Pet Business Software Migration: A Field by Field Checklist
Move owners, pets, appointments, documents, balances and communications safely. Plan a trial import, reconciliation and launch day ownership.
Migration succeeds when the team can trust the next appointment and the care record at the moment of service. An export file alone does not establish that trust. Agree what moves, who checks it and how the old system remains accessible during a short transition. Import capabilities differ by supplier and may require assisted work; confirm the exact scope before contracting.
Agree the import scope in writing.
Test difficult sample records.
Reconcile upcoming appointments and balances.
Name owners for launch day exceptions.
Why Collar is different: connected work, not just a calendar
Collar brings the pet-business journey into one operating picture: a customer books for a specific pet, the team delivers the service, and the related order, payment and follow-up stay connected. Depending on the business, that same platform can also support products, memberships, staff, branches and field routes. The value is in how the enabled parts work together—not a claim that other tools cannot offer them.
01Booking
→
02Pet + customer
→
03Service delivered
→
04Order + payment
→
05Follow-up
Ask in a product demo
Why it matters
What to check in Collar
Does the pet record stay with the booking?
Staff can find the right instructions for the right pet.
Follow a two-pet household from booking to service.
Do service and charges flow into the order?
The owner and team can understand what was sold and paid.
Add a service extra, take a deposit, then inspect the balance and receipt.
Can the setup support how our business actually works?
Groomers, daycares, boarders and mobile teams do not share one workflow.
Test the modules, roles and locations you plan to use; confirm limits before buying.
Check more than the number of imported records
Try one difficult household in the new system before moving everyone. Check each type of information by hand.
Move this
Why it matters
First check
Owners and pets
Two pets must stay linked to the right owner.
Open both pet profiles.
Future bookings
Staff must know who is expected next week.
Compare date, pet and booking state.
Care documents
Staff need the right file for the right pet.
Open an attachment in the new system.
Credits and balances
Customers must not be charged twice.
Compare a used package and an unpaid bill.
Inventory the data and its relationships
Collect sample exports and define one row or object per owner, pet and appointment. Decide which fields are essential, which are historical reference and which can be archived. Do not copy stale or duplicate data without review.
Owners: names, contact details, communication preferences and any household links.
Pets: separate identity, owner relationship, service notes, handling notes, vaccine/document details and relevant history.
Future commitments: service, start and end time, staff, room or route, status, deposit, package balance and recurrence.
Commercial history: open invoices, payments, refunds, credits, memberships and vouchers. Some records may need to remain in the old system if migration is not supported.
Map, clean and sample before the full import
Create a field mapping with source, destination, transformation and owner. Try a small sample containing difficult records, not only clean ones. A trial should include a two pet household, a changed booking, a future recurrence and a balance.
Normalise phone numbers and dates with the intended locale and timezone.
Identify duplicates using more than name alone; two unrelated owners can share a name.
Verify attachments remain linked to the correct pet and accessible to the right staff.
Count records before and after, then inspect individual examples with staff who know the customers.
Reconcile the money and the calendar
Totals can match while individual records are wrong. Review the next two weeks of appointments and a sample of outstanding balances by owner. Choose a clear cutoff so staff know where to make changes during the transition.
Reconcile future confirmed appointments by date, service, pet, staff and status.
Review deposits and remaining balances. Avoid creating a new charge for a payment already collected.
Decide how cancellations or changes arriving during the import window are captured and replayed.
Record any fields that did not move and where authorised staff can find the archive.
Launch with an owner for each exception
Train the front desk on the first service day rather than only the configuration screen. Assign an owner to incorrect pet links, missing documents, payment disputes and customer login questions. A short daily issue log reveals patterns quickly.
Use a staged rollout or clear cutover time; avoid two systems both being editable without a reconciliation process.
Test a customer booking link and an existing customer sign in from a real phone.
Keep the old system available in a read only way if the contract permits, with an agreed retention period.
After launch, compare daily bookings, payments and exceptions for a defined settling period.
Check records that are easy to miss
Names and phone numbers are the easy part. Future bookings, pet links, files, remaining package visits and unpaid bills are easier to miss. Try a difficult sample before choosing a switch date.
Agree field mapping and data ownership before transferring customer information.
Count future appointments by date, pet, branch and status in both systems.
Check balances one by one and prevent duplicate collections.
Keep a rollback and communications plan for the first live week.
