Switching garage software, without losing the data.

First, find out what you can export

Before comparing, determine what your current system provides and in what format. This question dictates the difficulty of the entire process.

Ask specifically: customers, vehicles, service history, invoices, outstanding balances, stock, and any attachments like photos or inspection records. Some systems export the first two well, but the rest poorly.

Do this before you’re emotionally committed to moving. If the answer is poor, it’s a reason to rethink your plan, not to find out mid-migration.

Decide what needs to move and what can just be accessible.

Not everything should be in the new system; attempting to move it all causes migrations to fail.

• Must move: customers, vehicles, and sufficient service history to support returning customers.
• Should move: outstanding balances and open jobs, or you'll face reconciliation issues.
• Nice to move: stock, supplier records, and pricing, though these can often be rebuilt easily.
• Readable is sufficient: old invoices and closed jobs can be archived.
• Leave behind: duplicate records and inactive customers, as migration is a prime opportunity to exclude them.

That last point is crucial. Whatever you move, you'll have to manage, so migration is your best chance to clean the data.

Timing is more critical than many realise.

Changing garage software in your busiest month turns a manageable project into a crisis.

Choose a genuinely quiet time, avoiding changes at financial year-end or peak seasons like winter. The first causes accounting issues, and the second ensures problems arise when you can least handle them.

Allow a period to run both systems, with the old one accessible and the new one active. This overlap isn't indecision; it allows you to verify the migration against reality, not just a spreadsheet.

Check the migration on the cases that matter

Counting records to verify migration reveals little; counts can align while content is incorrect.

Select a few tricky customers to check: one with a long service history, one with multiple vehicles, one with an outstanding balance, one with attachments, and one with unusual recording. If these five are correct, the majority likely is.

Conduct that check yourself instead of relying on assurances. It takes an hour and is the only step that uncovers errors hidden in summaries.

What to ask a potential supplier, and what to overlook

Feature lists are the least helpful for comparison, as every system lists everything, and few factors determine the outcome.

1. Inquire how a customer with ten years of history will appear post-migration, and request to see it.
2. Ask what they will export if you ever leave, as this indicates their confidence.
3. Ask who handles the migration and the cost, as "we can import that" differs from "we will import that."
4. Ask what occurs in the first fortnight: who trains the team and who answers calls on difficult mornings.
5. Ask what it cannot do, as a supplier who cannot specify anything has not grasped the question.

The answers from those five suppliers are far more insightful than a feature grid, and they are the questions people wish they had asked later, not earlier.

Plan the first two weeks, not just the switch

The change is a day. The following two weeks determine a migration's success, and it's often under-resourced.

Expect the team to be slower, anticipate obvious questions, and assign someone to answer them instead of letting everyone figure it out. Schedule slightly less work if possible.

It's wise to agree in advance on what would prompt a reassessment, so a bad week leads to a decision, not a drift.