How to Switch From HoneyBook to Dubsado, Step by Step

Updated October 2026: rewritten as a full step-by-step migration for Dubsado 3.0, with the current export and import steps from both help centers.

If you’re on HoneyBook and you’ve decided to move to Dubsado, the switch is very doable, and you don’t have to shut your business down for a weekend to do it. This is the order I’d do it in, as a Dubsado Certified Specialist who has been building in Dubsado since 2020. If you’re still deciding whether to switch at all, start with my Dubsado vs HoneyBook comparison and come back.

The short version

1. Map your client process before you touch either platform.
2. Start your Dubsado account.
3. Export your contacts and records from HoneyBook.
4. Import your contacts into Dubsado, active clients separately.
5. Connect your email, domain and payments.
6. Build your templates and Flows from your map.
7. Move active projects over, or let them finish in HoneyBook.
8. Test, then send every new inquiry to Dubsado.

Step 1: Map your process first

The most common mistake I see is rebuilding a HoneyBook setup screen by screen in Dubsado. You end up with the same limits in a new tool, and you miss most of what you switched for. Write down what happens from the moment someone inquires to the moment the project wraps: what the client receives, what they have to do, what you have to do, and what changes depending on which service they book. That map is what you build from.

While you’re still in HoneyBook, open each automation and write down its trigger and steps, and copy the wording of your emails, contracts and questionnaires into a document. That gives you the content you’ll reuse, without tying you to HoneyBook’s structure.

If you’d rather not map it alone, Dubsado Alchemy walks you through a guided intake about how your process actually runs and gives you a build-ready Workflow Map with every email, form, scheduler and Flow step mapped together.

Step 2: Start your Dubsado account

Dubsado’s free trial gives you 21 days of the Premier plan with no credit card. Premier is the plan with Flows and schedulers, and it’s $525 a year. My code XOCAIT takes 30% off your first payment, which is your first month on monthly billing or your whole first year on annual. You can start your Dubsado trial with my code here. (Disclosure: it’s my Certified Specialist referral code.) The full plan breakdown is in my Dubsado pricing guide.

Keep your HoneyBook account open for now. You’ll need it until your last active project is finished or moved.

Step 3: Export your data from HoneyBook

Your contacts come out as a spreadsheet. In HoneyBook, go to Clients, then Contacts, click the three-dot icon, and choose Download spreadsheet. The CSV includes each contact’s name, email, phone number, address, notes and the date they were added.

For your active clients, save their signed contracts and completed files as PDFs, so you have a record of what they agreed to. If you want your project financials too, HoneyBook’s Projects report can be downloaded from Reports on desktop.

Step 4: Import your contacts into Dubsado

Before you import, split your spreadsheet into two files: active clients, and everyone else (past clients, old leads, referral partners). Remove duplicates first, because an import creates a new contact for every row, even if that person is already in Dubsado. Keep one row of column headers at the top, make sure every row has an email address, and save as .csv.

In Dubsado, go to Contacts, then Import CSV, and match your columns to Dubsado’s fields. For the active-clients file, check “Create a project for each new contact.” For everyone else, leave it unchecked, so you don’t end up with dozens of empty projects. Any column you don’t match can go into the contact’s notes.

One thing to know: Dubsado’s help center has one article that lists CSV import as a paid-plan feature and another that says it works during the trial. If the import is locked on your trial, that’s why, and it opens once you’re on a paid plan.

Step 5: Connect your email, domain and payments

Do this before you build anything that sends, so every email and link is right from the start.

• Email: In Settings, Emails, connect your Google or Microsoft account. Until you do, Dubsado sends from mail@dubsado.com. Once it’s connected, your client emails go out from your own address.
• Domain: In Settings, URL customization, connect your own domain with a CNAME record so your forms, invoices, schedulers and client portal show your domain instead of Dubsado’s. It can take up to 48 hours to go active.
• Payments: Set up Dubsado Payments in Settings, Payments. In the U.S., cards are 2.9% + $0.30 and ACH bank payments are 0.8%, capped at $5. The Dubsado integrations guide covers the payment and bookkeeping options in more detail.

Step 6: Build your templates and Flows from your map

Start with the pieces everything else uses: packages for the services and line items you bill, and payment plan templates for deposits and installments. Then rebuild your forms, contracts and emails using the wording you saved in Step 1.

Then build your Flows. This is where Dubsado gives you more than HoneyBook did. A HoneyBook automation can send emails and smart files, create tasks, change tags and move a project’s pipeline stage. A Dubsado Flow can also send a contract, a scheduler or an invoice on its own, create an invoice, update the project status, turn the client portal on or off, hold everything until the client does something, and start another Flow. So instead of one smart file doing everything at once, each piece goes out at the moment it’s needed. Build one Flow per path on your map, not one per HoneyBook automation.

If you’re moving your forms over too, I covered the design side of the switch in Mastering the Move from HoneyBook to Dubsado on Forms & Flows.

Step 7: Move active projects, or let them finish

You have two options for clients who are mid-project, and you can use both.

Let them finish in HoneyBook. For a client partway through a payment plan, this is usually the cleanest choice. Nothing changes for them, and you close out HoneyBook once the last one wraps.

Move them to Dubsado. If you imported active clients with projects in Step 4, the projects already exist. Give each one a status, then open the Contract row and choose “Upload PDF as signed contract” for the contract they signed in HoneyBook. Other completed files go on the project’s Forms tab as PDFs. Uploading only stores the records, so nothing is sent to the client. Re-create any open invoices from the project’s Invoicing tab rather than uploading them, and record payments they already made so the balance is right. For recurring billing, set up a new recurring invoice that starts on the date of their next payment.

Step 8: Test, then switch new inquiries over

Run yourself through every Flow as a fake client, with a second email address, before a real client sees it. Check every email, every form link, every invoice and every point where the process changes depending on what was booked. Once it all works, replace the inquiry form on your website with your Dubsado lead capture form, and from that day on every new client starts in Dubsado.

Mathilda Louise Photography switched to Dubsado after years in another CRM, and her done-with-you setup now automates 86% of her client experience tasks across 13 workflows.

Want help with the switch?

Steps 1 and 6 are where most DIY moves stall, because that’s where all the decisions are. If you want it done for you, my done-for-you Dubsado setup ($4,497+) starts with a process mapping session, then I build and test your whole system and hand it over ready to run. If you’d rather build it yourself with a plan, the done-with-you setup ($1,997) gives you the mapping session, a step-by-step course, templates and Slack support. Compare every option on my Dubsado setup services page.

HoneyBook to Dubsado FAQ

Can I import my HoneyBook clients into Dubsado?

Yes. Download your contacts from HoneyBook as a CSV (Clients, then Contacts, then Download spreadsheet) and import it in Dubsado under Contacts, then Import CSV. Check “Create a project for each new contact” only for active clients.

Do my HoneyBook automations transfer to Dubsado?

No. Dubsado’s migration process covers contacts, projects, contracts and invoices, not automations, so you rebuild them as Dubsado Flows. That’s a good thing, because Flows can do more than HoneyBook automations, and rebuilding from your process map means you build what you actually need.

What happens to clients who are in the middle of a project?

You can let them finish in HoneyBook, which is usually easiest for anyone on a payment plan, or move them to Dubsado by uploading their signed contract as a PDF and re-creating their open invoices.

How long does it take to switch from HoneyBook to Dubsado?

Importing contacts and connecting your settings is quick. Mapping your process and building your Flows is the real work, and it depends on how many services and paths your business has. That part is what a Dubsado setup takes off your plate.

Is Dubsado cheaper than HoneyBook?

At the plan most service businesses need, yes: Dubsado Premier is $525 a year and HoneyBook Essentials is $588 a year billed yearly. The full side-by-side is in my Dubsado vs HoneyBook comparison.