Define what needs to improve
Before comparing products, identify the everyday problems you want to solve. Make those problems specific enough to demonstrate and test.
- List the work that currently requires duplicate entry or separate tools.
- Identify gaps in reporting, billing, customer follow-up, or staff access.
- Separate essential capabilities from useful future improvements.
- Choose representative workflows for the provider to demonstrate.
Put it into practice: Bring examples such as a failed payment, a reserved unit becoming a rental, or a manager reviewing multiple locations.
Inventory your records and export options
Ask your current provider what can be exported, in which formats, and under what conditions. Confirm what the new provider can receive before promising a complete transfer.
- Identify facilities, unit types, units, tenant records, and active agreements.
- List balances, recurring charges, payment history, reservations, and account notes.
- Check whether documents, images, and historical reports are exportable.
- Keep original exports and clarify how sensitive information will be transferred securely.
Put it into practice: Payment credentials, documents, and historical records may need different handling. Do not assume every field can move automatically.
Write down how the facility operates
A new system needs your business rules, not just your customer list. Rules that exist only in one employee's memory are easy to miss.
- Document billing cycles, rates, discounts, and approved adjustment policies.
- Identify the treatment of deposits, balances, and existing arrangements.
- Describe reservation, move-in, move-out, and access workflows.
- Record the reports owners and accounting staff rely on.
Put it into practice: Confirm which rules the new system supports and which processes may need to change.
Confirm website, payment, and gate dependencies
Check each connection individually. Compatibility depends on the actual provider, hardware, configuration, and supported integration.
- List your website, domain provider, and the person who controls access.
- Identify payment-processing accounts and any onboarding requirements.
- Record gate hardware and software details for a compatibility review.
- List accounting, messaging, or other tools you need to keep.
Put it into practice: Ask for the confirmed scope in writing, including third-party work, fees, and responsibilities.
Prepare your team and access roles
People need to understand the new workflow before they are expected to use it with customers.
- Choose a primary contact for the transition.
- List staff roles and the access each person needs.
- Plan training around the actual tasks staff perform.
- Agree who will validate records and approve readiness for launch.
Put it into practice: Use sample scenarios to check understanding instead of treating a login as completed training.
Agree how you will validate and go live
The transition plan should explain when changes stop in the old system, how final records are checked, and what happens if an issue is discovered.
- Agree the transition scope, schedule, and responsibilities.
- Compare unit statuses, balances, and representative accounts.
- Test the agreed billing, website, and access connections.
- Define an escalation contact and the approach if launch needs to pause.
- Confirm your old provider's cancellation and data-access terms before ending service.
Put it into practice: Do not retire the old process until the agreed checks are complete. Storentic transition assistance is defined in your project scope; this guide is not a promise of automatic migration.
Published by the Storentic team. Use this guide as a starting point and adapt it to your facility policies, supported systems, and service agreements.