Importing data

Switching from another system

Move your bookings, vouchers, bundles, customers and memberships into Session from Acuity, Periode or any other tool. Importing brings the data across; this article also covers what your customers experience and the one link you send them.

Your customers

Importing creates an account for every customer, but it's a placeholder until they set up a login. They claim it with one link you send them (by email, text, poster or QR code): bookasession.org/your-link/welcome

• They set up a login with their existing email - the same address you had on file. It's "set up your account", not a fresh sign-up: their account already exists, so everything is linked automatically the moment they claim it.
• They land on their account page showing what came across - upcoming bookings, session credits, gift balance and membership - so they can see nothing was lost.
• Credits and vouchers just work - carried-over credits apply automatically at booking, and voucher codes keep working.

The data is safe and intact whether or not a customer claims their account. The link only lets them manage it online.

Members

Members come across inactive - they keep no live subscription until they choose to re-subscribe, so nobody is charged twice during the switch. When a member reactivates, Session makes the three things that usually cause worry explicit:

• Their credits carried over and apply automatically when they book.
• They pay nothing today - their first payment is set to their old renewal date, and the date is shown to them.
• Their old subscription is handled. The cleanest approach - and what most venues do - is to cancel members' subscriptions on your old platform yourself at migration; Session then tells them there's nothing more to do. If you'd rather members cancel their own, Session asks them to do it before that first-payment date.

Let us know which applies to your venue and we'll set the wording to match. Members see this on their account, on the booking page, when they re-subscribe, and in their confirmation email - so there's nothing extra you need to send. Member lists move as part of your migration: get in touch and we'll handle them, since subscriptions need to move carefully.

What you can import

• Bookings and customers - past and future appointments; attendees become customer accounts.
• Gift vouchers - existing codes with their remaining balance or session count.
• Bundles - session packs with their remaining sessions.
• Customers - a contacts or mailing list with marketing consent, when you just want the people.

Before you start

Create the things your import maps onto first:

• Sessions - required, so bookings can be linked to the right session.
• Membership tiers - required if members are coming across, so each member re-subscribes to the right plan and their reactivation link points at it.
• Bundle products - optional, only if you want imported session packs linked to a specific product; skip it and they arrive as unrestricted credits.
• Vouchers and contacts need nothing pre-created - vouchers import as standalone codes, customers as people.

Export from your old system as CSV, TSV or XLSX with column headers in the first row. (Acuity: see their export guide. Periode: Reporting > CSV. Stuck? Send us a message.)

• Include an email on every row - that's how Session matches a row to a customer and how they later claim their account.
• Files up to 25 MB / 50,000 rows. Split larger exports into multiple files.

Running an import

1. Upload your file - Session detects the type from the headers.
2. Confirm the type (Bookings, Vouchers, Bundles or Customers) and override if the guess is wrong.
3. Map your columns - common names match automatically; fix any that don't. Pick the date format your file uses, and a fallback timezone if it has none.
4. Review what was found - link each unique session time to a Session session (and optionally each bundle to a product).
5. Confirm and run - the summary shows what will be created, matched and skipped. For bookings you can choose to email customers from a chosen date forward.
6. Review results - what imported, what was skipped, any per-row errors, and the welcome link to send customers.

Column guide

Email is required on every type. Beyond that:

• Bookings - need Type, Start time, Appointment price and Amount paid. Optional: names, End time, Timezone, External ID (strongly recommended - stops re-uploads creating duplicates), Voucher code, Notes. Rows with the same email, type and start time merge into one booking with the right number of spaces; variant names like "Sauna (Concession)" normalise to the base type.
• Gift vouchers - need Products (the session count is read from it, e.g. "Gift Voucher - 5 Sessions"). Optional: Code (generated if absent), Order date (sets a 12-month expiry), Total, Status, Notes.
• Bundles - either one row per order (Email + Products) or one row per package (Email + Package name + Sessions total). Optional: Code (generated if absent - map it to keep your existing pack codes), Sessions remaining, Purchase/Expiry date, Price, External ID, Notes.
• Customers - just Email, plus optional names and a Marketing consent column. You map each consent value to opted in / out / not asked / undeliverable, so consent is carried across honestly - never assumed.

Prices in any format (£15.00, 15,00 €, 1,234.56) are understood.

Re-uploading is safe - Imports dedupe, so re-running a file only adds what's new. Bookings skip an existing booking on the same slot (map External ID to also dedupe by old IDs); vouchers skip duplicate codes; bundles skip a matching External ID; customers match by email. Skipped rows show in the results Skipped count.

Troubleshooting

1. "No recognisable header row". The first row must be column names, not data.

2. "Row N: no email address". The row had no email and no External ID, so it couldn't be matched.

3. "Could not parse start time". Re-check the date format dropdown on the mapping step.

4. Continue button disabled. A required field is unmapped; the page lists which.

5. Ambiguous dates. If 01/02/2026 could be either order, you'll be asked to choose.

6. A customer can't see their bookings. They need to claim their account with the same email that was in your export, via the welcome link. Different email? Send us a message and we'll merge the accounts.

If a few rows fail, the import still runs - the results screen lists each failed row to fix and re-upload.