Yes, you can switch management software without losing your center's data: ask for an export of your data before cancelling, clean up duplicates, switch between June and September or in December-January, and keep the old system for reference for one more month. It takes less time than you think: about four hours spread over a week. The heaviest part, setting up groups and schedules, is done by the provider.
What matters is requesting your data before cancelling, choosing the right moment and picking academy software that helps you with the migration.
Why is it so hard to switch management software?
For three reasons that are almost never technical: prices you cannot compare, one-year contracts that renew automatically and a data load that ends up being done by management. Many academies stay with software they are not happy with because leaving looks difficult, not because of the product.
If you are still comparing options, first be clear about what an academy management program should include, so you do not switch tools and end up with the same problem on a different screen.
Why can't you compare prices?
Because a large part of the sector does not publish its prices. To find out what it costs you have to fill in a form, talk to a salesperson and wait a few days. If you cannot compare, you cannot decide. And if you cannot decide, you stay where you are.
What if you paid a setup fee or have a minimum term?
If you paid a setup fee when you joined, that figure keeps working in your head years later. Switching feels like throwing away what you invested, but it is not. That money is already spent and you will not get it back, not even by staying.
Also check your contract. Many last one year and renew automatically unless you give thirty days' notice. If you miss that date, you have another year ahead.
Who loads the data into the new software?
It depends on the provider, and you should ask before signing. Some providers send you an Excel template, explain the format and leave all the work to you. If launching the software depends on you finding a free week, the switch never happens. Always ask who sets up the system on day one: you or them.
If you are coming from spreadsheets, you can also review these alternatives to Excel for managing your academy before deciding which data is worth migrating.
Which data should you take to the new software?
Take only what you need to run tomorrow; keep the rest separately. The most expensive mistake in a migration is not losing information, it is dragging the old mess into a new application.
Which data do you need on day one?
- Active students and guardians, with verified phone numbers and emails.
- Groups, schedules, teachers and classrooms. If this takes you too long, here is a specific guide on schedule and calendar management in academies.
- Fees, class packs, discounts and special payment arrangements.
- Balances and classes pending to be made up.
- Who has unpaid fees, and how many.
Which data is enough to archive?
Invoices from previous courses, old attendance records and students who no longer come. None of this needs to be inside the new software: keep it in a dated folder and look it up when needed.
In Spain, the tax authority requires you to keep invoices for four years, and the Commercial Code for six. If you are unsure which payment documents you need to keep, we cover it in receipts, invoices and Verifactu in academies.
Which data can you discard?
Contacts from three years ago who never enrolled, groups that no longer exist and the three duplicate records of the same student. Rule of thumb: if you have not looked at a piece of data in twelve months, do not take it.
How do you request your data from your current software?
Write to support and ask for a full export of your data. Your data is yours: students, schedules, payment history... the platform only stores it. Asking for it is a normal request. This is the list to ask for:
- Students and guardians with contact details
- Groups, schedules, teachers and classrooms
- Fees, class packs, balances and discounts applied
- Payment history and pending fees
- Invoices issued
The format matters less than the content: CSV, Excel, PDF, your program's own export or even a photo of your notebook. At Clasbi we work with whatever format you have; what matters is that the export is complete.
Do it before cancelling anything, because quite a few platforms close access the same day you stop paying.
And if anyone stalls, the law is on your side: article 28 of the GDPR requires your provider, as data processor, to return or delete your data when the service ends. Reminding them in writing is usually enough.
When is the best time to switch software?
From June to September, the best window: between the end of one course and the start of the next, with the year's accounts clear and the new groups still to be set up. October, with the course just started, is the worst time. If you are preparing the new course, see also how to organize September in your academy.
December and January, the second best: a natural break between terms and years, with the Christmas holidays to prepare the switch.
You can switch mid-course on one condition: finish the full month in the old system and start on the 1st in the new one. Never split a billing month between two systems, or you will have to check the data in both places.
How do you migrate software in one week?
Five steps spread over a week, with about four hours of work from the academy in total. Each step shows how long it takes.
Day 1. Request your data: 30 minutes
Write to your provider asking for students, guardians, groups, schedules, fees, balances, payments and invoices, in whatever format they provide, and save everything they send in a dated folder. Open the files and check that they contain data, not just column headers.
Day 2. Clean up: 2 or 3 hours
Cleaning up the data is the step that prevents the most errors later.
Standardize phone numbers, delete duplicate students, check that every minor has a guardian with a correct email and mark those who no longer come.
It is the most boring part and the one you will notice most afterwards.
Day 3. Set up the system: done by the provider
Students are imported and groups are set up again.
Students and their guardians are a list. They can be loaded quite directly, from the file to the new system, without much trouble.
Groups, schedules and classrooms are different. Each software organizes them its own way: what is one group with two time slots in one system is two separate groups in another. Copying them as they are causes more problems than it saves, so it is better to set them up again.
In Clasbi, we do this step. You just review it and confirm everything is right.
Day 4. Check that everything adds up: 1 hour
Check that the important things are where they should be: active students, guardians, groups, schedules, teachers, classrooms, fees, balances and pending payments.
Then pull the list of who owes money in the new system and compare it with what you already know: bank receipts, your Excel file, the notebook where you note who asked to pay in two installments.
You are looking for small errors before they become big ones: a student in the wrong group, a class at the wrong time, a fee applied incorrectly, someone owing something they already paid or a pending payment that does not show up.
One hour of checking now prevents complaints from families in the following months.
Day 5. Let people know: 15 minutes
One message to families and another to the team:
Hi [name],
From 1 September we will manage the academy with a new platform. You will receive an access link this week.
If you have any questions, reply to this message and we will help you.
Afterwards, keep the old system active for reference only until you have completed a full month in the new one.
Which mistakes cause data loss when switching software?
- Cancelling the old system before finishing the first month in the new one. The only mistake on this list that cannot be fixed.
- Not setting a cut-off time. You load the data on Tuesday and on Thursday you find out the front desk kept recording enrollments in the old system. Tell the team the day and time from which everything is recorded in the new place.
- Loading the data without reviewing it first. The system does not warn you: it accepts the file and it looks like it went well. The problem shows up weeks later, when you see duplicate students or find that half the list does not get notifications because some phone numbers have the country code and others do not.
- Forgetting pending fees and balances. By December nobody remembers who was carrying two unpaid months or who had three classes to make up.
- Not keeping invoices already issued. They are the ones your accountant will ask for.
- Doing it alone on a Sunday without telling the teachers. The migration goes well and on Monday nobody knows where to take attendance, so they go back to paper.
What should you check before signing with another provider?
Before signing up for any academy software, including ours, check these five points.
| What to check | Warning sign | What you should look for |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Not on the website: you have to ask | Published, and you can calculate what you will pay |
| Getting started | They charge a setup fee | No entry cost |
| Contract | They lock you in for a year and it renews automatically | You can cancel any month |
| Day one | They send you a template and you manage | They set up the system with you |
| If you leave | They do not explain how to get your data back | They give it to you in CSV/Excel when you ask |
The "If you leave" row is the one almost nobody asks about in the demo. Ask it.
Clasbi is management software for academies and sports centers that brings schedules, attendance, make-up classes, communications and payments together in one place. There is no setup fee and you can cancel whenever you want.
And if you ever decide to leave, write to us and we will send you all your data in CSV/Excel, free and with no conditions. You can also read our data deletion policy.
Do you lose data when switching management software?
No, if you follow the plan. Switching management software will not make you lose data. What makes you lose it is improvising: not requesting it before cancelling, switching at a bad time and not checking who owes what.
Request, clean up, choose the right moment and keep the old system for reference for one more month. With about four hours of work, the risk of losing data is under control.
If you are considering the switch, tell us how your center works and we will tell you whether it makes sense to do it now or wait for the next break in the course.
