Pre-publish checklist (delete before publishing): confirm the current export options in HoneyBook’s settings, and each destination tool’s import formats. Exports change.

Leaving a CRM feels risky because everything lives inside it — contacts, contracts, invoices, the client portal links you already sent. The good news is that migration is mostly tedious, not difficult. Do it in the right order and nothing breaks.

Here’s the plan.

Before you touch anything

1. Pick the destination first. Migration is only safe if you know the target. Shortlist two tools, sign up for trials, and confirm they can import your contacts and invoices before you cancel anything.

2. Run both systems in parallel for one billing cycle. Keep HoneyBook alive through at least one full month of the new tool. The cost of one extra month is cheap insurance against a botched move.

3. Tell nobody yet. Don’t announce the switch until the new system has sent at least one clean invoice and one signed contract.

Step 1 — Export everything, even what you think you don’t need

From HoneyBook, export:

  • Contacts / client list — CSV. This is the one export you absolutely cannot reconstruct.
  • Invoices and payments — for your accounting records and any open balances.
  • Contracts / signed agreements — PDFs. You need these for legal reasons; there’s no re-creating a signed contract.
  • Projects and files — questionnaires, notes, and any client uploads you’re responsible for keeping.

Save all of it to two places — your computer and cloud storage. Migration is the moment people discover their backup was a single folder on a laptop that died.

Step 2 — Fix your custom domain and email

The step everyone forgets, and the one that causes the most client confusion.

  • If you sent HoneyBook portal links from your own domain, those links will break. Set up forwarding to the new tool, or keep a redirect page.
  • If clients emailed a HoneyBook-provided address, set an auto-reply pointing to the new one, and forward that mailbox for at least 60 days.
  • Update your website contact form and any saved templates that point at HoneyBook.

Do this before you cancel, not after. A dead client portal link from a paying client is the worst version of this problem.

Step 3 — Import into the new tool

Import in this order:

  1. Contacts — get your client list in first, so everything else can attach to it.
  2. Active projects — recreate in-flight work manually. Do not trust a bulk import to preserve the state of a project mid-flight.
  3. Invoices — import history for records; re-issue any open balances fresh from the new tool.
  4. Templates — contracts, questionnaires, and email templates. This is the fiddly part; budget more time for it than you think.

Manually rebuild your automation rules. These almost never transfer cleanly between tools, and a broken automation that silently stops sending reminders is worse than no automation.

Step 4 — Move your payment processing

  • Reconnect your bank account and card processor in the new tool and run a $1 test payment before any real one.
  • Re-create any subscription plans or payment schedules you use.
  • Check that your new per-transaction fees are what you expected.

Step 5 — Cut over and cancel

Only now:

  1. Send your first real invoice and contract from the new system.
  2. Confirm they arrive, sign, and pay correctly.
  3. Export a final full backup from HoneyBook.
  4. Cancel the subscription — and screenshot the cancellation and check for a final invoice.

What won’t come with you

Be realistic about these:

  • Signature history — signed contracts export as PDFs, but the audit trail behind them usually doesn’t transfer. Keep the PDFs.
  • Automation logic — rebuild by hand.
  • Client portal continuity — clients get a new login and a new link. Warn them for anything in flight.
  • Payment history detail — you keep records, but reconciliation resets in the new tool.

The realistic timeline

  • Day 1: export everything, save to two places.
  • Days 2–4: set up the new tool, import contacts, rebuild templates.
  • Week 2: run in parallel; send one real invoice through the new system.
  • Week 3: fix links and email forwarding.
  • Week 4: cancel, back up finally, done.

Do it in this order and the worst case is one confusing month. Do it out of order — cancel first, export later — and you can lose your client list.

Some links on this page may be affiliate links. We only link to tools we would recommend regardless, and affiliates never change what we write.