Billing

Switching billing software without losing your customer list

The reason most billing companies stay on software they dislike is not loyalty. It is that their customer list is inside it.

The fear is reasonable: years of properties, square footage, service history and notes, and a real chance of losing the lot in a bad export.

In practice it is a solved problem. Real Green, Service Autopilot and the rest all export, and clients, properties and history can be imported cleanly if somebody checks the mapping first.

The rule that makes it safe is checking a small batch before the full run — a handful of customers, verified against the old system, before anything else moves.

The switch that goes wrong is the one done in a hurry mid-season by the owner. Done properly, out of season, by someone whose job it is, it is unremarkable.