How to switch from another booking system

Switching doesn't mean retyping your calendar or weeks with two systems open. Bring everything over in this order, and switch the old system off as soon as the last import is done.

1. Set up your business

Before importing, enter your services with their durations and prices, your staff and their working hours. Appointments from a file are matched to what you have entered. The names don't have to be the same as in the old system, but the services and staff members must exist. More in Getting started.

2. Customers

Export the customer list from the old system as CSV and import it on the Customers page: Import (CSV) → Customers. The import recognises customers by phone and email, so importing again never doubles anyone. More in Importing customers.

If you import appointments too, this step is optional: the appointment import adds the customers of the appointments by itself. The customer list also brings those who have no appointment right now.

3. Upcoming appointments

Export the upcoming appointments from the old system and import them on the Customers page: Import (CSV) → Appointments from today. You match the file's staff and services to yours, and the preview shows overlaps and misread dates before anything is saved. The import sends customers nothing. More in Importing upcoming appointments.

Switching works best in two steps:

1. A first import when you start working with us. From then on, the calendar shows every appointment, and online booking doesn't offer times that are taken.
2. A last import on the day you close the old system. Only the appointments made in between are imported, and those already there are skipped.

If a customer cancelled an appointment in the old system between the two imports, cancel it here too.

4. Reminders

Imported appointments get our reminders, like any appointment. On the day of the first import, switch reminders off in the old system, so that nobody gets two. Appointments already inside the reminder window, e.g. tomorrow's, get no reminder from us, because the old system has probably sent one. How reminders reduce no-shows is in the guide How to reduce no-shows.

5. Your booking link

Replace the old link with the new one wherever customers look for you: on Google, on Instagram and on your website. Where to copy it and how to add it is in the guide How to add booking to your website, Instagram and Google. Close online booking in the old system once the new link is everywhere, and before the last appointment import.

6. Tell your customers

Your customers will get an email from a new app for the first time, with your business's name. Tell them in advance, e.g. in an Instagram post, a message or a sign at the front desk: from when they book through the new link, and that reminders will come to the same number and email.

A reminder of an agreed appointment is part of the service. An offer or a promotion is not: it needs separate consent, so don't use the imported contacts for it. More in the guide Online booking and data protection.

If something goes wrong

You can undo a customer import and an appointment import for 30 days, on the import page under Earlier imports. Only what nobody has changed is deleted, so nothing you have edited in the meantime disappears.