Switch from a spreadsheet to MoveMembers
Your member list already exists, in a spreadsheet. This page says what MoveMembers takes from it today, what it does not, and how to switch without losing a week.
Who should not switch
A spreadsheet costs nothing, you know it by heart, and for some gyms it is the right tool. Three honest cases.
A handful of members, all paying at the desk
If nobody books ahead, nobody needs a reminder and everyone pays you in person, the spreadsheet does the job. Switching would cost you an evening for a difference you would not notice.
Your spreadsheet is also your accounts
If the file holds your bookkeeping, your coaches' pay or formulas built over years, none of it is imported: MoveMembers reads a list of members, not formulas or extra tabs. If those tabs are what keeps you running, keep them.
You are in your busiest weeks
A switch needs one quiet evening to check the import and one week of attention at the desk. Do not do it the week of an opening, a camp or a grading. Pick a quieter week and come back then.
What comes across, and what does not
Checked against the import as it works today, not against a future version.
- Name Yes
One Name column, or First name and Last name, joined in the order you choose.
- Email and phone Yes
The apostrophe Excel puts in front of a number is removed. The country code is not added for you: write it in the file.
- Join date, birthdate, notes, tags Yes
Without a join date column, members are recorded as joining on the day of the import.
- Current plan Yes
Start date, end date, total credits, credits left and status. The plan name must match your catalogue, or the import can add it there, without a price.
- Class timetable Yes
From a second CSV file, in Classes. Coaches named in the file must already exist in MoveMembers.
- Attendance history No
Keep your spreadsheet as the archive.
- Past payments and receipts No
A Paid column only marks the current plan as settled.
- Belts, disciplines, levels No
Grades are set member by member after the import.
- Emergency contacts, guardians, photos No
They are filled in on each profile afterwards.
- Signed waivers No
No waiver is imported as signed.
- Upcoming bookings No
Members book again as soon as the timetable is live.
- Bank cards No
See the section on cards below.
| Data | Imported | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | One Name column, or First name and Last name, joined in the order you choose. |
| Email and phone | Yes | The apostrophe Excel puts in front of a number is removed. The country code is not added for you: write it in the file. |
| Join date, birthdate, notes, tags | Yes | Without a join date column, members are recorded as joining on the day of the import. |
| Current plan | Yes | Start date, end date, total credits, credits left and status. The plan name must match your catalogue, or the import can add it there, without a price. |
| Class timetable | Yes | From a second CSV file, in Classes. Coaches named in the file must already exist in MoveMembers. |
| Attendance history | No | Keep your spreadsheet as the archive. |
| Past payments and receipts | No | A Paid column only marks the current plan as settled. |
| Belts, disciplines, levels | No | Grades are set member by member after the import. |
| Emergency contacts, guardians, photos | No | They are filled in on each profile afterwards. |
| Signed waivers | No | No waiver is imported as signed. |
| Upcoming bookings | No | Members book again as soon as the timetable is live. |
| Bank cards | No | See the section on cards below. |
Prepare your spreadsheet
The import reads a CSV file: one line of headers, then one line per member.
- 1
Start from the template. Members › Template downloads the headers the import recognises, with your own plan names in the example row. The headers stay in English on purpose: do not translate them.
- 2
Keep one line per member. Two lines with the same email become one member, so a couple sharing an address needs two addresses.
- 3
Write each date column in one format. Year-month-day (2026-09-01) can never be misread. If every day in the file is 12 or under, the import asks you which order the dates use.
- 4
Write plan names as they appear in your catalogue. Upper and lower case do not matter.
- 5
Put the country code in front of phone numbers, for example +66.
- 6
In Excel: File › Save As › CSV UTF-8. In Google Sheets: File › Download › Comma-separated values (.csv).
- 7
In MoveMembers, open Members › Import, match the columns, read the review screen, then confirm. Nothing is written before you confirm.
Bank cards: none come across
A spreadsheet holds no card, so there is nothing to move, and MoveMembers imports none.
MoveMembers does not offer open-ended monthly card debits today. Members pay online when they buy, through your own Stripe account, or at the desk in cash or by transfer, recorded in a few seconds.
Online payments land directly in your Stripe account. MoveMembers takes no commission on them; only Stripe's own fees apply.
Switch day
Ten points, in order.
- 01Pick the day: a Monday in an ordinary week, not the first day of a promotion.
- 02The evening before, stop writing in the spreadsheet. Save a copy and name it as the archive.
- 03Create your plans in the catalogue before importing, with their real prices.
- 04Fill in the template, save it as CSV UTF-8 and import it.
- 05On the review screen, read the ignored columns, the date format and the rows that share an email.
- 06Open ten profiles at random and compare them with the spreadsheet.
- 07Import or build the timetable, and open one week of classes.
- 08Take one real payment at the desk and check the receipt.
- 09Send the message below to your members, in the channel they actually read.
- 10Keep the archived spreadsheet read-only for a month before you put it away.
Moving from another gym software instead? The order that works
The message for your members
Ready to copy. Replace what is in brackets before you send it.
Hi [first name], From [date], [gym name] runs bookings and memberships in a new app. Your membership has been carried over. To book your classes: [link to your member space] Nothing changes at the desk: you can still pay there as usual. If anything on your account looks wrong, reply to this message and we will fix it. [gym name]
Questions before you import
No. The import reads CSV files. An Excel workbook dropped in as it is gets recognised and refused, with the fix: in Excel, File › Save As › CSV UTF-8, then import that file. Commas, semicolons and tabs are all read as separators, and the text encoding is detected.
Nothing is duplicated. Each line is matched to an existing member by ID, then email, then phone, and that member is updated instead of created again. A plan with the same start date is not added a second time. Columns your file does not carry leave the profile as it was.
Up to 5,000 lines per import. A bigger file is refused with its line count rather than cut short in silence: split it in two and import both, one after the other.
No. Everything is imported, and the review screen tells you beforehand how many members go past your plan, and until which date. Past 20 active members, everything keeps working until 30 days after your first import. After that, adding members by hand pauses until you archive the ones who stopped coming or move to Pro, and everything else keeps working.
The review screen lists them before anything is written. A tick box adds them to your catalogue with no price, so the memberships are kept, and you set the prices afterwards. Without it, those members are imported without those memberships. Adding plans needs the permission to change settings.
Yes, for 24 hours. Undo the last import, in the Members import and export menu, removes the members and plans that import created. A member who has since booked or paid is listed first, and you decide. Members that already existed and were only updated keep their new values.
Two ways to go from here
See it with a sample gym
The live demo opens the software itself, filled with a sample gym. No signup.
Ask before you switch
Email us or message us on LINE with your questions about your file. Describe its columns: there is no need to send us your member list.
Every way to reach usWhat we commit to
- No contract when you sign up online: plans run month to month, cancel anytime.
- No commission on the payments your members make.
- Your data leaves the way it came in: CSV exports of members, payments and plans in Settings › Activity, on every plan.