You switch shop software by moving your customers, vehicles, invoices and notes into the new system before you shut anything off, running both side by side for about a week, and porting your phone number so customers keep calling the same line. The import and setup take 24 to 48 hours once the data is in hand. The calendar depends on how fast your old vendor hands over that data, which can be the same day or a week. Done in that order, ten years of history comes with you.
Shops put this off for years because they picture a blank screen on Monday with no way to look up a repeat customer. Here is what moves, what does not, and what to check before you cancel anything.
What actually moves when you switch shop software?
Every shop system, including the big ones, can get its data out. Sometimes it is an export button, sometimes a support ticket and a few days of waiting. Either way you end up with files, usually CSV or Excel. Four things matter most:
- Customers. Names, phone numbers, emails, addresses and the notes on the record. This is the list you have been building for a decade.
- Vehicles. Year, make, model, VIN, plate and last mileage, tied to the customer who owns them.
- Invoices and repair orders. What you did, what you charged, when, and what was paid. This is where "you replaced the alternator two years ago, is it still under warranty?" gets answered.
- Notes and recommendations. Declined work, "customer wants OEM only," "call before 5," the things your best service writer keeps in her head.
On Pista you do not build the export yourself. A Pista expert pulls the data out of the old system with you, or through the old vendor's support, then loads all four into the new system. Old invoices come in flagged as imported history: you can search them, open them and print them, but they stay off the live board and keep the totals as they were billed. Repeat customers are matched by phone number, then email, and vehicles are matched by VIN, so one person does not end up as two records.
What does not move, and does it matter?
Be honest about what you actually use. Three things usually stay behind.
Canned jobs and labor presets. Every system stores these differently, and most shops carry a pile of stale ones anyway. Rebuild the ten you use every week. Let the rest go.
Inventory counts. Part numbers and quantities can move if the export is clean. Costs and bin locations often do not. Plan one afternoon to walk the shelves and confirm counts.
Old attachments. Photos and PDFs stuck inside the old system rarely export cleanly. Before you cancel, download the ones that matter: warranty photos, signed authorizations, anything tied to a dispute. Once the old subscription ends, they are gone.
How long does the switch take?
Two clocks run at once. The first is the old vendor's turnaround on your data, which you do not control. The second is the import and setup, and that one is 24 to 48 hours:
| When | What happens | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Before day 0 | Data comes out of the old system, same day or up to a week | Pista expert, with the old vendor |
| Day 0 | Customers, vehicles, invoices and notes are imported and matched | Pista expert |
| Day 0 | Shop name, logo, labor rate, tax rate and techs are set up | Pista expert, with you on the phone |
| Day 1 | You write your first live ticket and look up an old customer | You and your writers |
| Days 1 to 7 | Old system stays open for lookups only, next to the new one | Everyone |
| Day 7 or so | Checklist below passes, attachments are saved, old system gets cancelled | You |
Ask for your data the day you decide to switch, not the day you want to go live. If the vendor moves fast, go-live can be this week. If not, the week after.
Should you run both systems side by side?
Yes, for about a week, but do not write every ticket twice. Nobody keeps that up past Tuesday.
Write all new tickets in the new system from the morning you go live. Keep the old one open on a second screen for lookups only. Look up each repeat customer in the new system first. If something is missing, check the old one and tell your Pista expert what did not come across so the import can be corrected. After a week you will have touched most of your active customers.
Know this going in: most shop systems have no read-only mode. Keeping the old one open for that week means paying the full subscription until you cancel. Budget for one more month, and time your go-live so the overlap does not spill into a second billing cycle.
Do you lose your phone number when you switch?
No. Your number belongs to you, not to your software. If your old system ran your phones, the number gets ported to the Pista phone system, which lives inside the ticket so a call from a known customer pulls up their record. If your phones are on a separate carrier, nothing changes.
Porting takes a few business days and it can stall, usually because the name or address on the request does not match what the old carrier has on file. Pull a recent phone bill and copy it exactly. Start the port the same day you ask for your data. Until it completes, calls keep ringing on the old line. On port day, call your own number from a cell phone and confirm it rings in the shop before you close the old carrier account.
If you own your domain, it can point at your new shop website, and your Google listing keeps its reviews because it was never tied to the software.
What should you check before you turn the old system off?
Do not cancel until you can say yes to all of these:
- Search your five best customers by last name and by phone. Every one comes up with their vehicles attached.
- Open one old invoice from at least three years ago and read the line items.
- Check a vehicle with a known VIN and confirm the plate and last mileage are right.
- Pull a list of open balances and match it to what the old system says.
- Run last month's sales report in both systems and compare totals. They should match within rounding.
- Confirm your QuickBooks sync is pointed at the new system, not both.
If something fails, it is usually a mapping problem: a column read wrong, a date format, a customer split across two phone numbers. Tell your Pista expert and the import gets corrected and run again. If it cannot be fixed, do not cancel the old system yet. That is what the overlap week is for.
What to do this week
- Write down what you actually use: customer notes, canned jobs, inventory, attachments. Circle the ones you cannot live without.
- Find your old vendor's export option or support line so the data request goes in the day you decide to switch.
- Pull a recent phone bill so the port request matches your carrier's records, and start the port if your old system runs your phones.
- Pick a go-live day: a slow Tuesday or Wednesday, never a Monday or the first of the month, timed to when your data will be in hand.
- Book a walkthrough. Migration is included at no charge, the first 30 days are free, and a Pista expert handles the import. Plans are on the pricing page.