Guide17 July 2026 · 7 min read · MentAI team

How to move your practice from another system, step by step, without losing data

"I would like to change my software, but all my clients are in there." That is the most common reason for staying with a tool that no longer fits. Yet a well-planned move takes one afternoon. Here is the plan we use, with what matters for GDPR, and an honest word about what does not move over.

Step 1. Export your data from the old system

Almost every practice-management system can export data to CSV files (usually under Settings). Download everything you can, most often: clients, appointments or sessions, the list of therapists. Even if the new system will not read every file, this is your archive. Do this export BEFORE you close the old account, because once the contract ends, getting to your data can become difficult.

You have the right to do this: client data is data for which you are the controller (not the software provider). The export is how you meet your duty to keep records continuous.

Step 2. Import your clients YOURSELF, this matters for GDPR

The safest pattern for a move: the file with client data should not pass through third parties at all, including the company you are moving to. In a well-designed system you do the import yourself: you pick the CSV file on your own computer, the system recognises the columns (full name, phone, e-mail, guardian for a child) and loads the clients without the file being e-mailed to anyone.

Do not send your client database by e-mail, not to the new provider, and not "to yourself just in case" to a private mailbox.
If someone is going to help with the import, make it a video call with screen sharing: the file stays with you, and the helper sees only what you show.
A good import has duplicate protection: when you load the same file again, existing clients are skipped, not doubled.

Step 3. Close the loop on GDPR consents, ideally online

A move is a great moment to tidy up consents. If the new system can send consents by e-mail (the client clicks a link, the status comes back to their record), the binder of paper closes itself within a week or two. In MentAI every imported client immediately has the status "consent to be sent": one click and it is gone.

Step 4. Future appointments: as series, not one by one

Here is the honest part: appointment history and notes are usually not transferred between systems. They stay in your archive from step 1 (you have to keep them anyway). What you move is the future: regular clients are entered as series (for example "every Tuesday at 17:00 × 12 weeks"). A typical practice has a dozen or so series, a quarter of an hour of work. One-off appointments you add as you go.

Step 5. Set up the rest and test it like a client

The "it works the next day" checklist:

the number of clients after import matches the export from the old system,
children have guardians assigned (text messages and documents go to the adult),
services and prices are set, the schedule reflects your real hours,
a test booking made from a phone, like a client, goes through,
the text-message reminder for the test appointment arrived,
GDPR consents sent to at least a few clients,
the CSV archive from the old system saved in a safe place.

The old system does not have to disappear overnight. Most programs (ours too) have a free trial period, so for a week or two they can run side by side. You cancel the old contract only once the new system has passed the checklist.

How much does it cost?

With us: nothing. Moving to MentAI (a 30 to 45 minute call, import on your own screen, setting up services, the schedule and the booking page, appointment series) is free, whichever system you are coming from. Write to kontakt@mentai.pl, we agree a time, and the next day your practice is up and running.

Create an account, 30 days of the full version Read next: how to read "from PLN 99" price lists (in Polish)

The product interface is in Polish. Pricing: PLN 99/month incl. VAT (about €23) for the first therapist, each additional one PLN 39 (about €9).

This is an informational article. Export procedures differ between systems; check the names of the steps in your current provider's documentation. For questions about record retention and the legal basis for processing data, consult your data protection officer or lawyer, if you have one.

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