Switch from Mindbody to Elara: what the import reads and what it leaves behind

You don't export reports from Mindbody to switch. Elara reads your site through Mindbody's public API (version 6) and saves one snapshot file: clients, active memberships, staff, classes, class visits and sales. The snapshot is uploaded to a run in Elara's Migration Center, where you review everything it found before anything is imported. Gift cards, appointments, waitlists, signed waivers and expired memberships are not imported, and neither are saved cards or autopays: a card transfer, if there is one, goes from one payment processor to another, so plan it separately.

Mindbody is a trademark of its owner, and this guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mindbody.

What the snapshot covers

What the capture reads:

• Clients, active and inactive, become customer profiles with name, email, mobile phone, date of birth, prospect status and promotional email consent.
• Active memberships become memberships on the Elara plans you map them to, with remaining visits and their expiration date.
• Staff become instructor records.
• Classes through the booking horizon become sessions and scheduled times at the locations you map. Cancelled classes are skipped.
• Class visits become bookings marked attended, no-show, cancelled (late cancellations included) or booked.
• Sales in the history window become payment history on each customer profile, marked as imported.

What it does not include, for every studio:

• Appointments. Recreate upcoming appointments as sessions or private bookings in Elara. (not read by this version of the importer)
• Gift cards. List outstanding balances in Mindbody and reissue them in Elara once you stop redeeming them in Mindbody. (not available from the API endpoints the capture reads)
• Expired and terminated memberships. Keep Mindbody's reports for history you need. (not available from the API endpoints the capture reads)
• Waitlist entries. Customers rejoin the waitlist in Elara. (not read by this version of the importer)
• Waivers and signed liability forms. Members sign your Elara waiver before their next booking or check-in. (not available from the API endpoints the capture reads)

Sales are read for a history window you agree with Elara support, ending on the cutover date. Without one, the capture reads only the cutover day's sales and no past classes. Classes and their bookings run further, through a booking horizon that defaults to one calendar year after cutover and can be set further out at capture when reservations extend beyond that. The Migration Center fills in that range from the snapshot.¹ Clients and active memberships are read as they stand on the day of the capture. One snapshot can be up to 16 MB and 100,000 rows, counting every row in it from clients to class visits, so a busy site may need a shorter history window or horizon. Every capture includes all your clients, active and inactive, so if the client list alone is close to that size a shorter window will not help: ask support before you set a date. If your Mindbody permissions block staff, classes, class visits, sales or memberships (clients are required), the capture records that area as unavailable rather than failing, and the Migration Center shows it as a warning before anything is imported. A run can still apply without it, so if memberships, classes or sales show as unavailable, fix the staff permissions and capture again before you import.

How the capture is arranged

There is no capture button in your Elara account. Elara support arranges the capture under Elara's Mindbody API access; ask when you request a quote how soon it can run for your site.¹ You don't need a Mindbody developer account of your own.

On Mindbody's side, an outside integration reaches a site's client data only after that site is activated for it. The developer generates an activation code or link for your Site ID, and the business owner links it to the site from Mindbody's API Integrations screen: "Only the owner of the business has permission to link your activation code with their site."² The capture also reads with a Mindbody staff user token that the owner authorizes. Elara support tells you which activation to approve, how to authorize that access without sending a password by email, and how the snapshot file reaches your Migration Center.

The credentials the capture uses are not stored in the snapshot. The snapshot keeps everything Mindbody returns on each client record, which can include addresses and the last four digits of a card, but nothing Elara could charge. It is a file of your clients' personal details, so treat it like any export of client data: move it only by the route you agreed, and delete stray copies once it is uploaded. Elara keeps an uploaded file for up to 30 days, like any other import file,³ and cancelling a run, such as the rehearsal, deletes its file straight away.

What happens after the upload

1. Describe the snapshot. When you start the run, enter your Mindbody Site ID as the account name and the time zone your site reports times in. After the upload, enter the cutover date under Export produced on. If any of them differs from the snapshot, analysis says which: correct the date on the run, or cancel the run and start a new one for a wrong Site ID or time zone. The export currency is prefilled from your studio and must match it.
2. Map what the snapshot names. Each Mindbody location that classes ran at, or that a membership is limited to, maps to an Elara location, and each membership name maps to its own Elara plan: two Mindbody names cannot share one, so for a name you no longer sell, create a plan, map it, then archive the plan. A class at an unmapped location, or a membership on an unmapped plan or limited to an unmapped location, is a blocking finding: map it, or acknowledge it and that record is left out rather than attached to a guess.
3. Analysis. Elara checks every record and lists findings. Some block: a client with no email or name, two clients sharing an email, or an active membership with no expiration date. Others only inform you, such as cancelled classes being skipped. Nothing is written during analysis, so you can upload a rehearsal snapshot, read the findings and cancel the run.
4. Hold automations, apply and reconcile. Importing history makes every record look new, so while held, scheduled emails (such as reminders about expiring memberships) and membership expiries wait until you release, and the import will not start without it. Elara writes the reviewed plan, then counts what landed and compares it with the plan. A run that has started applying can't be rolled back, which is why the rehearsal comes first.
5. Release the hold. Release the hold as soon as the run completes. Emails that were already overdue when you placed the hold are set aside; anything that came due during the hold goes out when you release.

Imported classes start as drafts, and they are always new classes: the import never merges them with sessions you already created in Elara, so imported bookings sit on the imported copies. Review their prices, credit costs and capacity before publishing. If you already created the same session yourself, sell places on only one of the two, because they don't share a capacity. Compare the future roster with Mindbody before you switch booking links. Elara does not read which channel a Mindbody booking came through, so stop any booking marketplace that sells your sessions through Mindbody before the final capture.¹ The Migration Center help page covers run states, holds and retention.

Memberships, autopays and cards

An active Mindbody membership is imported with its start date, its expiration date and, where Mindbody tracks them, the visits remaining. Elara treats the expiration date as the end of the access the member already has, so in the rehearsal compare autopay members' expiration dates with what they have paid through: a contract end date months away grants access nobody has paid for yet. Correct those dates in Mindbody before the final capture. Elara does not continue the Mindbody autopay and does not start a new charge. An active membership with no expiration date is a blocking finding, because Elara would otherwise grant open-ended access nobody is paying for: add the date in Mindbody and capture again, or acknowledge the finding and that membership is left out.

Stop autopays in Mindbody for the members you move, so nobody is charged by both systems. The import has no step that checks this for you. What members do next depends on the payment account you connect to Elara.

• Stripe. Once the account is live in Elara, a member whose imported membership has nothing billing it sees a Keep my membership button in their account during the last billing period before it ends. They pick a saved card or add one, and the first charge is dated the day after the expiration date. The button needs a monthly or yearly plan with a price above zero. Plans that add sales tax on top of the price do not offer it.
• Credit packs. A membership you map to a credit pack is not continued. Those members buy again when it ends.
• Square. A member buys the plan again once the imported membership has ended, from their account or at the front desk.

Saved cards belong to your Mindbody payment processing, not to the API: the capture reads no card Elara could charge, and the import brings nothing about cards across. Mindbody describes Mindbody Payments as "powered by Stripe", and its FAQ says Mindbody, not Stripe, supports Mindbody Payments accounts,⁴ so any card transfer starts with Mindbody. Ask Mindbody Support in writing whether it will send your clients' card data to a new processor, what it costs and how long it takes, before you set a date.

On the receiving side, Stripe imports card data from another processor after a data migration request. Stripe warns that "Processors can take anywhere from a few days to several months to produce a final export", and that once it has valid data, "imports typically complete within 10 business days". Subscriptions are not part of the card import.⁵ Imported cards land in your studio's own Stripe account, but connecting that account to Elara does not attach them to your members. Sweep the account from the Migration Center, then link each member to their Stripe customer there before they add a card in Elara: a member who adds a card first gets a new customer record, and moving them back to their old customer means removing that link, which needs payments suspended in Elara once you have gone live.

Unless a transfer is confirmed in writing, plan for members to add a card in Elara themselves. Never collect card numbers by email or in a spreadsheet. The saved payment details guide explains the decisions in more depth.

What to do about what the snapshot leaves out

Three things not in the snapshot need more than a line:

A workable timeline

Elara does not promise a migration time; the size of your site and the findings decide it. This sequence keeps Mindbody available for checking until the end.

Cutover checklist

• Capture arranged with Elara support, and the activation approved by the business owner on Mindbody's API Integrations screen.
• Card transfer answer from Mindbody Support received in writing, or members told they will add a card in Elara.
• Every Mindbody membership name maps to its own Elara plan of the same kind: visit counts to credit packs, unlimited access to a monthly, yearly or fixed-term plan. Analysis does not catch a plan of the wrong kind: that membership fails when the run applies and is listed under Records that did not land, so check each mapping before you apply. A client can hold only one active monthly or yearly membership, so a client with two current memberships mapped to those plans, or who already holds one in Elara, gets only one of them; the other is listed there too.
• Every Mindbody location that classes ran at, or that a membership is limited to, maps to an Elara location.
• Rehearsal snapshot analyzed and cancelled; blocking findings fixed in Mindbody.
• Rehearsal checked against the difficult rows, not only clean active members: an inactive client, a duplicate email, an active membership with no expiration date, a membership limited to a location you have not mapped, and a future class visit. Record what each should become before you look at the result.
• Clients without an email address given one, or accepted as left out.
• Waiver created and active in Elara.
• Payment provider connected, gone live and a test booking paid.
• If cards were imported, the account swept and members linked to their Stripe customers in the Migration Center before any of them adds a card.
• Outstanding gift card balances listed and reissued.
• Automations held before apply.
• Autopays stopped in Mindbody for every migrated member.
• Reconciliation settled and the run completed.
• Ten members spot-checked by someone at the front desk using their own staff role.
• Spot checks compare each member's balance and access end date with Mindbody, not only totals. A matching credit total can hide one member who lost five credits and another who gained five.
• Automations released and the member message sent.

Questions owners ask

Do I need a Mindbody developer account? No. The capture runs on Elara's Mindbody API access, and Mindbody makes API fees the responsibility of the developer account that holds the live integration with a site.⁷ Your part is approving the activation and authorizing the capture's staff access as the business owner.

Do I need to keep Mindbody during the switch? Yes, until cutover day. The final capture reads your live site, so it has to be active then, and you will want it for spot checks afterwards. Plan Mindbody's cancellation notice around that date.

Does Elara see my clients' card numbers through the API? No. The capture reads clients, memberships, staff, classes, visits and sales. It reads no card Elara could charge: a client record can carry the last four digits of a card, but never the full number, and Elara imports nothing about cards.

What if a client has no email address in Mindbody? Elara identifies customers by email, so the client is listed as a blocking finding. Add the email in Mindbody and capture again, or accept leaving that client out.

Can I run the import more than once? Yes. Runs are sequential, and a later run links to what an earlier run imported instead of creating duplicates. For memberships still in Mindbody, it updates the expiration date, status and location limit, and it updates booking statuses. A membership whose remaining visits, plan or start date changed is not updated, nor is a booking moved to another day: those are listed under Records that did not land, with what to change by hand. A membership that ended or was cancelled in Mindbody drops out of the capture and stays as it is in Elara, so end it by hand. Customer details, staff and imported classes are not updated, except that promotional email consent is filled in where Elara has none.

Try it with your own studio

Ask for a quote and tell us your Mindbody Site ID and payment provider. Once your account is set up, a rehearsal import shows its findings before you switch booking links. Elara vs Mindbody compares the two products, the Kenko switching guide covers the other importer, and the Migration Center help page has the full reference.