Transfer or Close Organization

Overview

Moving data is sometimes something a Brand Admin can accomplish without the assistance of SM Support. Other times for large transfers of data, you may need to send a support ticket for our database team to assist. They cannot always "delete" information, but they can move it from one location to another.

If submitting a ticket that includes time-sensitive work, please submit those at least 2-3 business days BEFORE the due date if an org is closing or being bought out. We cannot promise same day completion of those data requests.

This article will review:

Parking Lot Account

A Parking Lot account is our name for a holding place for past data that is no longer needed in an active organization. Not every brand opts to have a specific account to hold prior data from closed orgs. We believe it is the best way of organizing your contacts, appointments, proposals should you ever need that data for a new location.

If you have one and want to move data here, it is most common to send a support ticket with details about what you want contacts tagged as (Examples: "moved", "transferred from xxx", "Jan. 2023"). Many brands use tags to reference what location the contact was from and date the contact was moved to the parking lot account. This makes it easy to batch move contacts back if ever needed.

Transferring Organization Data

There are two options for moving data from an organization that you want to close. Do it yourself, or have us do it for you. A lot of this depends on the size of the organization and amount of data history you want to move.

When zip codes are moved from one org to another, everything attached to those Contacts move, including notes, appointments, invoices, proposals, pictures, documents, etc.

Self Service

1. Go to Dashboard > Tools > Transfer - enter the zip codes of the contacts that you want to move. You can put a * if you want all contacts to be moved out of the org. Select Move from the "mode" drop down and choose the Destination organization you want to move the contact information and history to. (note: you can move or copy contacts and their data with this Transfer tool)

2. If you are closing the account you will likely want to move this contact history to your "parking lot" account so it can be held their until the organization is sold to a new owner. Be sure to choose the correct org to have all the contacts moved to in the Destination field.

3. Next step is to enter the cancel date in the organization that you want to close. Go to Dashboard > Organizations > Edit the correct org and add the Cancel Date.

Support Ticket

Submit a ticket to support@serviceminder.com
Please word your message to include a request to have all the contacts from "XXXX" organization move to the parking lot. You need to include the Org Name and the Org ID number before we will complete the request. You can find this info in the URL string when logged into that location.

3. In that same message, also request to have that organization marked Canceled. We will mark the location canceled on the date of the business closing. Doing so beforehand will prevent the migration of data and Users cannot access that account.

How to Close an Organization

As franchise contracts run their course, franchise owners may sell to a new owner, close their doors, be terminated by the franchisor, etc. Whatever the reason, there will come a time when a Brand Admin needs to shut-down an organization account on serviceminder.

To ensure a smooth transition, avoiding data losses and billing issues, please follow the steps below:

Go to your Franchisor Account Dashboard>Tools tab>Organizations
Choose the Org you wish to close, click Edit.
(Optional) Put the Org into "Suspended" state by checking the box in the billing plan section. You can choose to skip this step if you are not worried about data integrity or possible misuse of the account info by other users. Suspended status means that no users below Brand Admin level can access that org. This would be to prevent the old owner from accessing the data or if you do not want last-minute changes made to the contact list. Suspended status does not stop billing from occurring, so the franchisee or the brand will be charged for any "Suspended" accounts.
Submit a support ticket, asking the serviceminder data team to move all contacts from that organization into the brand "parking lot." Also note how you want these contacts to be "tagged". Reminder that you can move the contacts yourself using the "self-service method" detailed at the beginning of this article.
If the organization uses ServiceMinder Pay, submit a support ticket requesting that the merchant account be terminated. Provide the termination date. Ensure all transactions have been completed and deposited before this date.
Once that ticket is closed, go back into Dashboard > Organizations > Edit the organization and enter a Cancel Date. The cancellation date will remove it from our billing system, so neither the brand or the franchisee will be charged for this account for the next billing cycle. The Billing Cycle is month-to-month with invoices or credit cards being automatically charged on the first of each month.

An organization in "suspended" state will still be invoiced monthly. Only a cancellation date will stop monthly billing. Once an organization is cancelled, all data for that organization is subject to deletion permanently approximately 30 days after cancellation date.

Moving Contacts Between Organizations

Let's say that old territory is purchased by a new or existing owner. It's easy to recapture the contact data which was previously moved to the parking lot org (some brands also call it Holding account).

Create the new Organization.
Submit a support ticket requesting that all contacts tagged as "XXX" be moved into that new Organization. Be sure to explain where we are moving it from and where you want it moved to. You need to include the Org Names and the Org ID numbers before we will complete the request. You can find this info in the URL string when logged into that location.
When ticket is closed, go into new Organization and review the data to confirm.

Organizations Changing Owners

If the organization is being bought from one owner to the next, but the org is staying as it is (meaning no transfer of information) you will need to update:

Add the franchisee to the newly purchased org.
Review if the QuickBooks integration needs updating.
1. In some cases, the franchisee may want to use a new or existing QuickBooks.
Change the billing information for serviceminder charges.
Change the payment merchant id.

Adding the Franchisee as a User

Using the impersonation feature, search for the name of the franchisee.

Click on the Name of the franchisee (do not impersonate).

From there, you can locate the Organization Memberships tab.

Click Add and search for the name of the org that was purchased.

You will need to choose a role or group. That dictates the permissions level and functionality the franchisee will have within that org.

This step needs to be replicated if other existing users need to be added to the newly purchased org.

Updating QuickBooks

Go to Control Panel > Tools tab > Integrations within the newly purchased org. Click on Accounting tab. Update the settings and information as needed. To learn more about setting up QuickBooks from scratch, please review Connecting QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Best Practices.

Updating Billing Information

If the franchisees are billed individually using their credit cards, the brand will need to update that information on behalf of the owners. To update the billing information, a brand admin will need to go to Dashboard > Organizations > click on the name of the org. There, you will need to "Clear" the cc information and add updated credit card details for future SM billing and purchases.

If the old card was accidentally charged at the first of the month, please LEAVE the old card info for now. The serviceminder financial team will need it to REFUND the prior owner. Once the refund has been submitted, then you will need to clear/update the cc info.

Updating Payment Processor

Learn how to update the Payment Merchant ID.

Tokens live and are owned by the merchant processor account holder. If you have purchased a location from another franchisee, and your updating the merchant processor to your account, you will not have access to the previously saved cards or ACH on file. You will have to recollect those.

If you need to transfer payment tokens from one account to another, please consult your payment provider to learn what steps they need to make on their end.

Transferring Payment Tokens

If you have updated your merchant ID number, you will need to consider how your payment processor handles transfer of payment data. This is commonly referred to as Tokens. Each payment processor can do it differently.

In some cases, ACH (echeck) or Credit Card tokens may not be transferrable and the new franchisee must recollect that information from prior and recurring customers. In that case, they send a mass email to those customers requesting that they call the office or provide the new information for upcoming appointments. Your brand may have specific ways they want this process to go, so please consult with your brand leadership team.

In either case, the merchant is the one who stores and transfers those on the franchisee's behalf. We at serviceminder cannot make that transfer of payment tokens. The brand team or franchisee will need to reach out to their payment merchant and have that conversation independent of serviceminder support.

The timeframe of when that transfer takes place is completely up to the merchant processor and is independent of serviceminder. We cannot estimate a time, but it is wise to start that process as early as possible.

FAQs

What happens when contacts are moved from one organization to another? What happens to scheduled appointments and assigned Service Agents?

Service Agents must also have access to the destination organization for appointments to remain assigned to them. If an assigned Service Agent is not available in the new organization, the appointment will become unassigned.

The same principle applies to any data that references a user or Service Agent. If that person does not exist in the destination organization, those relationships will be removed. This includes items such as contact ownership and proposal ownership.

For appointments specifically, if all assigned Service Agents are removed during the transfer, the appointment will be placed in the queue.

It's important to note that all other appointment details remain unchanged during the transfer. Scheduled dates and times, pricing, notes, and other appointment information will transfer successfully. Only user and Service Agent assignments may be affected.

I moved contacts that I didn't mean to. What should I do?

If you accidentally transferred contacts or moved a large amount of data to the wrong organization, please contact our Support team as soon as possible.

In some cases, it may be possible to restore the affected accounts to their previous state. Please note that fees may apply for data restoration services.

I lost payment information for my contacts. What happened?

If contacts are transferred from one organization to another, most contact data can be moved, including appointment history, invoices, and contact details.

However, saved payment methods (payment tokens), such as stored credit card or ACH/eCheck information, cannot always be transferred. Whether payment tokens can be moved depends on the ownership of the organizations and the merchant processing accounts involved.

If the source and destination organizations belong to different owners and use different merchant processing accounts, payment tokens cannot be transferred. This restriction applies regardless of whether you use Heartland, Payment Pilot, or SM Pay, and is required by payment processor security and privacy regulations.

If the same owner controls both organizations and both organizations use the same merchant processing account, payment tokens can be transferred.

In short, payment information cannot be transferred from one franchisee's merchant processing account to another franchisee's merchant processing account.

If payment tokens cannot be transferred, what are my options?

Many brands provide approved email templates that franchisees can use when payment information cannot be transferred.

While these situations are relatively uncommon, it can be helpful to have brand-approved messaging that explains to customers why they need to update their payment information on file.

These emails can be sent individually from the Contact Details page or in bulk from the Contacts or Proposals grids. Franchisees can use filtering and sorting tools to identify the specific contacts who need to re-enter their payment information.