Switch day: stop using BridalLive
The switch-day assistant checks your store is ready, compares practice moves with BridalLive, walks you through the day one step at a time and emails you a report the next morning.
Open it in Settings, Switch to BridalIQ POS (owners only), or from step 8 of the store setup. Switch one store at a time. The rule for every connection: one owner at a time. BridalLive and BridalIQ keep them until switch day; then the POS does.
Ready?
Every item from the switch-day checklist, checked by the POS where it can be: green is ready, amber is worth a look, red needs fixing. Each one says what to do. It checks:
- Store setup finished; your team invited and every manager has a manager PIN (for OKing a pickup before it's paid off).
- Email on; texting (carrier approval takes 1 to 2 weeks, so it warns you when you haven't started).
- Card payments: a card reader in the POS, or "card on another machine" for now.
- QuickBooks: the day the POS starts posting (tell your accountant).
- Vendors told about the POS invoice address; vendor portals and WedGen connected. Anything the POS doesn't have yet says not set up yet: BridalIQ keeps doing it.
- Your website's appointments page: type its address and press Check the page. The POS opens the page and looks for this store's booking code, and warns you while BridalLive's scheduler is still there. (GG Formals: ggformals.com/appointments; GG Forever Dublin: ggforeverbridal.com/appointments-dublin; GG Forever Statesboro: ggforeverbridal.com/appointments-statesboro.)
- Confirmations and reminders; Google, Facebook, The Knot and WeddingWire links (tick it when you've changed them); the last practice move matched.
Practice moves
In the weeks before switch day, export BridalLive's lists any day (the same ones as the move, see Moving over from BridalLive) and drop them on Practice moves. Only what's new comes in: running it again adds nothing twice. Then the POS is compared with BridalLive's own figures:
- pieces, retail and cost on hand (pieces paid in full and waiting for pickup count with them: they're the brides' now)
- open balances due and the number of open tickets
- upcoming appointments, customers and vendors
Every record that differs is listed (a ticket whose balance is off, a bride in BridalLive but not here, an appointment that came over once because BridalLive had it twice), so you fix it before switch day. Every practice move is kept: Earlier practice moves, Open.
Switch day
Pick a quiet time, before opening if you can, and press Start the switch. One step at a time, in order; Pause whenever you need to and Resume later. Every step is kept in the history.
- Final import and totals check. Export what changed since the practice, drop it in, and the totals are checked to the cent. If something still differs you can fix it, or go ahead anyway.
- Confirmations and reminders. Turn the POS's on now or at a time you pick, and turn BridalLive's off in the same hour so brides don't get two.
- QuickBooks. Turn off posting for this store in BridalIQ first; then the POS posts from the day you chose. Never both. Until the POS's QuickBooks posting is set up, skip this step and BridalIQ keeps posting.
- Vendors. Press Preview the email to see who it goes to (vendors with an email on file) and what it says. Nothing is sent until you press Send. Forward any invoice that still reaches the old address for a few weeks.
- Website orders (GG Formals): add the POS order address to SYVO's new-order alerts. See Orders from your website.
- Booking code. In SYVO (Store, Pages), replace BridalLive's code on this store's appointments page with the POS code (Settings, Your website), then press I've swapped it: check the page and make one test booking. See Your website.
- BridalLive read-only. Everyone in the POS sees a reminder to ring everything here. Keep BridalLive a few weeks for look-ups, then cancel it.
Press Finish and you see You're switched with what was done.
The morning after
At 7 in the morning the next day the POS emails you: yesterday's tickets, payments by cash, check and card, whether the day was closed even, bookings that came in, any message that didn't go, QuickBooks "Needs a look", and a reminder to check "Needs a look" on each register for offline changes. Owners only: staff never see money. The morning after shows the same report for any day.
Staff walk-through
Before switch day, walk the team through each of these on a practice ticket, then tick The staff walk-through is done:
- Check a bride in and mark how it went, and book an appointment.
- Ring a sale and take a payment (cards on your current machine: "Card (other machine)").
- Write a special order, take a deposit and sign the agreement.
- A pickup before it's paid off: a manager OKs it with their PIN.
- A return, store credit or a gift card; scan an old BridalLive tag.
- End of day, and what to do when the internet drops.