How to switch from Skimmer to PoolBoss

Before you move anything, get clear on what you're fixing. That decides whether the switch is worth a weekend. For most operators leaving Skimmer, it's the bill. Skimmer charges per serviced location with a monthly minimum. So every account you win raises your software cost. The better you do, the more you pay to run the same tool. PoolBoss charges a flat rate by pool-count tier, with unlimited users on paid plans. There's also a free plan for a very small route. Growth stops being something your software taxes. For the line-by-line numbers, how PoolBoss and Skimmer compare lays out the pricing and features side by side.

Here's the good news. Your day barely changes. PoolBoss runs the work you count on Skimmer for the same way. You get recurring routes on your phone, chemical readings logged for each pool, and a proof-of-service summary sent after each visit. You're not learning a new trade. You're moving the same routine to a tool that doesn't bill you more every time you add a pool. What's left is the mechanics of the move, and those are simpler than you'd think.

Pull your data out while your Skimmer account is still active. In Skimmer, open Settings and use the Export option. Download your customers and service locations to a spreadsheet. That covers names, contact info, service addresses, and each pool's specs. Skimmer gives you this export directly, so the data itself isn't the hard part. If you can, also export recent service and billing history. Save it as a reference file even if you don't re-enter every visit. It's the record you'll want if a customer asks about work done before the switch.

Do this first, before you cancel anything. The one mistake that turns a clean switch into a headache is letting the old account lapse before you've pulled everything out. Export, check that the file opens and looks complete, and keep it somewhere safe. It's your source of truth for the rest of the move.

Spend twenty minutes on the export before you touch the new system. This is where a sloppy switch goes wrong months later. Open the file and check the columns that matter on the route. That's the service address on every line, gate codes and access notes, and each pool's gallons, surface type, and sanitizer (chlorine, salt, or other). A wrong gate code or a missing unit number turns into a missed-stop call in week one.

Look for blanks and fix them now, while you still have Skimmer open to check against. If it helps, group the rows the way your routes run, by neighborhood or by service day. You're not formatting for a machine. You're making the next step fast and correct. A clean spreadsheet lets one person enter a whole book in an afternoon, instead of fighting it for a week. Save the cleaned file as a CSV while you're in it. That's the format importing a customer list reads.

Now build your book in PoolBoss. PoolBoss keeps each customer's contact info and address, with each pool hanging off its customer and carrying its specs. Your techs see gallons, surface, and sanitizer type right at the stop. This is most of the move. Once your accounts and pools are in the new system, routes and visits build on top of them.

You don't have to enter your book by hand. PoolBoss imports the cleaned CSV from Step 2. It reads your header row and matches columns like "Client Name" and "Svc Address" to the right fields on its own. It shows you a preview before anything saves. A solo operator running 50 pools around Tulsa and Broken Arrow gets through customers and pools in minutes, not an afternoon. Run them in order, customers first and then pools, so each pool attaches to the customer who owns it. Rows that match a customer you already have get skipped, not duplicated. So a second pass after a fix is safe.

With your pools in, group them into the routes you run, like Westside Monday and Eastside Tuesday. Set the stop order and assign each route to a tech. PoolBoss builds every route to recur. You set a route up once, and it repeats on the schedule you choose. You don't rebuild it every week. Your techs see today's stops in order on their phone, with the address and access notes you brought over.

This is also the time to fix anything that bugged you about the old setup. Maybe two routes should be three. Maybe a stop order got messy as you added accounts over the years. Rebuild it the way you wish it had been. You're entering it fresh anyway, so doing it right costs you nothing.

Don't flip the switch cold. Run PoolBoss next to Skimmer for one full service cycle, which is a week for most routes. Your techs log visits in the new app while the old one stays open as a safety net. This overlap is how you catch a missing pool or a wrong gate code before it costs you a missed stop. It's why the switch has no downtime.

Here's how it plays out. You run 50 pools around Tulsa and Broken Arrow on a Monday through Friday rotation. You spend a weekend on Steps 1 through 4. You run the first week in both tools and check that every stop logged correctly in PoolBoss. Then you cancel Skimmer at the end of that week. Pick a slower stretch for that week, not your peak summer load, so the learning curve doesn't hit on your busiest days. Once you've watched a clean week go through the new app, canceling the old account is the easy part.

Some operators hold off on switching because of the customer side. Will clients notice? Will it look sloppy? Will the phone start ringing? For the customer, the switch is invisible. They get serviced on the same day by the same person. They still get a proof-of-service summary after each visit that shows what you tested, what you added, and that you showed up. That report doesn't depend on which software you send it from, so nothing changes on their end.

Billing is the one place a customer might notice, and only a little. If you send invoices with an online payment link, that keeps working from the new tool. Finished visits become invoices, and customers pay online the same way. Give a short heads-up to anyone whose card statement might show a different payment name, so it doesn't look like a surprise charge. Past that, most operators say nothing and no one notices.