a custom field, can stay in the description or notes for now. You do not have to get every column perfect on day one.
Step 3: import with Bridge
Bridge is the MirrorWorks import tool. It imports your customers, part numbers, jobs and stock from Katana, spreadsheets, Xero or MYOB, and you can run both systems in parallel until your numbers match.
Guided wizard
Upload CSVs, map columns, preview, and commit. Built for shop owners, not IT teams.
Multi-file upload
Customers, products, BOMs and suppliers in parallel. Validation flags conflicts before anything is saved.
Bulk edit in the import
Select bad rows, correct them in place, re-validate and commit. No round trips to Excel.
Route fixing
Old routings rarely match new machine definitions. Bridge flags mismatches and suggests the correct route.
Open job import
Bring in jobs already on the floor with their current status, so day one is not a clean slate.
Rollback and re-run
Undo an import, fix the source file and run it again. Mistakes are not final.
Step 4: cut over without stopping work
A plan sized for a 1 to 20 person shop. Adjust the timing to suit your workload.
Week 1: tidy and export
Archive what you no longer use in Katana. Export the five lists above. Nothing changes on the floor.
Week 1: import with Bridge
Drop the files into Bridge, map the columns, fix flagged rows and commit. Customers, parts, BOMs and suppliers first.
Week 2: run both side by side
Quote and run a handful of new jobs in MirrorWorks while Katana keeps running. Check the numbers match before you rely on them.
Cutover at a natural break
Pick a Friday or the end of a week. Import open jobs with their current status, set starting stock from your count, and switch the floor over.
After cutover
Keep Katana read-only until your next renewal so you can look things up. Then cancel it.
Accounting
On Make and the higher plans, launching early 2027, MirrorWorks works with Xero and MYOB. On Start, the Xero connection is coming and MYOB is not included. Until then, keep invoicing as you do today.
Not sure switching is worth it?
See how MirrorWorks compares with Katana on cost and fit for fabrication.
MirrorWorks vs KatanaWork out your switching cost
The ERP Switch Report estimates what staying and switching cost over the next few years.
Get your Switch ReportFounding shops get help moving
Start opens December 2026. Founding shops get 40% off any paid plan for 12 months, activated within 6 months of Start access, plus setup and migration support within reason and access to Bridge.