Every owner remembers to export the customer list before switching field service software. Most remember the price book. The trouble starts three months later, when a member's autopay fails, a customer who unsubscribed gets a promotional email, or a commercial client asks for the refrigerant service record on a rooftop unit you serviced last year. The data existed. Nobody exported it, and the old account is closed.
This post is the list of what gets forgotten: 14 records, why each one matters, how hard it is to get back later, and where to find it. It's vendor-neutral, with specific paths for ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber where their help centers document them. For click-by-click steps per platform, see our export guides for ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber.
Sort by regret, not by size
The usual approach is to export the big tables first. A better order is by regret: how bad it is to lose a record, multiplied by how hard it is to get back after you've lost access. Customers score low on regret, because you can rebuild most of a customer list from QuickBooks, invoices and your phone history. Call recordings score high, because once the account closes they're gone.
| Can you get it back later? | Examples | Export priority |
|---|---|---|
| Yes, from another system | Customer names and addresses (QuickBooks), reviews (Google, Yelp) | Normal |
| Partly | Invoice history (QuickBooks has totals, not line detail), equipment (some on old invoices) | High |
| No | Opt-outs, call recordings, photos, membership terms, text consent, audit history | First |
Keep that table in mind as you read the list. The ones marked "No" are the ones this post is really about.
The 14 records
1. Opt-outs, unsubscribes and bounces
Why it matters. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guidance requires you to honor an email opt-out within 10 business days, and each email in violation can carry a penalty of up to $53,088.1 For calls and texts, FCC rules say a revocation of consent made in any reasonable way, including replying STOP, QUIT, END, CANCEL or UNSUBSCRIBE, must be honored within 10 business days.2 An opt-out doesn't reset because you changed software. If your new system doesn't know who opted out, your first campaign from it will reach them.
How to get it. Look for a suppression or unsubscribe list in the marketing area of your current system, separate from the contact list. In ServiceTitan's marketing section, contacts and suppressions export separately. Import it before you send anything from the new system.
2. Text message consent
Why it matters. Opt-ins matter as much as opt-outs. If you can't show how and when a customer agreed to marketing texts, you shouldn't send them any.
How to get it. Many platforms don't export text consent at all. If yours doesn't, treat every imported contact as "service messages only" (appointment reminders, on-my-way texts) until they opt in again in the new system. It's the conservative choice, and it costs you one campaign, not a lawsuit.
3. Who has a card on file
Why it matters. Card numbers don't travel in a spreadsheet; the card sits with the payment processor, and moving it to another processor takes a formal request from the account owner.3 What you can export is the list: who has a card, when it expires, and which cards pay for memberships. That list is your re-collection plan.
How to get it. ServiceTitan's Saved Payment Methods report includes the last four digits, brand, expiration date and an "Is Membership Preferred" flag, though creating custom reports depends on your package.4 Sort it by next membership bill date and start asking for updated cards at least one billing cycle before you switch.
4. Membership terms and next bill dates
Why it matters. A membership is a contract: price, billing frequency, start and end dates, visits included, visits used. Lose the terms and you'll either undercharge members or bill them twice. It also carries money you've collected for work you haven't done yet, which your accountant tracks as deferred revenue.
How to get it. In ServiceTitan, the Customer Memberships report and a Deferred Revenue report. Ask your bookkeeper to keep the deferred revenue balance as of your cutover date as an opening figure.
5. Maintenance visits due
Why it matters. The visits you owe members over the next 90 days are your shoulder-season schedule. Miss them in the switch and members notice before you do.
How to get it. ServiceTitan's Recurring Service Events report, filtered to overdue plus the next 90 days. Check the count against the new system the week you move.
6. Equipment, warranties and refrigerant service history
Why it matters. Install dates, model and serial numbers and warranty end dates drive replacement sales and warranty claims. For commercial work there's a legal angle: for refrigeration and AC equipment holding 50 pounds or more of refrigerant, EPA rules require a service record for each repair (date, parts, refrigerant added, technician, leak rate), and when a contractor does the work, the contractor must provide that record to the owner. Those records are kept for at least three years.5
How to get it. An equipment or installed-equipment report, plus job history with refrigerant notes. If your commercial customers rely on your records for compliance, export them by site.
7. Call recordings
Why it matters. Recordings settle disputes ("you said the trip fee was waived"), and they're your best training material.
How to get it. One at a time, usually. ServiceTitan's help center describes downloading a recording as an MP3 from the call search; it doesn't describe a bulk download.6 Pull the recordings tied to open disputes, warranty claims and your best and worst calls for training. Accept that the rest stays behind.
8. Photos, attachments and signed paperwork
Why it matters. Before-and-after photos, signed estimates, change orders, permits and inspection forms back up warranty work and protect you in disputes. One switching guide warns that embedded images, attached documents and detailed call recordings may not be exportable through standard tools.7
How to get it. Ask your current vendor in writing what a termination export includes. Then download, by hand, the files for open warranties, recent installs and anything in dispute.
9. Price book images, kits and links
Why it matters. A price book is more than names and prices. The links between a service and the materials it uses are what make job costing and truck restocking work, and the pictures are what techs show at the kitchen table.
How to get it. ServiceTitan's pricebook workbook has separate sheets for Categories, Services, Materials and Equipment, plus ServiceMaterialLinks, ServiceEquipmentLinks and EquipmentMaterialLinks. Images appear as URL fields (Image1, Image2, Image3), and imported category images "reference the internal file path of the image."8 Assume those links stop working when your access does, and save the image files you care about. Our price book cleanup guide covers what to keep.
10. Open estimates
Why it matters. Unsold estimates are the cheapest sales you'll ever make: the customer already let you in and heard the options. Lose them in a switch and the follow-up never happens.
How to get it. An estimates report filtered to open (not sold, not dismissed), with the options and amounts.
11. Open A/R, invoice by invoice
Why it matters. Your accounting file has the balance; your field software has the detail: which job, which visit, what was promised. You'll need both to collect. See accounts receivable.
How to get it. In ServiceTitan, the AR Management screen doesn't export; its help center points to the AR Transactions By Customer report instead.9 Run it on your accounting cutover date and tie the total to your books.
12. Tags and custom fields
Why it matters. "Gate code 4411", "dog in yard", "commercial, PO required", "do not service". Years of these live in tags and custom fields, not in the customer name.
How to get it. Check that your customer export includes them. Jobber's client export includes tags, property addresses, contact details and custom fields, comes as a CSV of up to 1,500 rows per file, and is limited to admin users and select plans.10 Housecall Pro's customer and job exports are admin-only and arrive by email as CSV files.11
13. Campaigns, tracking numbers and lead-source history
Why it matters. Which ads and mailers produced which jobs is what you'll use to set next year's budget. Lose it and you're starting your marketing math over.
How to get it. Export your campaign list, the tracking number for each, and a jobs report that includes campaign. Keep a number ledger so each tracking number keeps its campaign when it ports.
14. Payroll history, timesheets, the user list and your vendor's own invoices
Why it matters. Federal wage-and-hour rules require employers to keep payroll records for at least three years and time cards for at least two.1213 The IRS asks for employment tax records for at least four years.14 If your field software calculated commissions or captured clock-ins, that's part of the record. The user list tells you who had access to what. And your old vendor's invoices are needed for your books and, often, for porting your phone numbers.
How to get it. Timesheet and commission exports, an employee list with roles, and your billing invoices from the vendor's settings page, downloaded before your last day.
The legal floor
Some of the list above is optional. This part isn't. If your old system was the only place a record lived, you still need it for the full period below.
| Record | Rule | Keep for at least |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll records | FLSA, 29 CFR 516.512 | 3 years |
| Time cards, wage rate tables | FLSA, 29 CFR 516.613 | 2 years |
| Employment tax records | IRS guidance14 | 4 years |
| Most income tax records | IRS guidance14 | 3 years, longer in some cases |
| Service records on 50+ lb refrigerant systems | EPA, 40 CFR 82.157(l)5 | 3 years |
| Email opt-outs | CAN-SPAM, honored within 10 business days1 | As long as you email |
| Text and call opt-outs | FCC, 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10)2 | As long as you text or call |
This isn't legal advice, and states can add their own rules. But it's a useful test: if a record appears in that table, "we lost it in the switch" isn't an answer an auditor accepts.
How to run the exports
- 1
Make the list
Copy the 14 items into a sheet with columns for where it lives, who exports it, date run and date re-run.
- 2
Ask in writing
Email your current vendor asking what a full export at termination includes, in what format, when and for what fee. Keep the reply.
- 3
Export the 'No' items first
Opt-outs, recordings you need, photos and paperwork for open warranties, membership terms. These can't be rebuilt.
- 4
Export the rest
Customers, locations, equipment, price book, jobs, invoices, estimates, A/R, campaigns, payroll. Run big reports in date chunks if they time out.
- 5
Date and store every file
Put the run date in each file name and keep the set somewhere you control, backed up.
- 6
Re-run what changes
In your last week: customers, opt-outs, A/R, memberships and visits due. Then check counts against the new system.
Before you close the old account
- Opt-outs and bounces exported and imported into the new system
- Card-on-file list exported and re-collection started
- Membership terms, next bill dates and deferred revenue balance saved
- Visits due for the next 90 days checked in the new system
- Equipment and refrigerant service records exported by site
- Recordings, photos and signed documents for open issues downloaded
- Price book with links and the images you need
- Open estimates and open A/R by invoice
- Tags and custom fields present in the customer export
- Campaigns and tracking numbers in the number ledger
- Payroll, timesheets, user list and vendor invoices saved
- Every file dated and backed up
Where TradesWork fits
If you're coming from ServiceTitan, the TradesWork importer takes the exports that cover many of the items above, including email unsubscribes, memberships and visits due (with billing held until you start it), equipment, open estimates, open A/R and job and invoice history. Some of those file layouts were built from ServiceTitan's screens and help docs and are still being checked against real exports, so keep your own dated files as the archive. Recordings, photos and stored cards don't come across in files, from any vendor.
And so you're never in this position again: the owner of a TradesWork account can download everything (one CSV per table, from customers to the audit trail, plus photos) as a single ZIP, any time, paid up or not.
Free download · PDF + ExcelThe ServiceTitan Exit KitContract timeline, every export to run, a cut-over plan and the questions to ask before you give notice.Footnotes
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CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business, Federal Trade Commission, accessed Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2
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47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10), revocation of consent, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current as of Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Request a payments data import, Stripe documentation, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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Saved Payment Methods report template, ServiceTitan help center, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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40 CFR 82.157, Appliance maintenance and leak repair, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current as of Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2
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Listen to call recordings, ServiceTitan help center, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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How to switch from ServiceTitan: migration guide, Fieldproxy (a competitor), Mar 12, 2026. ↩
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Add and edit items with the Pricebook Excel template, ServiceTitan help center, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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Exporting AR Management to Excel, ServiceTitan help center, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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Export client information, Jobber help center, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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How to import and export jobs and customers, Housecall Pro help center, accessed Oct 2026. ↩
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29 CFR 516.5, Records to be preserved 3 years, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current as of Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2
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29 CFR 516.6, Records to be preserved 2 years, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current as of Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2
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How long should I keep records?, Internal Revenue Service, accessed Oct 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3