Can you move cards on file to new studio software?

Sometimes. Saved cards are held by the payment processor, not the studio software, so they move only when the old processor releases them to the new one and the new system can use them. Moving the customer list does not move them, and it does not make the new system charge anyone. In Elara, a subscription still billing on the Stripe or Square account you connect keeps charging the same card once you link it to the member in the Migration Center. Other members on Stripe renew in Elara before their imported membership ends, with a card already saved on the account or a new one; on Square, they buy the plan again once it ends.

Treat these as three separate moves: the customer record, the saved card and the recurring charge. A membership can come across correctly while nobody has yet decided which system charges it next.

Identify which relationship is changing

Start with the payment processor and the account your cards sit in, not the software brand. Then name the processor and account you are moving to, who owns that account, and which system will start each renewal.

None of these rows guarantees a transfer. Ask the old processor whether it will release the cards, and the new one whether it can import them, before you choose a cutover date.

What Stripe and Square actually document

Stripe's migration overview describes coordination with the existing processor and mapping imported data to the destination. Subscription remapping and a customer path for updating payment details are separate steps.

Square's third-party card-data import guidance (the Canadian version has the same terms) describes a one-time import that only the Square account owner can request. The previous processor sends Square an encrypted file, and after the import a mapping file links the old card references to the new ones. Square says the import can take up to 15 business days from when it receives the file and does not guarantee a completion date. Subscriptions, gift cards and appointments are not part of it, so recurring billing has to be set up again. Check the current guidance for the actual case; do not turn that timing into a cutover promise to members.

A customer CSV and a provider-managed card transfer are different workflows. Do not ask customers or staff to put raw card details into an ordinary spreadsheet or email.

Reconcile identifiers before scheduling charges

A mapping connects an old reference to a new one. Check for unmatched customers, missing credentials and records that require customer action. Matching totals are not enough: the right card must belong to the right customer in your own payment account.

Check a handful of mapped cards before the first renewals run. A successful import proves the import, not every future renewal: expired cards, extra authentication or a billing setup the new system cannot use can still need the member to act.

Keep the mapping file with your payment records, not in a shared drive or an email thread.

Assign one owner to each renewal

For every active subscription, write down the old system's last charge, the date that charge pays through and the new system's first charge. Decide which system retries a failed charge during the transition and which one cancels the old subscription.

In this hypothetical switch, cutover is on November 10:

Member B is the tight case: their old subscription has to stop before November 15, five days after cutover, and their card has to be ready in the new system by then. Member C needs nothing for months, which makes them easy to forget, so put their date on the list now.

A duplicate renewal and a missed renewal are different failures. Prevent the first by never letting two systems schedule the same member's charge. When a renewal is missed, check the schedule you agreed and the processor's record before charging the member by hand.

Ask for the card export in the first week of the switch, so a slow release does not move your cutover. Once you know whose cards will not transfer, send those members the link to save a card in the new system, and leave the rest until their transferred cards are matched: a member who saves a card first can end up with two customer records. If the transfer is late, either keep billing in the old system while access moves, or move the cutover date. Decide which before the first renewal, not after a missed one.

Write the customer action plainly

If members have to set up their card again, the message should name the studio, where to do it, the deadline and what happens if they do nothing. For example: “Your membership is paid through December 2. To keep it going, open your account on our booking page, choose Keep my membership and pick or add a card. Nothing is charged before December 3. Please do not send card details by reply.” Use the real dates and the steps your new system actually shows.

Do not say “nothing will change” when a customer must act. Do not tell a member their card is set up until the new system shows it saved.

How the switch works in Elara

Elara's Kenko and Mindbody imports bring customers, memberships, credit balances, classes, bookings and payment history. They never copy saved cards or recurring charges, and nothing renews an imported membership automatically. From Mindbody, each active monthly or yearly membership ends on its expiration date. From Kenko, include the subscriptions report in the export: with it, each one ends on the earlier of its next billing date and its own expiry, and the member is covered through that day; without it, Elara sees only the expiry, which can be months past what the member has paid for. A membership with no end date in the old system is held back for you to resolve rather than imported. When the report shows Kenko subscriptions still billing, the import will not continue until you confirm you have cancelled them in Kenko. It cannot check that you did, so cancel them first. A Mindbody import has no such step: stop Mindbody's autopays yourself.

What members do next depends on your payment provider, and on whether you reconnect the account your old system billed on:

• Stripe. Once the account is live, members whose imported membership has nothing billing it see a Keep my membership button in their account during the last billing period before it ends. They pick a card already saved on the account or add one. Nothing is charged until the day after that end date, and they keep their start date. The button needs a monthly or yearly plan that already has a Stripe price: one created while Stripe was live in Elara, sold online at least once, or linked to its Stripe price in the Migration Center. Plans that add sales tax on top of the price do not offer it.
• Square. Keep my membership is not available, so a member with nothing billing them buys the plan again once the imported membership ends, and has no membership to book with in between.
• The Stripe or Square account your old system billed on. Elara watches the account without charging anyone until you choose Go live. Before then, every subscription still billing on that account has to be linked to a member's membership in the Migration Center, and any import in progress has to be finished and released. Going live does not cancel or recreate those subscriptions, and cards already saved on linked customers can be used in Elara, so those members do not enter them again. Customers with saved cards but nothing billing them can be linked too. Link them before they add a card in Elara: a member who adds a card first gets a new customer record on the account, and their old saved cards can no longer be linked. Subscriptions the Kenko import asked you to cancel do not continue this way: those members use Keep my membership or buy again.

Once your Stripe or Square account is live in Elara, members can also add a card from the Billing section of their account without buying anything. The migration guide covers what each import brings across and how to rehearse it before anything changes. The payments page covers connecting your own Stripe or Square account and taking payments online and at the front desk.

Before you set a cutover date, go live and have a test member buy a monthly plan online. On Stripe, also sell online once each monthly or yearly plan your imported members hold, so it has the price Keep my membership needs. A member can hold only one such plan at a time, so use a separate test member for each, then cancel the test memberships and refund their charges. On a customer's profile, a membership that will be charged again shows Renews and a date, and one that will simply run out shows Ends; check imported members the same way after cutover.

Elara is priced per location, with every feature included. Ask for a quote.