Moving from Skimmer to AquaFlow Pro: Importing Your Data

The hardest part of switching pool service software is not learning the new app. It is the fear of leaving years of customers, readings and invoices behind. This guide walks through bringing a Skimmer export into AquaFlow Pro, exactly what the import does with it, and how to take it back out if something looks wrong.

What comes across

• Customers — names, service addresses, contact details, pool size and type, service plan, monthly rate, gate codes and notes, plus their technician, service day and stop order
• Service history — visit dates and technician notes, dated to when the visits really happened
• Chemical readings — pH, chlorine, alkalinity, CYA, calcium and more, which fill the chemistry history charts
• Work orders — repair tickets, parts, labor and completion dates
• Invoices — invoice history and payment status

Only the customer list is required. Everything else is optional, but it is what gives you a full history from day one.

Before you start

1. Create your technicians’ logins first. A technician needs a real sign-in, which a spreadsheet row cannot create, so technicians are not imported. Add them in AquaFlow Pro under Admin → Create Login before you import, and the route assignments in your customer file will match them by name.
2. Export your data from Skimmer. Skimmer’s export comes out as an Excel (.xlsx) file, and you can upload that as it is — no need to convert it. A CSV works too.
3. One kind of record per file. The import reads the first sheet of an Excel workbook, so keep customers, service history, readings, work orders and invoices in separate files.

Importing, step by step

Sign in to your account at getaquaflowpro.com/account as the owner and open Data Migration.

1. Upload your files

Choose your customer list, then any of the optional files. The order does not matter: customers are always imported first, and everything else is matched to them afterwards.

2. Check the column matching

The import recognises columns automatically. Capitals, spaces and punctuation in the header are ignored, so Skimmer’s customer columns — FullName, LocationAddress, MobilePhone1, Email1, GateCode and Status — match without any editing. You can change any match on this screen. Customer name and service address are the two required fields.

3. Choose your options and review the plan

• How much history: the last 6 months, 1 year, 2 years (recommended) or everything
• Duplicates: skip customers you already have, or update them. A customer is matched on name and address, so two people at one address stay two customers
• Default plan for any customer whose file does not name one
• Portal invitations: off by default. Each one is a real email to a real customer, so nobody is contacted unless you tick the box

Before anything is written, you get a plan: how many records will import, which are duplicates, which rows will be skipped and why, and how many customers are over your plan’s pool limit. Nothing happens until you confirm it.

4. Import

Here is what the import does with what it finds:

• Inactive customers import archived. A customer marked Inactive in the export is brought across but kept off your routes, out of invoicing and out of the customer portal. Unarchive them any time.
• Each customer keeps their rate. If the export shows a monthly rate that differs from the plan’s price, it becomes that customer’s custom rate.
• Readings become chemistry history, with the LSI worked out for every visit that has the readings to calculate it.
• Anything it cannot match is listed, not guessed. A visit or invoice that names a customer who is not in your customer file is imported without a customer and named in the results, so you can add the customer and run the import again to link it.
• Unclear invoices import as unpaid. If an invoice’s payment status is ambiguous, it comes in as unpaid — a money-owed invoice is never silently marked paid. Credits (negative amounts) are skipped and counted.
• Dates are read, not guessed. A date that could mean two different days, or is not a real date, imports blank and is counted in the plan, rather than landing on the wrong day.
• Running it again is safe. Records that were already imported are skipped, so re-running the same export does not double your history.

If something looks wrong: undo it

When the import finishes, Undo this import removes every record that import created — customers, visits, invoices and work orders — and nothing else. Fix the file and run it again.

Worth knowing

• One pool per customer. AquaFlow Pro keeps one pool per customer, so several pools listed at the same address under the same name come in as one customer. The plan shows these as duplicates before anything is written.
• Customers set their own passwords. Passwords never move between systems. If you send portal invitations, each customer chooses a password from the email.

After you import

1. Spot-check a few customers: address, plan, rate and their last visit.
2. Open a customer’s chemistry history and confirm the readings look right.
3. Check your routes: every active customer should be on a service day with a technician. See how to plan pool routes for setting up days and stop order.
4. When you are ready, invite customers to the portal.

Choosing what to switch to in the first place? See what pool service software should do and how to choose one.

Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial, no credit card required — enough time to import your data and run a full month before you decide.

Start your free trial → See all features