Moving your client list to a new app: how to import and merge it

Start with an export from your old app

Each app exports differently, and their help pages change. We keep step-by-step guides for the common ones on the Booksy, Vagaro and Square Appointments switch pages, and the thinking behind a move in NextUp Walk-in as a Square alternative for a barbershop, a Vagaro alternative for a nail salon and the Booksy comparison. This post is about the other half: what to do with the file.

The file can come from your old booking system, a spreadsheet or your phone’s contacts.

Import clients, step by step

Only the business owner can import. Open Clients, then Import clients, and drop in the file. Excel (.xlsx, .xls), CSV, TSV, Google Sheets (downloaded as Excel or CSV), Numbers, OpenDocument and contacts files (.vcf from Google Contacts or an iPhone) all work, up to 50,000 clients. You choose the sheet and the row with the column names, and rows above it, like a title, are skipped.

You do not have to rename or reorder columns. NextUp Walk-in matches them from the column names and what is in them, and you can change any match. First and last name columns are joined, one column written “Last, First” is turned around, and ALL CAPS names can be fixed. Birthdays in any common date format work (the year is not kept). Set any extra column to “Notes, with the column name” so nothing is lost. Tags need a phone number.

The preview checks every row before anything is saved

Every row is checked without saving: new clients, clients to update, rows that repeat another row (combined into one client), and rows that cannot be imported, with the reason. A phone number or email that cannot be used goes into the notes instead, so the client still comes across. Download the report to fix rows in your spreadsheet and try again.

Merging: repeats and clients you already have

A row is the same client as another when it has the same ID from your old system, phone number or email. Repeats inside the file are combined into one client. For clients already on your list, choose what happens: fill in what is missing (the recommended choice), use the file’s details, or leave them alone. That means you can import more than once without creating duplicates.

If two profiles do end up for the same person, merging them stays on the Clients page. And a visit checked in under the wrong phone number can be moved to the right client from that client’s visit history.

Undo, and what it keeps

Past imports are listed on the import page. Undo takes an import back out: clients it added are removed and details it changed are put back, except clients who have visited or been edited since. Only the owner can see past imports or undo one.

What imported clients can and cannot receive

Imported clients are records for your team. They are never texted, and they are not in your email campaigns or rebooking emails until the client checks in and agrees themselves: texts need agreement to texts, and marketing emails need them to tick “Stay in the loop”. Clients without a phone number can still be imported by email or name, and get their number the first time they check in with the same email.

To email your existing clients, Pro has a separate one-time step, Bring your client list, on the Email Marketing page. It keeps only clients seen in the last 12 months, you sign that they are your own clients, and each gets a welcome email with an unsubscribe link first. There is no way to upload a list to text. See barbershop client retention for what to do once they are in.

Bring your services too, and use SWITCH

Under Catalog you can import a spreadsheet of services (name, length, price) of up to 1,000 rows and 1 MB, with the same row-by-row preview. Coming from another app, the code SWITCH gives you your first month free on monthly billing. Plans are on pricing, and what a move costs overall is in queue management software cost.