Changing the app your team uses for schedules and time cards can feel risky. Payroll depends on it. People get grumpy when their schedule moves. And there's a real chance that somebody's paycheck goes wrong in the first week if you rush it.
But it doesn't need to be a big project. With a little planning, most small teams can do it over one pay period, with no drama. Here's how.
Before you commit: test the hard stuff
The demo always looks good. Before you switch, pick the three hardest parts of your week and try them in the new app with a few real people. Think about things like:
- Someone who works at two locations
- Your strangest pay rule
- The overnight shift
- A person whose phone is ten years old
- Sending hours to your payroll provider
If the new app can't handle these, you want to find out now. Have an employee on your floor try it, too. A manager who's excited about features isn't the same as a dishwasher who just wants to clock in.
What to export from your old app
Do this before you cancel anything, since you might lose access right afterward:
- Your team list. Names, phones, emails, roles, locations, start dates. Most apps export this as a CSV.
- Timesheets. At least two years of them. Federal rules say you must keep time cards for at least two years and payroll records for at least three. Some states want longer.
- Time off balances. Export these on the same day you enter them in the new system, so that the numbers agree.
- Pay rates. Take care with these. Store the file safely, and delete working copies when you're done.
- Documents and signed forms. Download anything people signed.
- Training records and certificates, including expiry dates.
- Your schedule template, or at least a screenshot of a normal week.
- Past schedules. Some local scheduling laws make you keep these.
Then save the whole folder somewhere safe and backed up. Note how long your old vendor keeps your data after you cancel.
Pick your date carefully
Cut over at the start of a pay period, and not in the middle. Mixing two systems in one pay period is how mistakes happen.
Also avoid your busiest season, any week with a holiday and the last week of a quarter. If you've got a slow month, use it.
Choose the start of a workweek too. Make sure the new app's workweek starts on the same day and time as your old one. Otherwise, overtime will come out differently, and you'll spend hours working out why.
The side-by-side pay period
This is the most important part. Run both systems for one full pay period:
- People clock in on both. Yes, it's annoying. Tell them it's for one pay period.
- Keep your old app as the system that pays people.
- At the end, compare hours person by person.
Look into any difference of more than a few minutes. Usually, it'll be somebody forgetting to punch one of them, or a difference in rounding. You might find that your old system was rounding in a way you didn't know about. Our piece on rounding explains why that's worth looking at.
If you can't run both, at least run your first payroll from the new system with extra care, comparing it to last pay period and checking the top ten earners by hand.
What to tell your team
Tell them two weeks ahead. Keep it short, and cover the things they care about:
- Why. Give a real reason, such as "You'll be able to swap shifts from your phone."
- What changes for them. How to clock in, and where to find the schedule.
- What doesn't change. Their pay, their hours and their PTO balance. Say this directly, because it's what they'll worry about.
- When. One clear date.
- Who to ask. A real person, on each shift.
Find your most comfortable employee on each shift and get them set up first. People ask each other before they ask you.
Bring up time-off balances yourself. Show each person their number in the new system, and ask them to check it. If there's a mistake, it's better to find it now.
Your first week live
Be available. Walk the floor for the first couple of days. Expect some forgotten punches, and fix them without any fuss. Keep a list of questions as they come up, and answer them for the whole team once.
Check your first timesheets early, so you can spot issues before payday. Run that first payroll a day early, if you can, to give yourself time to fix anything strange.
When to cancel the old one
Not yet. Keep it until you've finished one full pay period on the new system. Then export everything once more, and cancel. Check when your renewal date is, so you aren't charged for another year, especially if you're on annual billing.
Moving to PinkLinq
Export a CSV from Connecteam, Homebase, When I Work, 7shifts or Gusto, and upload it under Users. We recognize columns by their headers, and you get a preview of new people, existing people and stores we didn't find, before anything's saved. Nobody gets a PIN until they create one, so nobody can sign in by accident.
Your 14-day trial of Advanced features is long enough for a one-week side-by-side test, and our Free plan covers up to 10 people with no time limit. You can see how we compare with other apps on our comparison page.
If something doesn't work for your setup, you can export or delete your data at any time. There's no lock-in.