Switching from Momence to BookYourMat is mostly a data and communication project, not a technical one. The parts that decide whether it goes smoothly are an accurate export of your clients and balances, a sensible cutover date, and a clear message to your clients about what changes for them.
This post is a planning guide. It is not a claim that one platform is better than the other for everyone. Momence is a capable product and plenty of studios are happy on it. But if you have decided to move, or you are seriously weighing it, here is how to do it without losing a week of bookings or a single client's remaining sessions.
Start by deciding why you are leaving
Write down the two or three actual reasons. Maybe the monthly bill no longer matches how much of the product you use. Maybe your clients pay you by Venmo or Zelle and you are tired of reconciling by hand. Maybe you want a simpler day-to-day screen. Whatever it is, the reasons become your acceptance test. At the end of the move, you should be able to say whether each one got better.
This also keeps you honest about what you are not changing. If your reason is "I want a branded native app," check that before you commit. BookYourMat's client portal works well on a phone, but it is a portal, not a custom-branded app in the app stores.
What to export before you touch anything
Do the exports first, while everything still works. Log in to Momence and see what each report or export screen gives you. Features and export formats change, so look at what your account actually offers today rather than trusting a blog post, including this one. You want, at minimum:
- Client list. Name, email, phone, and any notes. Phone numbers matter if you plan to text clients.
- Active packages and credits. For every client, the package name, total sessions, sessions used, sessions remaining, and expiration date.
- Active memberships. Who is on which plan, the billing date, the price, and whether they are on a commitment period.
- Upcoming bookings. Everyone currently booked into a future class or private.
- Waitlists. Who is waiting on which class.
- Payment and revenue history. For your accountant and for your own records, not necessarily to import.
- Signed waivers. If waivers live in Momence, download copies. Do not assume a new system can inherit a signature.
Save all of it somewhere outside Momence, in a dated folder. Take screenshots of anything you cannot export. If a client disputes a balance in month two, you will be glad you have the original.
Package balances are the part that matters most
A client's name is easy to move. A client's "6 sessions left on a 10-pack, expires March 3" is the thing they care about, and the thing most likely to cause a dispute.
Build one clean sheet with a row per client per package. Columns: client, package type, original sessions, used, remaining, purchase date, expiration. Then spot check it against Momence for at least ten clients, including the odd ones: someone with two packages, someone with a comped session, someone who was refunded, someone whose package is expired but you promised to honor.
Decide your rules for the weird cases before you migrate, and write them down. Common ones:
- Do you honor expired packages that expired during the switch? Many owners choose a short grace period, because it removes a reason for anyone to feel shortchanged.
- How do you treat a client with a credit balance in dollars versus sessions? Keep them as separate items on your sheet.
- Who gets the benefit of the doubt when your records and the client's memory disagree? Decide this now, not mid-conversation.
When you talk to BookYourMat about your move, bring this sheet. BookYourMat's documented migration tooling today is built around Acuity and Calendly, so for a Momence move, ask us directly how your export would be brought in and what we would do by hand. We would rather tell you the real answer on a call than promise something vague. You can book a 30-minute demo and bring a sample of your data.
Pick a cutover date that fits your calendar
Do not switch in the first week of a month, when memberships renew and packages tend to be purchased. Do not switch the week before a holiday or a workshop. A quiet stretch in the middle of a month, ideally with a couple of low-attendance days, gives you room to fix things.
Also think about billing. If clients are on memberships billed through Momence, work out how and when billing moves, so nobody is charged twice or skipped. Cancel nothing in the old system until the new one has taken over a billing cycle you have checked line by line.
Run both systems in parallel for a short window
A parallel run is the single best way to avoid a bad surprise. Here is a practical version, over roughly one to two weeks:
- Set up the new system fully before telling clients: class types, capacity, instructors, packages, memberships, waiver, your policies.
- Load your clients and balances, then spot check again.
- Recreate the upcoming schedule and move existing bookings over, so the new system is accurate about who is coming.
- Freeze new package sales in the old system on the cutover day. This one rule prevents most reconciliation headaches, because balances stop changing in two places.
- Keep the old system read-only for a couple of weeks as a reference. Do not delete it.
During the parallel window, check every day for the first few days: does today's class list match what you expect, and does each attendee's balance drop correctly? Small mismatches show up early, when they are cheap to fix.
Tell your clients early and keep it short
Clients do not care about your software. They care about whether they can still book Tuesday's 9 AM and whether their sessions are safe. Your message should cover three things:
- The date the change happens.
- What they need to do, in one or two steps (for example, use a new booking link and sign in to the portal).
- A promise about their balance, such as "your remaining sessions carry over, and you can check them in your account."
Send it about two weeks ahead, repeat it a few days before, and send a final one on the day with the new link. Post the link where clients look: your website, Instagram bio, the front desk, and any email signature. Expect a handful of clients to still use the old link a month later. That is normal.
If you want a gentler handoff for clients who prefer text over portals, tell them they can ask about booking by text with Becky, BookYourMat's AI front desk assistant, which you control. See how Becky handles your front desk.
Frequently asked questions
How long does switching from Momence take? It depends mostly on how clean your data is and how many packages and memberships you carry. For a small studio with tidy records, plan on a couple of weeks end to end, including the parallel run. Messy data adds time.
Will my clients lose their remaining sessions? They should not, if you reconcile balances before cutover and spot check afterward. The risk is not the software, it is unreviewed data.
Do I need to cancel Momence right away? No. Keep it until you have seen at least one full billing cycle run correctly in the new system. Check your own contract and notice terms in the meantime.
What about my payment history? Export it and keep it for your accountant. You do not necessarily need it inside the new system to run day to day.
Can clients keep paying by Venmo or PayPal? Many BookYourMat studios do. The system detects incoming Venmo and PayPal payments and matches them to clients. See the post on managing studio payments with Venmo and PayPal for how that works.
Check pricing and fit before you commit
Compare what you pay today against BookYourMat pricing, and check Momence's current plans too, since both change. The cheaper option is not automatically the right one. The right one is the one your front desk, your instructors, and your clients can actually use without help.
Next step
If you are weighing a move, bring a sample export and your list of reasons. Book a 30-minute demo and we will walk through what would transfer cleanly, what we would handle by hand, and what a realistic timeline looks like for your studio.
