How to switch field service software without losing data
Short answer: archive the old records, test customer and schedule imports, reconcile counts and balances, then choose one clear cutover point. A four-week plan is a useful template rather than a guaranteed timeline; keep one billing system authoritative throughout the overlap.
Last updated: · 9 min read · Fieldiverse Team
Before week one: define the destination and the owner
Switching is not just copying a customer list. Your old system contains service promises, balances, access notes, consent records and evidence of completed work. Some information belongs in the new operating system; some belongs in a searchable archive. Write down which is which before you cancel the old subscription.
Choose a migration owner, an accounting reviewer and a dispatcher who can approve the rebuilt calendar. They may be the same person in a solo business, but the checks still need separate attention. Agree on a sample of ordinary and difficult records: multi-property accounts, partial payments, seasonal plans, paused agreements and jobs around a daylight-saving change.
Define success in numbers. For example, every intended active customer has a matched destination record, every opening balance reconciles, every committed appointment has a destination and no automated billing is duplicated. A screen that looks populated is not evidence that the transfer is complete. Keep a dated checklist with the export batch and the person approving each gate.
Week one: export and preserve the source
Ask your current vendor which exports are available under your plan, whether attachments are included and how long access remains after cancellation. Do not assume a free migration offer also includes free outbound exports. Download the supported data while you still have access and retain the original files unchanged.
Archive invoices, payment evidence, application records, signed agreements and important attachments in a controlled location. Keep customer identifiers and dates so the office can find them later. An exported spreadsheet of totals is not equivalent to the original invoice or a signed document. Restrict access to staff who need it and choose retention periods with your legal and accounting advisers.
Record the extraction time. A balance at Monday morning is not the same as the balance on Friday after payments and adjustments. Keep a delta log for changes after extraction rather than overwriting the baseline. Check that the export opens and contains complete pages of data; some reports default to a filtered date range or a limited number of rows.
- Keep raw exports separate from cleaned import copies.
- Count customers and service properties independently.
- Save open invoices and the aged receivables report.
- List recurring templates and actual booked visits separately.
- Preserve opt-in evidence, opt-outs and document references.
- Test retrieval of several archived documents before proceeding.
Week two: clean customer data without destroying identity
Normalize whitespace, phone formats and address fields in a working copy. Do not merge customers just because they share a surname or building address. One billing account may own several service locations; two unrelated tenants may share a property. Preserve the source ID in your reconciliation sheet so every destination record has a traceable origin.
Start with a small supported customer import and review the field mapping. Confirm required fields, duplicate rules and what happens when a record cannot be accepted. Do not upload the same file repeatedly without understanding whether the importer inserts or updates. A failed batch needs an error report, not a guess that most of it probably worked.
Fieldiverse has customer-import and schedule-import workflows, but availability of a field in an old vendor's export does not guarantee a matching destination field. Verify supported columns before committing. If important notes, balances or attachment references do not have a supported transfer path, preserve them and agree on a controlled manual procedure. Never promise a perfect historical migration simply because contacts imported successfully.
| Data | Transfer decision | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts and properties | Use supported mapping | Compare IDs, duplicates and property links |
| Notes and access instructions | Verify field support first | Spot-check formatting and restricted details |
| Opening balances | Agree accounting transfer method | Reconcile totals and individual accounts |
| Historical invoices and service reports | Preserve authoritative originals | Retrieve a sample by customer and date |
| Signed agreements | Archive signatures and full documents | Check scope, term and renewal obligations |
| Saved payment credentials | Processor-approved path or new authorization | Never export or retype card numbers |
| Recurring schedule | Rebuild from supported recurrence data | Approve the occurrence preview |
What GorillaDesk migration does, and does not, establish
As of May 2026, per gorilladesk.com/pricing, GorillaDesk's free data migration imports contact information, addresses, notes and starting balance. It does not import past service or billing history. That is its inbound service for businesses joining GorillaDesk, not a documented export service for businesses leaving it.
If you are moving out of GorillaDesk, ask what you can export and in what format. If you are moving into Fieldiverse, ask which of those fields have a supported import path. Neither answer follows automatically from the inbound offer above. Keep the old history accessible until you have a verified archive and an agreed retention plan.
The same distinction applies to any platform. A sales representative saying that migration is included may mean a list of contacts, not signed agreements, saved cards or a reconstructed five-year ledger. Ask for a written list of inclusions, exclusions and owner responsibilities. If historical records are essential to commercial audits or disputes, make successful retrieval a condition of cutover.
Week three: rebuild the schedule and inspect every exception
A recurring template and a booked occurrence are different objects. Copying both without clear rules can create duplicate jobs; copying only the template may omit one-off appointments or manually rescheduled visits. Decide which records generate future work and which are exceptions that must be preserved separately.
Fieldiverse's schedule importer stages recurrence rebuilding and previews each occurrence before commitment. Compare the preview with the same date window in the old system. Check frequency, starting anchor, end dates, technician assignment, local timezone, duration and customer arrival promises. Look beyond the next week: quarterly and seasonal errors may not appear until later.
Use a test case crossing a daylight-saving boundary to confirm that a promised local arrival time stays meaningful. Check paused contracts, annual jobs, skipped visits and irregular every-six-week patterns. Missing or unexpected occurrences must have an explanation before saving, even when the aggregate total matches. A hundred jobs with the wrong dates is not a successful schedule migration.
| Week | Main work | Approval gate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exports, archive and baseline | Files open; counts and retrieval checked |
| 2 | Mapping and sample customer import | Destination fields and duplicates reviewed |
| 3 | Schedule preview and crew rehearsal | Every exception reconciled; outbound actions off |
| 4 | Final deltas and controlled cutover | Accounting and dispatch approve one authority |
A reconciliation example: use counts and individual records
Suppose a hypothetical company intends to move 340 active customers, 58 open-balance accounts totaling $6,240, and 212 recurring occurrences over the next 90 days. Compare customer accounts, service properties, balances and occurrences separately. Do not treat 340 addresses as proof that 340 accounts transferred.
If the destination has 338 customers, investigate the missing source IDs. They might be approved duplicates or rejected records; document which. If balances total $6,180, investigate the $60 difference. A payment after extraction may explain it, but only the actual payment record can confirm that. Post an approved delta through the agreed accounting process rather than changing an arbitrary customer's balance to force the sum.
If the preview has 205 occurrences, identify the seven missing dates by customer and recurring template. If it has 212, still check a sample of dates, assignments and exceptions. Matching totals can hide one missing visit and one duplicate. Have the accounting reviewer sign off balances and the dispatcher sign off appointments, then retain the comparison with the migration batch.
Payment credentials, consent and customer communication
Never put saved card numbers, access tokens or processor secrets into a spreadsheet. Ask both payment providers whether a processor-managed credential transfer is supported. It may be possible under controlled arrangements, but do not assume it. Where it is not supported, ask customers to enter payment details through the new system's secure payment flow and obtain any required authorization.
Review privacy notices and the legal basis for moving customer information with your advisers. A software change does not universally require a fresh blanket consent, nor does it excuse ignoring privacy obligations. Preserve communication opt-ins and opt-outs; do not interpret an imported phone number as permission to send marketing texts.
Tell customers what actually changes: payment links, portal access or reminders, where relevant. Keep the message short and use the company's established channels. Do not ask customers to reply with card details or passwords. Give the office a script for confused callers, including how to verify the new link without exposing private account information.
Week four: cut over without two sources of billing
During rehearsal, the old system remains authoritative for customer messages and money. The new system is for mapping, preview and controlled practice. Disable invoice schedules, autopay, reminder rules and marketing sends in the destination until their start date is approved. A parallel run means comparing workflows, not sending two copies of everything.
Choose a cutover time and record which invoices stay in the old system. Finishing old invoices there may be safer than rebuilding them, but the owner and bookkeeper must decide. Prevent imported opening balances from being collected twice through both old autopay and new invoices. Reconcile late payments, credits and disputes that arrive after the boundary.
Keep a rollback plan. If a critical schedule issue appears before cutover, delay it. If it appears after payments or customer messages have gone out, a simple file restore is not enough: record those external effects and reconcile them. Identify who can stop automations, recover appointments and notify staff. Preserve the old archive rather than depending indefinitely on a cancellable account.
Train the crew on the actual handoff
Use the phones technicians already carry. Fieldiverse offers iPhone and Android apps, but compatibility and offline boundaries still need checking on the crew's actual devices. Rehearse opening a job, reading access notes, documenting work, completing the report and flagging a problem. Give technicians a clear route for reporting mismatches.
Do not guarantee that everybody will learn in twenty minutes. A residential route technician and a commercial device inspector need different practice. Let each complete a representative job without coaching, then review the result from the office. Include a missed appointment and a poor-signal scenario, not only the happy path.
After cutover, review counts and balances daily for the first working week and through the first billing cycle. Compare skipped visits, duplicate records and failed messages against your migration log. Use the pricing and trial links below to test Fieldiverse's supported import and dispatch workflow before committing your whole customer book.