Switching checklist for a shop manager

• Start the 14-day free trial. No credit card is needed, and every trial starts on the AI plan.
• Ask your old vendor's support for the exports you need: customers, vehicles, invoices with line items, and inventory, each as CSV. Not every vendor describes a self-serve export, so ask early. See the Move from guide for your system.
• Export everything you can while you still have access, and keep the files somewhere safe.
• Run a small file first, such as the last month of repair orders, and check it against a customer you know. Undo it if you want a clean start.
• Decide who owns the move. Only owners and managers can use Import data.

US phone carriers require every business that texts customers to be registered first, called A2P 10DLC. In Gearboxly you fill in your business details and we submit them. Registration starts after your first paid invoice, and carrier approval can take a few days to a few weeks.

• Plan for that wait. Keep sending customer texts from your old system until Gearboxly texting is approved.
• Texts go out from your shop's own number, set up under Settings, then Text messaging. See Text customers, and get replies.
• Importing never texts your customers, so your customer list will not be messaged by accident.

• Add everyone under Staff and give each person a role. Unlimited users are included on every plan. See Staff and roles.
• Have each person watch the lessons for their job in the full video course, and read the matching Help Center guides. Writers need repair orders, estimates and texting. Technicians need the technician workspace.
• Do one real repair order each, on a car in the shop, before go-live day.
• Set your labor rate and parts matrix before you write estimates, because every estimate depends on them.

• Card payments run through Stripe at Stripe's standard rates. Gearboxly adds no fee.
• If you take cards at the counter, connect your Dejavoo card terminal ahead of time and take a test payment. See Add a card terminal to take payments at the counter.
• Keep your old card terminal until the new one works end to end.

• If you are on the Growth plan, pick a website template and connect your own domain with step-by-step directions. See Connect your own domain.
• Update the booking link everywhere customers find it: your Google Business Profile, your Facebook page, your email signature and any old website. See Your online booking page.
• Until the new link is live, keep the old one working.

• Pick a slow week.
• Import customers, then vehicles, then repair order history, and check each on a customer you know. See Import your customers, vehicles and repair history.
• Finish open repair orders in the old system, or re-create them as new orders in Gearboxly. Open orders are skipped by default, and imported history is read-only.
• Handle parts orders in progress by hand. Parts orders are not imported.
• Re-enter anything that does not import: inspections and photos, appointments, labor guides and canned jobs, text history, declined work, loyalty balances and staff accounts.

• Keep the old system read-only for a month so anyone can look something up. Then export once more for your records before you close it.
• Check Reports against what you expect. Imported history sits under its original dates, so this month's numbers only reflect work done in Gearboxly.
• Invite customers to their portal when you are ready. See Invite customers to their portal.