Bringing your clients across from your old booking system

Moving to FullColumn doesn't mean starting your client list again. Export your clients from your old booking system as a CSV or Excel file and FullColumn brings them across with their details. Then you can bring their past visits, upcoming appointments, colour formulas and notes across too. You check how each file is read before anything is saved, and it's safe to run an import again.

#Before you start an import

• Export from your old booking system. Most systems can export clients, appointments, and colour formulas or notes as CSV or Excel files, usually under Reports, or Clients → Export. Once you choose your system in an import, it says where that system keeps the export. For appointments, choose dates that cover your past visits and everything booked ahead. If you can't find an export for formulas or notes, your old system's support team can usually send you one.
• CSV or Excel files. Both work. For an Excel workbook (.xlsx), the import reads its first sheet. An older Excel file (.xls) needs opening in Excel or Numbers and saving as .xlsx or CSV first. In a CSV file, commas, semicolons or tabs between columns all work. A report's title, salon name or dates above the column headings are skipped: the import finds the row of headings itself.
• Import in this order: clients first, then appointments, then formulas and notes, so everything joins up with the right person.

Importing needs the permission "Import, export, merge and remove clients". Owners have every permission. On a shared device set to Front desk, it asks for your password first (shared devices).

#Where to start an import

• Open Clients, press Import, and choose Clients, Appointments or Formulas & notes, or
• open Settings → Import & export and press Import clients, Import appointments or Import formulas & notes.

Each import starts with Which system is the file from?. Choose your old booking system from the list, or Something else, and the import says how to export that file from it. Choose the same one every time you import from that system: FullColumn uses it to recognise what it has already brought across, and to match clients by their number in your old system. It remembers your choice on that computer. When a file's name says which system it came from, FullColumn chooses that system for you; you can change it while checking the columns.

#Importing your client list

1. Start the client import, and choose Which system is the file from?.
2. Press Choose a CSV or Excel file, or drag the file onto the box.
3. Check the columns. FullColumn has matched its boxes to your file's columns by their headings. Change any that are wrong, or choose — Don't import —. Check Which system is the file from? too.
4. If you're importing birthdays, check Birthday format in this file: Day/Month/Year, Month/Day/Year or Year-Month-Day. FullColumn guesses it from the file.
5. Choose what to do If they're already a client: Skip them or Fill in missing details.
6. Under Messages to clients, choose Only to your team for now while your clients still hear from your old booking system, or To clients as usual (trying FullColumn before you switch over). It's only there for people who can change salon settings, while your salon isn't setting up already.
7. Look over the Preview of the first five clients, then press Import (it says how many clients).
8. Keep the window open until you see Import complete, with how many clients were added, updated and skipped, and how many of them were archived clients ("2 archived clients found, left archived").

If the file can't be read, you'll see "That file doesn't look like a CSV or Excel file with a header row and at least one client." An older Excel file (.xls) says to save it as .xlsx or CSV first.

#Columns the client import reads

FullColumn recognises the usual headings, such as "Surname", "Cell phone", "Date of birth", "Allergies", "Client ID" or "Client code". Rows with no name, mobile or email are skipped.

A "no" in any marketing column you matched wins: "Email marketing: yes" with "SMS marketing: no" gets marketing emails but no marketing texts, and a general "no" turns off both, whatever the other columns say. A file with only one of Email marketing or SMS marketing (Square's email subscription, say) has said nothing else about marketing, so that column decides both.

A marketing column whose heading says it's an opt-out ("Email Marketing Opt Out", "Unsubscribed from marketing", "Do not email") is read the other way round: yes means the client opted out, so they get no marketing, and no or a blank means they didn't. "Read as an opt-out" shows under the column you matched. Values that say which way they mean, like subscribed or unsubscribed, mean it under any heading.

#When a client is already in FullColumn

The client import looks for each person in this order, among your archived clients too:

1. Their Old system ID, if you imported one, from the same old booking system.
2. Their email (ignoring capitals) or mobile (however it's written). A match whose first name is clearly someone else's, like a child on a parent's mobile, is treated as a different person and added.
3. Their name, only for someone with no email and no mobile in the file, and only when exactly one client has that name. Two clients called Sarah Smith means a new one is added rather than a guess.

A client who has a different Old system ID from the same old booking system is someone else there, so they're never matched by email, mobile or name, however alike: the person in the file is added as a new client instead. Appointments and formulas you import later are matched to clients the same way (importing past appointments and colour formulas).

• Skip them leaves clients already on file as they are.
• Fill in missing details adds what's blank on their card from the file: name, email, mobile, birthday, address, notes, alert and tags. It never changes anything already there, or their marketing choices.

Someone in the file twice is added once, and importing the same file again adds nobody twice. Two things to know:

• Clients you've removed (archived) are found like anyone else, and stay archived: they're never brought back by an import.
• Two rows with the same name and no email, mobile or ID are taken as one client. If they're really two people, add the second by hand (adding a new client).

#Bringing appointments, formulas and notes across

Once your clients are in, import the rest from the same old booking system:

• Appointments: past visits go into each client's history, with what they had and what it cost, so their visits, last visit and spend carry over. Upcoming appointments go on the calendar. Nothing is sent to clients unless you choose to send reminders.
• Formulas & notes: colour formulas and client notes go on each client's Formulas & notes tab, with their original dates.

Importing appointment history and colour formulas walks through both.

#Gift vouchers and patch tests from your old booking system

The imports don't cover gift vouchers or patch test dates:

• Gift vouchers: add each one in Sales → Gift vouchers → Issue voucher, with its remaining balance. Issuing vouchers needs the permission "Issue, edit and void gift vouchers" (gift vouchers).
• Patch tests: record the date on each client's card, or press Done today when you next book their colour (patch tests).

#Common questions

#Will my clients get a text or email when I import them?

No. Importing clients sends nothing. Imported appointments only send reminders if you turn that on (reminders for imported appointments). Choose Only to your team for now under Messages to clients when you import, and nothing goes to clients at all until you switch over, so you can import everything and try it out first (trying FullColumn before you switch over).

#Can I import the same client file again?

Yes. Clients already on file are found by their old system ID, email or mobile, or for someone with neither, by a name only one client has. They're skipped, or have their blanks filled in with Fill in missing details, and archived clients stay archived.

#Can I undo an import?

No, so check the columns and the preview before you press Import, especially that birthdays read the right way round.

#How long does an import take?

It goes in batches of 100 clients, with a progress bar showing how far it's got. Keep the window open until it finishes.

#My old system exports an Excel file. Can I import it?

Yes, choose the .xlsx file as it is: the import reads its first sheet. An older Excel file (.xls) needs opening in Excel or Numbers and saving as .xlsx or CSV first. So does a file that's really a web page with an Excel name, which the import tells you about.