Before moving your business to a new app, try moving one complete job. The customer’s name is the easy part. Check the quote, photos, visit time, unpaid balance and what you still owe them. If those end up in separate files with no obvious connection, you have found work to price into the switch.
This guide draws on published help pages, not hands-on tests. We read Jobber’s and Housecall Pro’s import and export documentation on 6 October 2026. We didn’t run an import or export in either product for this guide.
Export, migration and backup are different things
A contact export is a list of your customers. Jobber’s help center describes exporting the client list as a CSV or vCard file, with tags, property addresses, contact details and custom fields, on selected plans. A client list tells a new app who your customers are; the jobs, visits and payments are separate records.
A usable migration means your records arrive connected: the job still belongs to the right customer and address, with its status and balance. Both companies describe import tools that match your spreadsheet’s columns to their fields. Housecall Pro’s guide says fields you don’t map are discarded, so check the mapping before you import.
A recoverable backup is a copy you can actually restore from. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s ransomware guide advises testing backups regularly, to confirm they are available and intact when you need them. Opening a downloaded file, or checking that it reads correctly, is a useful test, but it doesn’t prove you could restore your records from it.
None of these proves the others. A tidy contact export can sit next to a migration that has lost which job belongs to which property.
The one-job test
- Use a test space, not your live books. Ask for a trial or test workspace in both apps, or a sample export. Before you create or import anything, turn off customer messages and automations in both: Jobber’s job-import article notes that when visit reminders are on, imported jobs will send them automatically. If there is no test space, ask the new vendor to demonstrate a sample transfer.
- Make one complete sample job for a made-up customer, using contact details you control: a quote, a scheduled visit, a photo, a simulated partial payment, a note about what you promised and a contact preference.
- Export that sample record and its files, not your whole account, and note which details come out in separate files.
- Before you import, find out how a bad import is undone. Jobber describes ten minutes to revert a job import, counted from when the import completes. Housecall Pro advises against deleting and reimporting yourself; its support team can reverse an import.
- Check the mapping, import, then compare field by field using the worksheet below. Record the sample customer, site and job IDs where available; the new app may assign different IDs, but the links between the records must stay correct. Housecall Pro asks customers not to act on imported data until they have checked the results.
- Before you cancel the old service, confirm in writing how long you can still sign in and export.
What to check
| Record | What must survive | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Customers and service addresses | What must surviveEach customer and each address stays separate, and the job still points to the right ones. | How to checkSearch for the test customer and open the job. Look for duplicates: Jobber’s job import, which its help center describes as a beta feature for admin users, adds a job to an existing client or property only on an exact name or address match, and otherwise creates a new one. |
| Linked accounts | What must surviveA billing account and the sites under it keep their link. | How to checkCheck one parent account and its sites. Housecall Pro’s import guide says it imports one level of customers: sub-customers can be moved onto their own lines in the file, then set up as sub-customers again in Housecall Pro. |
| Quotes, invoices and balances | What must surviveWhat was quoted, what was paid and what is still owed. | How to checkCompare the open balance on the test job with the old app. If jobs and invoices export as separate files, check which file holds the accurate balances. |
| Photos and documents | What must surviveThe files themselves, not only their names or links. | How to checkOpen each file in the new app. If the export gives links instead of files, ask for the files themselves as downloads, and ask how long the old provider keeps them after you cancel. A link that opens today may stop working once the account closes. |
| Visit dates and times | What must surviveThe same visit at the same local time, with its status. | How to checkCompare the visit time and time zone. Check open, unscheduled and recurring work as well as finished jobs. |
| Notes and promises | What must surviveWhat you told the customer you would do next. | How to checkRead the notes on the job. Check any custom fields separately; Jobber’s job import doesn’t bring in job-level custom fields. |
| Contact preferences and opt-outs | What must surviveWho has asked not to be texted or called, and how each customer prefers to hear from you. | How to checkFind where the new app records consent and opt-outs. A phone number arriving in the right column doesn’t carry the customer’s texting permission with it. |
Questions for any vendor, including us
Company in a Box is published by DavidAgents, which makes AgentsFast. Ask us the same questions, and run the same test, before relying on our answers. Our comparison of job systems and an AI team covers the wider choice.
- What can I export, in what format, and who on my team is allowed to?
- Does the export include jobs, invoices, payments, notes and files, or only contacts?
- How does your import match records to customers and addresses, and how do I undo a bad import?
- Do reminders or other automated messages run on imported records?
- How long can I sign in and export after I cancel?
What this guide can’t tell you
It summarizes each company’s help pages as published on 6 October 2026. Features, plan limits and access rules change, and other import paths, such as a vendor’s own migration service, may handle more than the self-service tools described here. It isn’t legal advice about record keeping or customer consent.
Sources
All pages read on 6 October 2026. Company help pages describe what each company documents; they are not test results.
- Jobber Help Center: Export Client Information.
- Jobber Help Center: Import Jobs.
- Housecall Pro Help Center: How to Import & Export Jobs and Customers.
- CISA: #StopRansomware Guide.
Change log: October 2026, first version.