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To move to a new CRM without losing anything, export everything before you do anything else, count your records, clean the data, carry over opt-outs and recurring schedules, plan the saved-card transfer with your payment processor, run both systems briefly, retrain the crew, and keep a read-only archive. Check each step off in order and assign every step to a named person.
Key takeaways
- Export first and count your records before the old system changes in any way.
- Opt-outs and STOP replies must move with the customer list, or you will message people who asked you to stop.
- Saved cards move through the payment processor, not through a spreadsheet, and the transfer can take days or weeks.
- Recurring jobs and open invoices are where customers notice a bad migration first. Verify the next two months by hand.
- Keep a read-only archive of the old data. Tax and dispute records outlive the software.
This is the working checklist: each step names who does it, when, and the common way it gets skipped. It assumes you have already decided to switch. If you are still weighing that, read the signs you outgrew your CRM first, and for the explanation behind each step see how to switch CRMs without losing data. Print this page, put a name and a date beside each step, and do not cut over until every box is checked. Anything on legal or tax records is general information, not advice; your accountant and your lawyer know your state.
1. Name one owner and a cutover date
Who: the owner or office manager. When: week one. One person approves the migration and has the authority to delay it. Pick a cutover date in your slowest stretch, not the week before the spring rush. How it gets skipped: two people each assume the other is watching the move, and nobody notices the old system's subscription renews or that the new one is missing a field until customers call. Put the date and the owner's name at the top of the page, and tell the crew.
2. List every place customer data lives
Who: office manager, with each technician. When: week one. Write down the CRM, the accounting software, spreadsheets, shared drives, email folders, text threads, paper files and anything in a technician's phone, like photos of gate codes. How it gets skipped: the CRM gets exported and the spreadsheet your lead tech keeps for commercial accounts does not. Decide for each source whether it moves into the new system, is archived, or is retired on purpose.
3. Request a complete export from the old vendor now
Who: owner. When: before you tell the vendor you are leaving, if the contract allows. Ask which file formats they provide, whether exports include notes, photos, attachments, signatures, custom fields and history, and how long you keep access after cancelling. Get the answers in writing. How it gets skipped: owners export a customer list and assume that is everything. Jobs, invoices, payments, quotes and notes are often separate downloads, and some items, like photos, need a different request. Do not cancel the old account until you have opened and checked each file.
4. Count your records before anything moves
Who: office manager. When: right after the export. Record the number of customers, properties or service addresses, open quotes, open invoices, the total of open balances, active recurring schedules, jobs in the past three years and photos. Save the counts in a sheet. How it gets skipped: there is no baseline, so after the import nobody knows whether 4,100 customers should have been 4,300. Counts are your proof. Every later step compares against them.
5. Clean and merge duplicates in a spreadsheet
Who: office manager or a part-time helper. When: before the test import. Merge duplicate customers, fix phone and email formats, remove obvious junk and decide which of two addresses is current. Work on a copy and keep the original untouched. How it gets skipped: the import runs with bad data and the problem multiplies, such as two accounts for one customer with two different balances. Cleaning in a spreadsheet takes far less time than fixing records one at a time afterward.
6. Map old fields to new fields on paper
Who: the person who knows the old system best. When: after cleaning. Make two columns: where each piece of data lives now, and where it goes in the new system. Mark anything with no home, like a custom field for gate codes, and decide whether to create a field, put it in notes or drop it. How it gets skipped: an unmapped field imports as nothing, and you find out when a technician cannot find the dog warning on a job.
7. Move opt-outs, STOP replies and unsubscribes with the list
Who: whoever sends your email and texts. When: before any message goes out of the new system. Export every unsubscribe, every STOP reply and any do-not-contact flag, and load them as suppressed. The FTC says CAN-SPAM opt-outs must be honored within 10 business days and that you cannot sell or transfer the address of someone who opted out, with an exception for a company you hire to help you comply. Under 47 CFR 64.1200, a request to stop texts or calls such as "stop" or "unsubscribe" must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days. How it gets skipped: the new tool treats everyone as fresh. Ask your lawyer about consent records, and see our texting rules guide.
8. Rebuild recurring schedules and check the next 60 days
Who: dispatcher or scheduler. When: during testing and again the day before cutover. For every recurring customer confirm the frequency, the day, the crew, the price and the next visit date. Print a calendar for the next two months from the new system and compare it with the old one. How it gets skipped: schedules import as one-time jobs, or a weekly job lands on the wrong weekday. Customers notice a skipped visit faster than anything else you could get wrong.
9. Carry over open quotes, open invoices and balances
Who: the person who does billing. When: in the test import. Total up open invoices in both systems and make sure the totals match to the cent. Check that payments already made are recorded, not left to be charged twice. Decide how to handle quotes sent but not accepted: bring them over with the original date and send follow-ups from the new system. How it gets skipped: balances come across without payment history, and a customer who paid in March gets a reminder in June.
10. Plan the move of saved cards and autopay
Who: owner. When: start as soon as you pick the new system, because it is slow. Card numbers do not move in a spreadsheet. If your new system uses Stripe, Stripe's migration documentation says a transfer of sensitive card data requires a data migration request, and that the previous processor may take a few days or several weeks to transfer the final data; it also says to confirm after leaving that the old processor has canceled automatic billing. How it gets skipped: autopay customers get billed by both systems, or by neither. Ask both processors what their process is, in writing.
11. Move photos, notes, documents and signed contracts
Who: office manager. When: after the main import. Decide what needs to live in the customer record and what only needs to be findable. At minimum, keep signed agreements, before-and-after photos, warranty documents and any job notes about access or hazards. Store the rest in a labeled archive folder by customer ID. How it gets skipped: the data moved but the attachments stayed behind, and the first warranty claim after cutover sends someone digging through a closed account.
12. Run a small test import and have the crew check it
Who: the migration owner, a dispatcher and two technicians. When: before the full import. Import about fifty varied customers, including a commercial account, a recurring customer, one with several properties and one with an open balance. Have each person look up three customers they know and mark what is wrong. Fix the mapping, delete the test data and import again. How it gets skipped: the full import is the first test. Anything wrong then gets found by customers.
13. Repoint forms, phones, email and every connected tool
Who: whoever runs the website and phones. When: a few days before cutover, then on the day. List what feeds or reads the old CRM: website forms, online booking, call tracking, texting, review requests, email sending, accounting and payments. Update each, and test with a real form submission. If you send email from a new tool, set up sender authentication first; see SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained. How it gets skipped: the website form still posts to the old system and leads vanish for a week.
14. Train the office and the crew with one page each
Who: the migration owner. When: the week before cutover, plus a check-in after. Write one page for technicians (how to see today's jobs, record notes and photos, take payment) and one for the office (create a job, send a quote, post a payment, find an invoice). Run a short practice session with the test data. How it gets skipped: training happens by email, and on day one the crew keeps using the old app out of habit, so the new system has half the work in it.
15. Run both systems briefly, then freeze the old one
Who: owner. When: cutover week and the weeks after. Decide the exact day when new work is entered only in the new system. Keep the old one open for lookups, but make it read-only for staff where you can, so nobody enters work in both. Keep a short list of problems found each day and fix them in order. How it gets skipped: everyone enters work wherever they are used to, and after a month nobody knows which system is right.
16. Tell customers what changes, then verify and archive
Who: office manager and owner. When: before cutover for the message, and 30 days after for the check. If customers will see a new payment link, a new texting number or a new invoice look, tell them first in a short note. A month later, compare the record counts, spot-check twenty customers, and confirm the first full billing cycle went out correctly. Then export a final read-only archive and keep it. The IRS says to keep income tax records generally for three years, and longer in some cases, and employment tax records for at least four years, so ask your accountant what to retain. How it gets skipped: the old account is deleted the day the new one feels fine.
Where to start
If you only do three things this week, do these. First, step 3: request the complete export and open every file, because it protects you whatever else goes wrong. Second, step 4: count your records and save the numbers, so you can prove what moved. Third, step 7: pull your opt-outs and STOP replies into one list before any new system sends a message. Then work down the rest in order. If you would rather have the new system built around how your company runs, with the data move handled, that is what our custom CRM service does, and the CRM setup mistakes list covers what to avoid afterward.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a CRM migration take for a small service company?
It depends on how clean your data is and how many recurring customers you have. Allow time for the test import, the saved-card transfer and a short overlap period. Rushing the cutover into your busiest week is the common mistake.
Can I move saved credit cards myself?
Not by exporting a spreadsheet. Card data is handled through the payment processors, and a transfer typically starts with a request to the new processor. Ask both providers for their process and timeline in writing.
Should I delete the old CRM after the switch?
Not right away. Keep read-only access or a full archive for lookups, disputes and tax questions, and ask your accountant how long to retain records for your business.
What if my old vendor will not give me a full export?
Ask for what your contract says you are entitled to, in writing, and request every file type they offer. If something cannot be exported, capture it another way, such as saved PDFs of invoices and screenshots of key records, before the account closes.
Sources
General information for service-business owners, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules vary by state; check with a qualified professional for your situation.