Migrating From Fresha, Booksy, or Square Appointments to SalonBooking

Switching booking software is scary. Your whole business runs through it. The fear is usually larger than the reality — if you plan the cutover well, clients won't notice.

Here's the realistic guide. What transfers, what doesn't, and a 3-day cutover plan that works.

What transfers cleanly (mostly)

Service list

Export your services from your current tool (almost all have a CSV export). In SalonBooking, go to Admin → Services, and paste the CSV data into a simple form or recreate them — typically 20 minutes of work for 15–30 services.

Staff list

Same pattern. Export a staff CSV, recreate in SalonBooking. We don't support CSV import yet (on the Pro roadmap), but for single-location salons with under 10 workers, manual entry takes 15 minutes.

Schedules

No automatic transfer. Recreate weekly schedules per worker. Allow 10 minutes per worker.

What doesn't transfer

Future bookings

No booking platform lets you export confirmed future bookings into a common format and re-import elsewhere. You have two options:

1. Let Fresha/Booksy/Square continue handling existing bookings for 4–8 weeks after switching, while new bookings go to SalonBooking. Most existing clients book within 4 weeks anyway, so you naturally migrate.

2. Manually recreate the top 20 bookings in SalonBooking and message those clients to confirm the new system. Painful but clean.

We recommend option 1 for anyone with more than a handful of future bookings.

Payment history and CRM notes

Exports vary in completeness. Fresha gives you a PDF of booking history; Booksy exports CSV. Neither transfers into SalonBooking's client history — we only know about appointments booked through us. Treat the old system as a read-only archive for 6 months.

Client lists

You can export client contact info (name, phone, email) and hold onto it. SalonBooking doesn't have a client import feature yet — but clients auto-register when they first book, so your active clients will naturally re-populate within 2–3 months. Inactive clients were going to churn anyway.

Reviews

Fresha and Booksy reviews live on their marketplace. They don't come with you. The fair trade: you're leaving a marketplace model where they owned discovery, and joining a channel where you own the client direct. Build reviews on Google Business Profile and Instagram; they're portable.

The 3-day cutover plan

Day 1: Setup, no disruption

• Create your SalonBooking account.
• Recreate services, workers, schedules.
• Set up WhatsApp (optional but recommended).
• Test-book yourself as a client a few times from your phone.
• Your old system is still handling everything — no client is affected.

Day 2: Soft switch

• Put the SalonBooking link on your Instagram bio, Google Business Profile, and any other public place.
• Leave the old booking link live too.
• New bookings will start flowing to SalonBooking. Repeat clients will keep using old links out of habit — that's fine.
• Send a single announcement ("we've got a new, faster booking link") to your WhatsApp broadcast list if you have one. Don't overdo this.

Day 3 through week 4: Let the old system drain

• Existing bookings run out naturally over the next few weeks.
• By week 4, almost all traffic is on SalonBooking.
• Pay your last month on the old platform, cancel, done.

Week 5+: Fully switched

• Archive exports of your old data.
• Cancel old subscription.
• Update any remaining printed materials (business cards, flyers, signage) with the new link.

Things that trip people up

The Instagram link-in-bio problem

You probably have 2–3 places on Instagram linking to your old booking page. Use Linktree or similar if you want to list multiple links; otherwise pick the new SalonBooking link as your primary. Old followers don't check Instagram daily — give it two weeks.

Google Business Profile

Update the "Book" button on your GBP listing to point to SalonBooking. Do this on Day 2. It's one of the highest-leverage changes — a lot of new-client bookings come from GBP.

Staff learning

Give staff 30 minutes of training on the new admin panel. The biggest thing they'll miss is "where do I see today's appointments" — SalonBooking shows that on the dashboard immediately when they log in.

WhatsApp templates

If you're setting up WhatsApp booking, you'll submit the reminder template to Meta for approval. It usually takes a few hours to a day. Don't panic if reminders don't go out for the first 24 hours after setup.

Should you switch?

Honest answer: if your current system works and you're not paying more than you want, don't switch. Switching has real cost.

Switch if:

• You're paying $30+/month for features you don't use
• You want WhatsApp booking and your current tool doesn't do it
• You're on a commission model (Booksy marketplace, Treatwell) and new-client fees are eating your margin
• You hate the flow and clients complain about it

Start with SalonBooking free — if you don't like it after a week, you're out exactly zero dollars. We prefer that over locking anyone in.