How to switch salon software in Canada without re-typing your diary
The hard part of changing systems is not the new one. It is the eight weeks of appointments already booked in the old one, the client list behind them, and the gift cards your clients are carrying. Slotora reads all three from the spreadsheets your current system exports, places every future appointment in the right stylist's column, and sends nobody a word unless you ask it to.
Start a 14-day trial and importWhat crosses over
Five imports, all done in the browser, all included in the plan:
The client book
Contact details, notes and tags, matched by email so a second run does not create twins.
Your service menu
Names, durations and prices. The booking page builds its free times from those durations, so check them.
Booked appointments
Up to two years ahead, each in its stylist's column, with its client and service attached.
Gift cards and passes
Balances, sessions left and loyalty points, one kind per file, attached to clients already in the book. A gift card keeps its old code where it can.
Client notes
Long notes from the old system come in their own file, onto the right client card.
Or send it to us
Upload up to five export files, five megabytes together, and a person at Slotora runs the same imports for you.
The order that makes it work
Each appointment is matched to a client, a service and a person, so those three go in first.
Evening one
Download two files from the old system
Your client list, and your upcoming appointments, each as a spreadsheet. In the appointments file, check there is a column for the appointment's own date — not the day it was booked — plus the time, client, service and staff member.
Evening one
Import the clients
Excel or CSV with a header row: names, email, phone, notes, tags. Up to 2,000 clients in one file; run it again with the rest. Someone whose email is already in your book is updated, not added twice.
Evening one
Services and the team
Services from a spreadsheet, up to 500 at a time, with their length and price. Then add each person and her hours, and pick the statutory holidays your province observes.
Evening two
Bring the diary, as a dry run first
Upload the appointments file. Column names from Fresha and Booksy are recognised; for anything else, you point each column at its meaning once. A dry run then shows what would be added and what would be left out, and why — before anything is written.
Evening two
Run it, then move your link
Import for real, put the new booking link on Instagram, Google and your website, and stop taking new online bookings in the old system. Leave its existing appointments to run out on their own.
What your clients hear, and when
An imported appointment does not send a confirmation, a deposit request, an intake form or a review request — ever. Your client already has a confirmation from the system you are leaving, and a second one from a name she does not know looks like a scam.
Reminders are the one exception, and only if you switch them on. In your settings there is a switch for reminders on imported appointments; it is off until you turn it on. It never sends a reminder whose moment has already passed, so it cannot flood anyone with a backlog the morning you flip it.
In Canada those reminders are emails, because Slotora does not send texts to Canadian numbers yet. If your clients rely on texts from the old system, keep its reminders going until the imported visits are behind you.
Before you cancel the old system
Read how your current contract ends; the wording varies more than people expect. Vagaro's Canadian pricing page says you can cancel at any time with no cancellation fee. Square's Canadian terms let you cancel a subscription from the account settings, and it runs to the end of the billing period without a refund. Jane's terms say its fees are non-refundable except in narrow cases.
Whatever yours says, export first and cancel second. Download clients, appointments, gift card balances and, if you keep them there, client notes and consent forms, while you still have the login.
What stays behind
So nothing catches you out after the move:
- Past visit history
- The diary import carries future appointments. Old visits stay in your export file and in the old system while you can open it.
- Money already taken
- A deposit paid in the old system stays with the old processor; Slotora can only refund what went through your own Stripe account.
- Reviews and the old booking link
- They belong to the old platform. Ask regular clients to book through your new link.
- Phone screens
- The imports run in a browser on a computer. Once the diary is in, your team sees it in the Slotora app as usual.
Questions before the move
Which systems can I move my appointments from?
Any that exports appointments to Excel or CSV with a header row. Fresha's and Booksy's column names are recognised by themselves; Vagaro's, Square's, Jane's or anyone else's you match once on screen.
Will my clients get an email when I import them?
No. Importing clients and appointments sends nothing. Reminders for imported appointments go out only if you switch them on, and only from that moment.
Can you do the import for me?
Yes. Upload up to five export files on the move screen and a person at Slotora imports them into your account, answering by email on working days. The files are deleted afterwards.
Do gift card balances come across?
Yes, as their own file. Each becomes a Slotora gift card with the balance left, on the right client. No money is recorded, so your day's takings are not counted twice.
How far ahead can the diary go?
Up to 24 months. Appointments already in the past, or rows that cannot be read, are listed in the dry run rather than imported.
Is importing included in the price?
Yes. Every import, and the move done for you, is part of the plan, during the trial as well.
Sources
The cancellation wording above is from each company's own page, read on the day shown.
- Vagaro — Pricing (Canada) — https://www.vagaro.com/en-ca/pro/pricing · Read on
- Square — General Terms of Service (Canada) — https://squareup.com/ca/en/legal/general/ua · Read on
- Jane — Terms of Use — https://jane.app/terms · Read on
Do the dry run tonight
Open an account, import your clients, and run your diary through the dry run. It shows exactly what would come across before anything is written, and nobody is told.