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The clean way to switch is a hard cutover on a date, not a gradual migration. Pick the first day of a month. Everything before that date stays in your old tool as an archive. Everything after it happens in TimeTracker. Nothing gets tracked twice.
Be realistic about import. TimeTracker does not have a bulk file importer. You set up clients, projects, people and rates by hand. For a normal agency this is a couple of hours of work, and this guide is the fast path through it. Check Import your data for the current options before you start.
The example: Northwind Studio moves off its old stack on 1 April. Maya Ellis (Owner) runs the switch.

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What carries over, and what does not

The honest summary: you rebuild your structure and you keep your history as files. That sounds worse than it is. Most of what people want to migrate is dead data they will never open again, and the rebuild is a good moment to close the twelve projects that finished last year.

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The switch

1

Pick a cutover date, and make it the first of a month

A month boundary means your reporting periods do not straddle two systems. If you switch on the 14th, every month-end report for a year needs two sources.Northwind picks 1 April.Tell the team the date at least a week ahead.
2

Export everything from your old tool first

Do this before you cancel anything. Most tools stop letting you export the moment the subscription ends.Get, at minimum:
  • All time entries, with person, project, date, duration and billable flag
  • All invoices, as PDFs
  • Your client list with contact details
  • Your current rate card
Store it somewhere your accountant can reach. This is your archive for the period before the cutover.
3

Decide what history you genuinely need

Be ruthless. Ask what you would actually go looking for in two years.Rebuilding two years of tracked time by hand is not worth anyone’s time. Rebuilding your six active projects is an afternoon.
4

Set the workspace up before the cutover date

Do the whole setup while the old tool is still running, so nobody is blocked on day one.Follow Set up a new workspace in order. The short version:
  1. Workspace name, slug, base currency, timezone. → General settings
  2. Turn off the apps you will not use. → Apps settings
  3. Create a schedule for the standard week. → Create a schedule
  4. Invite the team with the right roles. → Invite a member
  5. Set every rate. → Set a person rate
  6. Create clients, then projects. → Import clients and projects
  7. Set budgets on the projects that have one. → Set a project budget
  8. Fill in the invoice sender block. → Invoice sender details
Rates before the cutover date, always. A time entry snapshots the rate that applied on its date, so hours tracked before the rate exists carry no value. See Rate snapshots.
5

Set the invoice numbering to continue your sequence

This is the one thing people miss, and it causes a real accounting problem.If your last invoice in the old tool was 2026-0184, set TimeTracker to carry on from there. Do not restart at 1.→ Invoice numbering
6

Run both for one week, deliberately

For the week before the cutover, have one or two people track in both tools. Not everyone, and not for long.You are checking three things:
  • Do the hours match at the end of the week?
  • Does the billable value match?
  • Does anyone hit a wall doing their normal day?
One week is enough. A month of double entry and people quietly stop doing one of them.
7

Cut over

On the cutover date:
  1. Everyone stops tracking in the old tool. Completely.
  2. Finish and send any invoice that is still open in the old tool, or void it and reissue in TimeTracker. Never both.
  3. Do a final export from the old tool.
  4. Downgrade or cancel the old subscription – after the export, not before.
8

Watch the first two weeks closely

The first month is where habits form.→ Weekly timesheet routine · Time policies
9

Run your first month-end close

The real test. If close works, the switch worked.→ Month-end close

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If you must bring history in

Sometimes you genuinely need past hours inside TimeTracker – an open fixed price project that started in the old tool, for example. Bring in the summary, not every entry.
1

Create the project and its budget as normal

Full budget, as agreed with the client.→ Set a project budget
2

Add one manual time entry per person for the work already done

One entry per person, dated to the day before your cutover, with the total hours they had already spent. Put a clear note on it, such as “Carried forward from previous system”.Sarah had 40 hours on Bluebird before the switch. That is one entry of 40 hours, not forty entries of one hour.→ Add time manually
3

Approve those entries so the budget reflects reality

Now the budget bar starts from the true position rather than from zero.→ Approve a timesheet
Do not invoice carried-forward time. It was already billed in the old tool. Mark it clearly, and exclude it from the first invoice you raise.

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Common questions

There is no bulk file importer in the product. Clients, projects, people and rates are created by hand. See Import your data for the current options, and Import clients and projects for the fastest manual path.
For an agency with about 20 clients and 10 people, a focused afternoon for setup, plus one overlap week. The setup is not the hard part. The habit change is.
Yes, if the cutover is on a month boundary. Carry the project’s hours forward as one summary entry per person and let the budget continue from there.
Leave them in the old tool and record the payment there when it arrives. Reissuing an invoice a client already has is how you get paid twice or not at all.
Yes. An Owner can export the whole workspace in open formats, and any report can be exported as CSV, Excel or PDF. See Export your data.
You can, but do not. Double entry decays within two weeks and then you have two half-true records instead of one true one. One week of overlap, with one or two people, is the right amount.

Import clients and projects

The fastest way to rebuild your structure.

Set up a new workspace

The full setup order.

Track work for a client

The first real job after the cutover.

Month-end close

The test of whether the switch worked.

Setup for an agency

The shape to rebuild into.