Moving between inventory apps: what data survives, what breaks, what to export first

Nine kinds of data live in a typical inventory setup. In an inventory app migration, four move cleanly, three move with real work, and two usually do not move at all — and the two that struggle (sales history and the judgment behind your reorder points) are exactly the ones that make the new app smart. So the order of operations matters more than the tool you are moving to: export before you cancel anything, count on cutover day, and plan to re-enter the reasoning yourself. Here is the full ledger, the export order, and a cutover sequence that does not leave your storefront showing fiction.

The survival ledger

Read the last column as a checklist, not a scare list. Every break on it is fixable in an afternoon if you know it is coming — and unfixable the day after you canceled the old app.

Why order history is the hard one

Your new app will get its picture of demand from Shopify's orders, and there are two frictions waiting there:

• The 60-day window. By default, an app's orders scope covers the last 60 days; access to older orders requires an additional scope that needs Shopify's approval (shopify.dev, accessed November 2026). A brand-new install may therefore compute velocity from two months of data — possibly your two slowest.
• The native CSV carries no history. Shopify's product CSV moves the catalog — handles, variants, prices, per-location quantities — and carries no order history at all (Shopify Help Center, accessed November 2026). History has to come from your orders export or from the old app's own exports.

Worked example of why this matters, illustrative numbers from a coffee roaster's catalog: the Ethiopian 250g bag (SKU KS-COF-ETH-250) sells 2.1 units/day on days it was actually in stock, with a 21-day lead time — so pipeline demand during a reorder wait is 2.1 × 21 = 44 units. Now suppose the new app starts from a 60-day window that included a 14-day dark stretch and averages over every calendar day: 65 units sold across 60 days reads as roughly 1.1/day, and pipeline demand computes to 1.1 × 21 = 23 units. The gap — 21 units per cycle, on one SKU — is the difference between a reorder that lands on time and one that lands after you have been dark for two weeks. Export the old app's order history (or your own 12-month orders CSV) and compute velocity on in-stock days only, then hand the number to the new app or use its manual override.

What to export first — and how to check the export is complete

Export in this order, before canceling anything:

1. Quantities snapshot with the date stamped on the file.
2. Catalog — your Shopify CSV already has this; keep a dated copy with the old app's fields if they differ.
3. Order / sales history — the longest window the old app will give you.
4. Supplier records — names, contacts, terms, and every lead time you ever wrote down.
5. Open POs — number, supplier, lines, promised dates, received-so-far.
6. Count and adjustment history — the only source you will ever have for past shrinkage questions.

Then verify the exports instead of trusting them. Row counts should reconcile against your SKU count (the CSV failure modes are documented in the Shopify inventory CSV piece). Spot-check ten SKUs across the files: same variant, same quantity, same cost. And check the date range — an export quietly truncated at 12 months is common and invisible until you need month 13.

Cutover day: the sequence

Run the switch on a quiet day, in this order:

1. Freeze the old app. No edits, no counts, no receiving — it becomes a read-only reference.
2. Count 20–40 key SKUs. Fast movers, anything recently adjusted, anything you have never quite trusted. The counting process itself is the standard one covered in the Shopify inventory counts guide; you are using it here to establish truth, because both apps' numbers were written at different times and neither is current.
3. Reconcile. The counted number wins. Example, from a pet-goods catalog: dog harness size M shows 41 available in Shopify, 38 in the old app, and counts at 40. Set Shopify to 40 (an adjustment of −1 for the phantom unit). The old app's 38 was simply stale — a receipt and a damage adjustment it never ingested. Do not chase the old app's version; it is going away.
4. Import the catalog and set quantities in the new app from the reconciled numbers.
5. Re-enter lead times manually, per supplier. This step has no shortcut — most apps store lead times differently or not at all, and your reorder math is only as good as the number you type in. Use your measured order-to-sellable history, not the supplier's quote.
6. Backfill velocity from the history you exported in step 3 of the export list.
7. Run both apps in parallel for one to two weeks — old app read-only, new app is the working tool — then retire the old one and keep its exports for 90 days.

The parallel fortnight is also when you compare suggestions: where the two apps disagree on a SKU, work out which inputs differ. That comparison is the fastest way to learn the new app's assumptions — and to catch an import error while both systems are still standing.

If the old app is Stocky, and when you go live

Two partitions worth one sentence each. If what you are leaving is Stocky — sunset as of August 31, 2026 — the field-by-field export detail lives in the Stocky data export guide; this article stays app-agnostic on purpose. And if the "migration" is really a first implementation of any new system for a team rather than a solo swap of tools, the go-live week has its own timeline in the implementation guide.

Common questions

Can I transfer data directly from one inventory app to another? Usually not. As of November 2026 there is no standard interchange between planning apps; the practical route is CSV exports from the old app, a reconciled Shopify catalog, and manual re-entry of supplier records and lead times. Plan the migration around exports you control, not an import wizard you hope exists.

Does the Shopify product CSV include sales history? No. The native product CSV carries the catalog — handles, variants, prices, and per-location quantities — and carries no order or sales history (Shopify Help Center, accessed November 2026). History comes from your orders export or the old app's own exports, which is why it tops the export list.

What should I export before canceling an inventory app? Six things, in order: a dated quantities snapshot, the catalog, the longest sales history the app will give you, supplier records with every lead time, all open POs with received-so-far, and count/adjustment history. Then verify each export with a row count and a ten-SKU spot check before you cancel anything.

How long should I run the old and new apps side by side? One to two weeks, with the old app frozen read-only. That is long enough to catch import errors and compare each app's suggestions on the same SKUs, short enough that staff do not split habits across two tools. Keep the old app's exports for 90 days after retirement.

Will my reorder points carry over to the new app? Rarely intact. Settings may export, but "reorder point" can mean different math in different apps — different velocity definitions, different dark-day handling. Recompute your own reorder points for your top SKUs, compare against the new app's suggestions, and treat mismatches as a chance to audit inputs, not a bug to report.

Next step

Before you touch the new app, run the completeness check on yesterday's exports: row counts, ten-SKU spot check, date ranges — one hour, and it is the difference between a migration and an excavation. If you have not chosen the new app yet, run the 14-day trial test script with your own data first; canceling an old app before the new one has passed the import and reorder tests is the most common — and most avoidable — way to turn a migration into a rebuild.