Moving your members off a notebook or Excel without losing a single pass
A step-by-step switch: what to collect, how passes keep their real dates, what to tell members, and how to get through the first week calmly.
The hardest part of changing how you track members isn't the new system. It's the 150 people who already paid under the old one: some at the start of a monthly pass, some with three visits left on a card, and one who paid for the whole year back in March. Here's how to move them all over without anyone losing what they paid for.
Before you start: pick a day
Choose a quiet day to switch, such as a Sunday, or the first of the month if most of your passes run by calendar month. From that day on, every new sale goes into the new system, and everything sold before it is moved over once.
Keep the old notebook. You won't need it after the first week or two, but it costs nothing to leave it on the shelf.
Step 1: gather what you already have
Whatever you use now, whether it's a notebook, an Excel file or a list in Viber, you need the following for each member with a valid pass:
| Column | Example | Needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Ana Popescu | Yes |
| Phone | 069 123 456 | Recommended |
| ana@example.com | Recommended | |
| Pass | 8 classes | Yes |
| Start date | 01.10.2026 | Yes, or the end date |
| End date | 31.10.2026 | Yes, or the start date |
| Visits left | 5 | For visit passes |
| Notes | Knee injury, no jumping | Optional |
Name your columns like this and the app recognises them on its own.
If it's all in a notebook, typing it into a spreadsheet is an evening's work for most small venues. If it's already in Excel, you're nearly done.
Members whose pass has already ended can wait. Add them when they come back and buy a new one.
Step 2: set up your price list
Before importing anything, create the passes you sell: unlimited for a number of days (a monthly pass, say), a number of visits within a number of days, or a single entry. Use the names you already use, such as "8 classes" or "Monthly unlimited", because the import matches the pass column of your spreadsheet against these names.
Step 3: import the spreadsheet
Open the import screen in the app and upload the file: .xlsx, .ods and .csv all work. Abonatus reads your column headers and works out which column is which, in English, Romanian or Russian, so "Phone", "Telefon" and "Телефон" are all recognised. You can correct any of its guesses before anything is saved.
Next you see a preview of who will be added and with which pass, plus anything that looks wrong, such as a date it can't read or a pass name that isn't on your price list. Members who are already in the system, matched by email or phone number, are skipped, so importing the same file twice adds nothing the second time. Nothing is saved until you confirm, and then everything is saved in one go.
Two things matter most here:
- Passes keep their real dates. A monthly pass that started on 1 October still ends on 31 October, and a card with five visits left still has five visits left. If a row has only one of the two dates, the other comes from the length of the pass on your price list. A row with neither starts on the day you import it, which is why the dates are worth filling in.
- Imported passes aren't new money. They were paid for before you switched, so they go in at zero and don't show up in today's takings. Your first day's report shows only what you actually took that day.
Step 4: add your front desk
Invite each receptionist by email and give them a role. Reception scans members in, lets them in by name and sells passes. Managers and owners can also see the takings and run imports. Everyone signs in on their own phone, and there's no shared password, because there are no passwords at all.
Step 5: tell members how to get in
Members need to do one thing: sign in, so that their phone can show their code. There are two ways, and neither involves a password.
- With their email. They type it in and get a 6-digit code. If it's the email address on their member card, their pass is already waiting for them.
- With a code from the desk, for members who don't use email. The receptionist gives them a short code, or a QR code to scan, and they're in within seconds. They can add an email later.
A short message in your members' group chat or a sign by the door is enough, for example: "From Monday we check passes by phone. Open app.abonatus.com, sign in with your email, and show your code at the desk. No email? Ask us for a code."
The first week
- Expect a short queue on day one. Some members will sign in at the desk. It takes a minute each, and it only happens once.
- Someone forgot their phone? Find them by name and let them in. The same rules apply as for a scan, so the pass has to be valid, and the entry is marked as manual.
- Something doesn't match the notebook? Check the notebook, sort it out with the member, and make a note of it. Those are exactly the things worth telling us during the pilot.
After a week or two, the notebook stays on the shelf. After a month, it's hard to remember how you ever knew who had paid.
We'll do it with you
If you join the free pilot, we do this together: we look at your spreadsheet (or your notebook), set up your price list with you, and run the first import side by side.