Bring your bookings across

Import your bookings from the booking system you're leaving, from an export file or rows pasted from a spreadsheet, and check everything before it's added.

Moving from another booking system? Bring your bookings with you: the ones coming up, so your calendar runs your week from day one, and the past ones too if you'd like your history here when you look back.

Before you start

Bring your customers across first. Import your customers brings their mobiles and emails with them. Your bookings then match to the right people, and reminders reach them.
Turn off online booking in your old system, so nothing new is booked there after you export.
Export your bookings. Most booking systems can export bookings as a CSV or Excel file, usually from their reports or their customer list. Include every upcoming booking, and past ones if you want your history. A few systems only export through their support team.

Import them

On the Bookings page, switch to List and press Import. It's also under Settings → Import, with your services, customers and package sessions, and in the Setup Guide as Import a spreadsheet.

Upload the file, or paste the rows from your spreadsheet with the header row if you have one. We read the file and show you what would come across. Nothing is added until you press Import.

What the preview asks

Each card shows only when it applies to your file.

Past bookings. Switch them on or off. Left off, their dates still set each customer's last visit.
Location. A file with bookings for more than one location asks which one this business is. The others stay out.
Customers. People are found by their customer number from your old system, their mobile, their email or their name. When two customers share a name, you choose which one. Anyone not in your list is added, and the ones with no mobile or email are named, because they won't get reminders.
Team. A name that isn't on your team asks who takes those bookings. Past bookings by someone who has left come in under their name, removed from your team, and show on the calendar on those days.
Services. Services are matched to your menu. One that isn't on it asks you to choose a service, or add it as a new service hidden from your booking page. A service that only appears in past bookings comes in archived.
Prices that differ from your menu. A booking keeps the price the customer was given unless you choose otherwise: keep it, use your price, or (when it's lower) use your price with the difference as a deposit already paid. Open a price to see which bookings it covers. Services priced "from" are never asked about.
Deposits paid on your old system. When your file doesn't say what was paid, press Add deposits and type each deposit against its booking. Or press Paste a list and paste one deposit per line, with the customer's name, the date and the amount, in any order. Each line fills in the booking for that customer on that day. A line that doesn't match one is listed, with that customer's nearest booking to choose. A deposit can't be more than the booking's price.
Statuses. Bookings your old system hadn't confirmed yet, or with a status we don't know, ask whether to import them as booked or leave them out.
On your calendar. Bookings that overlap, fall on a closed day, sit outside your hours or during time away are listed. They still come across as they are.
How we read your columns. Every column shows what we read it as. Press Change to fix one.

When you import

Nobody is told. No confirmation, deposit request or form goes to your customers, and your team gets no alerts. Reminders then go as usual before each upcoming booking.
Forms. If your services ask for a form, the report shows how many upcoming bookings still need it signed, with Send now.
Deposits paid on your old system show on each booking as paid, so checkout asks for the rest.
Past bookings show on your calendar and in each customer's visits. They never ask for payment or a review, and they don't count in your takings.
Each imported booking says Imported with the reference your old system gave it, and searching that reference finds it.

Importing a newer file

Export again later, for example once online booking is off in your old system, and import the new file. Bookings already here are skipped. Ones that moved are updated, or kept as they are if you choose. Ones no longer in the file can be cancelled or left, and nobody is told either way.

Undo

For 7 days after an import, Undo this import takes back what it added, except bookings moved, cancelled or paid since. Nobody is told.

Which systems can I import from?

Any that exports bookings as a CSV or Excel file, including Ovatu, Timely, Fresha, Acuity, Square and Boulevard. A file of up to 20 MB comes across in one go, which is a few years of bookings for most businesses. For more, export a shorter date range and import each file in turn.

Some of my customers' visits were covered by a deposit. Will that carry over?

If your file has an amount paid, those deposits come across on their bookings. If it doesn't, add them in the preview under Deposits paid on your old system: type each one, or paste the list you keep, one deposit per line. They're recorded as paid, so checkout asks only for the rest.