Who is this article for: This article will be useful to you if you are a new company on PartnerStack looking to migrate over an existing partner program.
Migration overview
Migrating a program can seem daunting, but proactively implementing some best practices like having a clear timeline, early and clear communication to partners, and having your historical data ready to go will help ensure your migration process is smooth and straightforward.
Create a clear migration timeline
When planning your migration, know the end date of your current software contract if applicable. We recommend giving a buffer time of 2 months to give you the breathing room for testing, and to give your partners time to access their PartnerStack account and update their referral links if applicable.
Communicate your migration timeline to partners
As in all things, communication is key. Let your partners know ahead of time what changes are coming and what they should expect.
Some FAQs your partners may have are:
- How will this affect my customers and commissions?
- Where will I log in?
- When should I update my link?
Assure your partners from the start that their data will be imported over (unless you are not moving historical data) and that there will be no interruption to their commissions.
Communication schedule example:
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Two months out: Initial email letting partners know you will be changing platforms, assure them you’ll be there every step of the way to answer questions and make the experience as smooth as possible
- We recommend asking partners if they have an existing PartnerStack account and if so, ask them to ensure the email you have on file matches the email on their current PartnerStack account by a specified date.
- One month out: A reminder email that next month they will be sent a “claim your account” email where they can set up their PartnerStack account, or an “accept invite” email if they have an existing PartnerStack account.
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On activation day: Once your partner claim emails have been sent, it’s time to activate your partners! Let them know how they’ll need to accept the program invite to access their new partnership with you.
- Let your partners know the time to update their links has come! Remind them where to log in (dash.partnerstack.com/handshake), let them know they’ll need to agree to the program terms & conditions and they’ll be ready to copy and share their link.
- This is a great opportunity to send your partner some helpful support guides! We recommend:
Preparing for migration imports
Before importing any data, we recommend downloading the CSV template from your Settings > Import tab and checking the required data based on the import type.
When importing data follow the below sequence. First import partners, then customers, and lastly transactions or commissions.
Step 1 Partner import: Importing your partners enables you to invite partners to your program on PartnerStack. If the partner does not have an existing PartnerStack account, they will receive an invite, and be guided through the steps to create an account.
Before importing partners:
- Determine the list of partners you wish to import. This could be:
- Just your top partners to start
- Just your active partners to start
- All your partners regardless of activity
- Consider how you will want to organize your partners when you import them. While you can always update your partner organization, you’ll make your life easier by importing your partners directly to the group you’d like them to be in from the get-go.
- Do you want your partner organized by persona, commission type, program type, etc?
- Before importing, reach out to your top-performing partners. Confirm if they have an existing PartnerStack account and if so, ask them to ensure the email you have on file matches the email on their current PartnerStack account.
- Determine if you would like to send verification emails to partners right away, or at a later date (highlighted below in orange).
- If the partner does not have a PartnerStack account, the verification email will guide them through setting up their account.
- If the partner does have an account, the verification email will invite them to add your program to their existing account.
- Review the Importing Partners section of our Best practices for importing data support guide to ensure you have all the mandatory data.
When importing partners, ensure you check the “Disable triggers on import” checkbox so no group move triggers are fired.
If you choose not to send verification emails when you first import your partners, you can send these at a later date by contacting support at support@partnerstack.com.
Step 2 Customer import (if applicable): Once you have imported your partners, you’ll be able to attribute customers to them.
Before importing customers:
- Ensure you have first imported the partner each customer will be attributed to
- Determine which customers you would like to import
- Determine if you’ll be using the customer’s email as their customer key, or an internal customer identifier from your CRM (i.e. your customer's ID in your CRM)
- If you will be sending us transactions through a payment webhook (Stripe, ChargeBee) ensure you include the customer’s provider_key from the payment webhook in your import
- The provider_key is what will link a transaction sent by your payment webhook to the customer in PartnerStack to ensure future transactions are tracked
- Review the Importing Customers section of our Best practices for importing data support guide to ensure you have all the mandatory data
When importing your customers, ensure you check the “Disable triggers on import” checkbox so commissions aren’t fired for these historical customers.
Step 3 Transaction import (if applicable): Once you have imported your customers, you will be able to import transactions and attribute them to an existing customer. You may want to do this to give your partners access to historical data.
Before importing transactions:
- Ensure you have first imported the customer the transaction will be tied to
- Determine which transactions you would like to import
- Review the Importing Transactions section of our Best practices for importing data support guide to ensure you have all the mandatory data
When importing your transactions, ensure you check the “Disable triggers on import” checkbox so commissions aren’t fired for these historical customers.
Step 4 Commissions import (if applicable): You can use the commissions import to import either historical commissions (already paid to the partner externally to PartnerStack) or to import commissions that you would like paid out to the partner through PartnerStack.
Before importing commissions:
- Ensure you have first imported the partner the commission should be applied to
- Determine if you are importing historical commissions or commissions you would like paid out on PartnerStack
- If the commissions have already been paid out to partners, use the commission status “paid”
- If the commissions are to be invoiced through and paid out in PartnerStack, use the commission status “pending”. Commissions will then be invoiced and follow the regular payment cycle
- Review the Importing Commissions section of our Best practices for importing data support guide to ensure you have all the mandatory data
Migration FAQs
How do we manage commissions that need to be paid out on the old provider?
Based on your migration plan, determine the last day commissions will be paid out to partners on your old platform, and when commissions will start to generate on PartnerStack. Proactively let partners know that commissions generated before x date will be available to withdraw on your old provider, and any commission generated after that date will be available to withdraw from PartnerStack.
How do we deal with partners updating their links?
Determine, and proactively communicate to your partners the date after which their old referral links will no longer be functional. Ensure partners are aware they will need to update their link anywhere they have shared it before that date.
Can we edit the claim email that is sent to partners?
When importing partners via the import tool you cannot edit the claim email that is being sent.