Moving from Protractor
Save your client list out as a file, bring it here, and the columns are matched the way Protractor files name them.
You keep Protractor. Treadstock stores tires and nothing else — it is not a shop management system. Your customer list comes over once, as a file you save out yourself, and then you carry on running the shop where you run it now.
Getting the file out of Protractor
The first one is the only one worth hunting for.
- Find the customer export or reportEvery shop system can write its customer list out to a file — it is how shops move to a new accountant, a new phone system or a new owner. Look for an export, a download, or a customers report with a save or download button on it. If you cannot find it, your system’s support line will know the name of it, and asking for “a customer and vehicle export as a spreadsheet” gets you the right thing.
- Clients, and the unit descriptionThe files we have seen from Protractor name the customer as Client Name in one column rather than two, and describe the car in one column — Unit Description — rather than in a year, a make and a model. Both shapes are read.
- Two phone numbersA Protractor export often carries a home number and a cell number. The cell is taken first, because the one you want in April is the one that gets answered.
- Open the file once before you send itOne row per customer, with the headings across the top. If a name, a phone number or a car is missing from the file, it will be missing here too — the export is the limit, not us. Opening it in Excel and saving it again is fine.
We do not say which menu it is under, because we do not run Protractor and a guessed menu name sends you hunting for something that is not there. What we can tell you is what to ask for.
The columns matched for you
These are the headings our screen recognises from the Protractor files it has read.
- Client Name
- Cell Phone and Home Phone
- Unit Description
- License Plate
- VIN or Serial Number
- Notes
It is a head start, not a rule. Every match is shown on screen with a real value out of your own file beside it, so a wrong guess is obvious, and you can change any of it before one customer is written. A column your file does not have is simply left alone.
What to check once it has run
- The count. The screen says how many customers it added and how many it filled in. If that is far off what you expected, the export was partial — run it again asking for all customers.
- One customer you know well. Open them and check the phone number and the car. If a column went to the wrong place it is obvious on the first person you look at.
- Nobody is in twice. Somebody already here gets their blanks filled in and any missing car added, rather than a second copy. Running the same file twice changes nothing the second time.
- Your tires are the other job. A customer list does not say what is on your rack. Walk the racks logging what is where, or paste a list you already keep.
Questions about moving from Protractor
Does this connect to Protractor?
No. You save a file out of your own system and bring the file here, the same way you would open it in Excel. There is nothing to authorise and nobody to ask.
My cars are one line of text, not a year and a make and a model.
That is the usual shape in these files and it is read as it stands. The car comes in as the line of text you already use, which is what your counter reads anyway.
Which phone number does it take?
The cell first, then a mobile, then the home number — whichever of them your file carries. You can change any of it on the screen before anything is written.
On a different system?
The four with their columns matched are a head start, not the whole list.
The import screen reads .csv, .xlsx or .xlsm out of anything that writes one, and if your system has no export at all there is a template on that screen to fill in.