What to export before switching gym software

Seven lists, and where each one ends up

Before you export: the contract and the questions

Read the old software contract before you ask for anything. Three clauses shape the plan. The notice period, the format your data arrives in, and your access once the contract ends.

Then ask for a test export. Exports often arrive with missing columns, odd date formats, or active members only. Better to learn that on day one than on the last day.

Members and contacts: the list you import

An old export mixes active members, people on a freeze, and people who left years ago. Before importing, split it into three groups:

• Active: they have a plan, a pack or classes left. All of them come in.
• Frozen or paused: they come in, with the right status, so they are not charged.
• Former: they stay out. They go to the archive, and do not get an invitation they never asked for.

Then clean the file. These steps save you a second attempt:

• Save it as UTF-8. In other encodings, names with accents arrive garbled.
• Parents and children sharing one email. Check how the new system handles them before importing.
• Phone numbers with the country code. Without it, the number may not be recognised.
• One date format. US-style exports write 03/09 for 9 March; convert dates to YYYY-MM-DD first.
• One row per person. If someone appears twice, merge the rows before importing.

Plans, dates and classes left

Each person's plan decides whether they can book on switch day. So export it with its dates: when the paid period started, and when it ends.

If the old system keeps plans apart from members, export a separate sheet with one row per person:

• Email or phone, to find the right person when two share a name.
• The old plan, and its new equivalent if the old one is going away.
• The start and end of the period already paid.
• For class packs, the classes left. For unlimited plans, leave it empty.

Use the moment to trim the catalogue. Plans with two people on them, created for a single case, move to the closest equivalent. Tell those people first if the price changes.

Payments: balances owed and saved cards

Outstanding balances

Old debts are not imported. Where possible, collect them in the system where they started, before switching it off. Whatever remains goes on a short list: name, amount, period and what was agreed. Whoever handles payments keeps it until it reaches zero.

Cards and direct debits

Card numbers never come out in an ordinary export, and that is a good thing. They only move between payment processors, through a formal, encrypted request. As a rule, the account owner has to request it.

The transfer can take weeks. If there is no time, each member adds a payment method in the new system at the first charge. Direct debit mandates follow the same logic: ask who holds them before you plan around them.

Signed waivers and health information

A signed waiver records what someone declared on a given date. Export each one with that date, and keep them with restricted access.

If the waiver or the sign-up form asks about injuries or conditions, that is health data. In the EU and the UK, GDPR treats it as a special category, under Article 9. In the archive, only the people who need it see it. In the new system, it only goes in if it has a use.

Old signatures do not carry over to the new system. The message announcing the switch should also ask people to sign the new waiver, on their phone.

History: what to keep, and for how long

History does not go into the new system, and it is not needed there. The new record starts on switch day. But some things are kept because the law says so, and others only while they settle questions.

Before you lose access, run one full export: bookings, attendance, payments and invoices, as CSV or PDF. Keep it in one place, with restricted access, and write down the date it gets deleted.

Personal data during the switch

Under GDPR, your gym is the controller of its members' personal data. The software, old and new, processes it on your behalf. That has four practical consequences:

• Only what has a use moves. People who left years ago do not need to be in the new system.
• The exported file is personal data. Keep it out of email, and delete it from Downloads once it is imported.
• The new provider processes the data under a written contract with you. Article 28 of GDPR requires it.
• When the old contract ends, the old provider deletes or returns the data, as you choose. Tell them which, in writing, once you have your export.

The numbers that must match

After importing, check five numbers in both systems. If one does not match, rows were left out, or came in twice.

Export everything once. Import only what you will use.

Before you switch the old system off

1. 1.Read the contract and send the request to your vendor, with the list of what you need.
2. 2.Split active, paused and former members. Clean the file and import only the first two groups.
3. 3.Bring plans and dates together, in the file or in a separate sheet.
4. 4.Check and correct class pack balances.
5. 5.Collect what you can in the old system, and write down what remains.
6. 6.Decide what happens to saved cards: a formal transfer, or re-entry.
7. 7.Export waivers with their dates, and ask for the new one in the switch message.
8. 8.Run the full history export, store it in one place, and set the date it gets deleted.
9. 9.Fill in the numbers table. If everything matches, ask in writing for the old data to be deleted.

How this works in Rummo

Member import is on every Rummo plan. Headers do not need exact names. The screen shows which field each column went to, and you can swap it there. Commas, semicolons and tabs are all recognised.

The file can bring each person's plan and dates. Each plan in the file is matched on screen to one of yours. It comes in as already paid, with no charge. People already in your space are not duplicated: their empty fields are filled in. The same email with a different name comes in as a dependant of the account holder. Think of a child signed up with a parent's email.

The screen tells you which columns stay out. A column you leave unmatched does not come in, so old health notes do not slip in with the rest. At the end, you can download the list of rows that did not come in, with the reason.

Importing sends no email to anyone. You decide when each person gets their invitation. Class pack balances are adjusted on the member record, with the reason kept in the history. The member app is in European Portuguese.

To put the switch on a calendar, with the parallel week and switch day, there is a thirty-day plan. How to switch gym management software

An Excel sheet or a CSV comes in over three steps, and you see every row before saving. Member management