Moving your jobs into Combdex
What to export from your current system, what comes into Combdex through a connection, what you enter by hand, and what cannot be imported yet.
Moving your jobs into Combdex is mostly a matter of starting new work there while your old system keeps its history. Combdex has no file import today, so contacts and open work come in through the connections, through your website forms and phone calls, or by hand. This page says what to export first, what each connection brings across, and what stays behind.
What should I export before I move?
Export everything your current system lets you export, before you change anything. The files are your archive and your checklist, not something Combdex reads.
- Contacts and companies, with phone numbers and email addresses. These are the records you will rebuild first.
- Open quotes and unpaid invoices. These are the work you cannot lose track of in the move.
- Your price list or catalog. You will enter it once as the Combdex catalog, and every quote draws from it.
- Photos of open jobs, saved from the phones to one folder per job.
What comes in through a connection?
Four connections bring records into Combdex. Each is set up on the web in Settings, Connections; see Connections.
| Connection | What comes into Combdex | What it does not bring |
|---|---|---|
| The CRM connection | Quotes, invoices and payments changed in the CRM, every 10 minutes, back to 30 days on the first pull. New form contacts as leads. | Your full history, projects, photos |
| The phone system (Quo) | Recent calls and texts on the numbers you track, on the matching contact. A new number becomes a contact named by the number. | Named contacts from your phone's address book |
| Google Contacts | The photos of contacts you already have, matched by email | The contacts themselves |
| Your website forms | Every new enquiry, as a lead with its contact | Past enquiries |
The CRM connection is for a company that keeps its CRM and wants both to agree. Edits to quotes and invoices in Combdex are pushed to the CRM; new contacts can be sent to it with a switch that is off by default. The steps are in CRM sync. The phone system's steps are in Phone system.
What do I enter by hand?
The records that make tomorrow's work possible, in this order:
- Your company: the Business address, the letterhead, the tax rates. See Set up your company.
- The catalog: the items you quote most, with their descriptions. A good catalog line is the one you would type into a quote anyway.
- The contacts with open work, each with their Location. See Contacts, companies and Locations.
- Open quotes, written again from the catalog, and sent as a new link.
- Unpaid invoices, as new invoices with the balance owed.
Everything else arrives as you work: each call adds the caller, each form adds a lead, each job adds its photos.
What cannot be imported yet?
- A file of contacts, companies, catalog items, leads or projects.
- Past quotes and invoices older than the CRM connection's first pull, and any without a CRM.
- Past payments outside the CRM connection.
- Photos and files from another system; upload a job's photos to its project instead.
- Projects and sessions from another system.
A plan for the first week
| Day | What to do |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Export everything. Set up the company and the letterhead. Connect the phone system. |
| Day 2 | Enter the catalog's most-quoted items. Put your Combdex form on the website. |
| Day 3 | Enter the contacts with open work. Invite the team; see Invite your team. |
| Day 4 | Write today's quotes in Combdex. Install the phone app on every technician's phone. |
| Day 5 | Enter the unpaid invoices. From now on, every new job starts in Combdex. |
What if I move again later?
Your records are yours. Every table on the web has Export CSV, every quote and invoice downloads as a PDF, and photos download as the original files. See Export.
Related
- A spreadsheet, a camera roll or a job app: whether to move at all.
- Your first job: the first job, start to finish.
- Contact management for contractors: how contacts build up once you are in.
Questions people ask
Can I import a CSV of contacts into Combdex?
Not yet. Combdex has no file import today. Contacts arrive through the CRM connection, the phone system, website forms, or by hand. Export your list anyway: it is the reference you check against while the new records build up.
I want to keep my CRM. Can Combdex work beside it?
Yes. The CRM connection syncs both ways. Quotes and invoices you change in Combdex are pushed to the CRM. Quotes, invoices and payments changed in the CRM come into Combdex every 10 minutes. Form contacts from the CRM arrive as leads.
Does the Google Contacts connection import my contacts?
No. It matches the photos in your Google address book to the contacts already in Combdex, by email address, and checks for new matches every 15 minutes. It reads Google and never writes to it. It never replaces a photo somebody uploaded in Combdex.
Will my old invoices come across?
Only through the CRM connection, and only recent ones: the first pull reaches back 30 days. Older invoices stay in your current system. Keep its export as your archive, and start new work in Combdex.
Can I take my data out of Combdex later?
Yes. Every table on the web has Export CSV for owners and admins, which exports the view you are looking at. Every quote and invoice downloads as a PDF. Export works on every plan and a plan change never switches it off.