The short answer
Bring your lists over from a spreadsheet export of your current program, check every row before it's saved, then run both programs side by side with the same jobs until the numbers match. Switch off the old one only when you trust the new one. Plan for a quiet stretch of the year if you can.
By American Dumpster Software, the software built by American Roll-Offs, a roll-off company in Jacksonville, Florida. Updated .
What to bring over
Most dispatch programs can export their lists to a spreadsheet. Ask for the export early: it tells you what you have and how clean it is. The lists that matter most:
- Clients and their contacts, with phone numbers and emails.
- Job sites, with gate codes and notes for the driver.
- Your dumpsters, and which ones are out at job sites right now.
- Trucks and employees.
- Open balances: what each customer still owes you.
Old finished jobs and paid invoices usually stay in the old program or in your accounting, for reference. You don't need years of history to run tomorrow's board.
Clean up before you move
A move is the best time to clean up. Merge the customers entered twice, close the job sites nobody uses, and check that every can out in the field is really out there. It's much easier to fix a spreadsheet than a live system.
Do a practice run
Bring each list in as a practice run first: see each row, what would be added, what would be updated and what would be skipped, before anything is saved. Fix the problems in the spreadsheet and run it again. Being able to undo an import takes the fear out of it.
Run both side by side
For a while, put the same jobs in both programs. Let the drivers use the new app on real stops while the office keeps the old one going. Compare the board, the cans out and the bills at the end of each week. Every difference is either a mistake in the move or a habit to change; both are cheaper to find now.
Keep the new program's bills as practice bills during this time, so nothing goes to a customer twice. When a few weeks match, you're ready.
The switch itself
Pick a day, ideally a slow one for your area, early in a month so month end stays clean. Tell the drivers the day before, make sure every phone is signed in, and keep the office close to the board that morning. Keep read access to the old program for a while, for questions about old jobs.
How we help
In American Dumpster Software, Switching to us brings in clients, contacts, job sites, dumpsters, the cans already out, trucks, employees and prospects from any spreadsheet, with a dry run that shows every row first and Undo for an import. Practice mode marks bills PRACTICE so they're never sent or counted while you run side by side. Setup and data moving are free (Pricing), and Download everything gives you your data back as one spreadsheet at any time.