The client list appears in the export. So do the project names. The studio opens the new software and discovers what is missing: room images, client approvals, invoice history, and the attachments buried in old emails.
A contact list is only one part of the studio’s record.
Houzz says Ivy has stopped accepting new memberships and receiving feature updates. Current customers can ask about a move to Houzz Pro. Ivy users will have account-specific questions, but every studio can learn something from the change: inspect your own data before you choose its next home.
Start with one completed project
Pick a project complicated enough to expose the gaps. It should have a client, several rooms, product specifications, proposals, purchase orders, invoices, payments, photographs, approvals, and messages.
Now export it from the current software. Open every file. Can you match an invoice to its project? Can you see who approved the sofa and when? Do the image files have usable names? Are notes dated and attributed? Could a colleague understand the purchasing status without opening the old system?
“Export available” tells you almost nothing. A folder of spreadsheets may contain every record and still require substantial work before the project is usable.
Find the records that exports often miss
Start with the information your team uses during an ordinary project: client contacts, room records, specifications, proposals, purchase orders, invoices, payments, files, notes, approvals, supplier details, and task status.
Then look for the awkward material. Email attachments may stay in the inbox. Product images may appear as links that expire. Approval history may become a flat comment export. Markups, tax rules, and custom status fields may lose their meaning outside the original account.
Closed projects matter too. A client may come back asking for the paint color in the guest room or a copy of an old invoice. Decide what the studio must be able to retrieve and for how long.
Make the new provider show the import
Send the sample export to the new provider and ask for a test import. Request a written list of what transfers automatically, what needs manual work, and what will remain in a separate archive.
The structure causes most of the trouble. One system may attach a purchasing stage to each item; another may store one stage for the whole order. A room tag, client approval, tax rule, or return status may have no matching field.
Compare the original project with the imported version side by side. Count the records, open the attachments, check the totals, and follow one product from specification to payment. Microsoft’s migration guidance recommends testing and validating the copy before the final move.
Test the move with a real project before you move the rest of the studio.
Choose where the team works during the move
Two active systems create two versions of the project. Choose where the team will enter new approvals, invoices, payments, purchasing changes, and tasks. Set a cutover date. Give the old system one clear role, such as reference-only access.
Include the overlap in the migration budget. The studio may pay for both subscriptions while staff rebuild templates, permissions, automations, and reports. Someone also has to check the imported records. The monthly price on the new software is rarely the largest migration cost.
AWS cutover guidance calls for validation and a rollback plan before the switch. For a studio, that can be as simple as keeping the original export untouched, naming the checks that must pass, and deciding when the old account can close.
Ask what happens when the product changes
Read the help center and release history. Ask how customers hear about retired features, how long they keep access after cancellation, and what migration help the provider supplies. Save the answers with the evaluation notes.
Then run the exit test on the new software. Take the same completed project and ask how you would remove the client details, products, money, files, approvals, and history. A system is much harder to leave after it contains years of work. Find that out while it contains one sample project.
