Lesson 30

Get set up

Data in and out: checking a migration, and taking it with you

An import marks itself done from a flag, not from a headcount. Check the four things a migration usually drops before you go live on it.

3 min read · Owner · Migrating in
Open in Petboost

Your book arrives before your settings do. The import brings clients, pets and history; it does not bring your services, your hours or your rules, and it cannot know which of them you have finished.

So the wizard marks this step done from a flag you set, not from a headcount. Checking it is on you, and there are four things worth checking every time.

Load the book before you touch anything else

The Import Your Data step of the Launch wizard is deliberately first. Everything after it, notifying clients included, needs the clients to be in.

  1. Open Customers & Pets, open the gear menu and select Import Customers & Pets.
  2. Select Magic CSV Import, or We move it for you in 24 hours to hand the move to us.
  3. Add the file, or an owners file and a pets file, under CSV Files (1-2 files), then select Magic Validate.
  4. Read anything listed under Errors or Skipped, then select Import to Petboost.

The wizard step's own Import Customers & Pets card leads to the same import, but the step only shows before the first client is in, and not during a trial. The green banner appears once the flag is set, whether that came from a finished import or from pressing I've imported my data. It is a bookmark, not a verification.

Check

Load appointments with client notifications paused. A book of six months of bookings will email every one of those clients otherwise, before you are live.

Work the checklist, not the record count

The setup list is a better view of what is left than a record count, but only some of it reads your account. A service or a first booking goes green when it exists. Add your customers and pets and Import existing package balances go green when someone selects I've done this or Skip for now, so their ticks are bookmarks too.

  1. Open Setup.
  2. Work through Essential Setup, then select More setup options for the rest.
  3. Before you select I've done this on Add your customers and pets or Import existing package balances, open the records and check them.

Four things a migration routinely drops: package balances, membership renewal dates, vaccination expiry dates, and any note that lived in a field your old system called something else. Each has its own item or its own page.

Tip

Run a test booking as a client before you announce anything. It exercises services, hours, capacity, prerequisites and payments in one pass, which no amount of scrolling does.

Your data stays yours

Export Your Data, under Billing, writes CSVs of everything: pets, owners, services, team, resources, packages, credit balances, past bookings, future bookings and recurring series.

  1. Open Export Your Data.
  2. On Package Credit Balances, select Prepare Export.
  3. Once the file is ready, select Download CSV.

Package Credit Balances is the one to grab first whatever you are doing. It is money you owe clients, and it has to survive any move. The other cards work the same way, except Services, Team Members, Resources and Packages, which download straight from Download CSV on the card.

Tip

The exports work while your subscription is active and after it lapses, so this is not a door that closes on you.