How to Export Your Client List from Square

By Clientara · 2026-09-02

Square is easier to leave than most booking platforms, and that is not an accident — it exports properly because Square is a payments company first and payment processors are used to people asking for their data.

You can take three things with you: your clients, your service menu, and your appointment history. Here is how to get each one, and what to check before you trust it.

Export your clients

Do this on a computer. The Square mobile app does not offer exports.

1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard.
2. Open Customers → Directory.
3. Click Export at the top right and choose All customers.
4. Save the CSV.

The file arrives quickly for small lists. For a directory in the thousands, Square emails you a download link instead — check your inbox rather than assuming it failed.

Export your service menu

Your services live under Items, because Square treats a haircut and a bottle of pomade as the same kind of thing.

1. In Square Dashboard, open Items & Orders → Items.
2. Click Actions → Export Library.
3. Save the CSV.

This gives you names and prices, which is the bulk of the retyping saved. Durations sometimes come across and sometimes do not, depending on how the item was set up — check them once they are imported rather than assuming.

Export your appointments

Worth doing even if you think you do not need it.

1. Open Reporting → Appointments (or Transactions, depending on your plan).
2. Set the date range you care about. Most people want the last twelve months.
3. Export to CSV, making sure client, service and date/time are included.

Import this one last, after clients and services. An appointment is a link between a client, a service and a person — if those three do not exist yet, there is nothing for it to attach to.

What is in the files

Square's customer export is generous. Expect something close to:

That Memo column is the one people forget. If you have been writing "prefers the 3 guard, allergic to the blue toner" against a client for three years, it is in there — and it is the single most valuable column in the file. Do not throw it away.

Three things to check before importing

First and last names are separate. Square splits them. A decent importer joins them; a poor one takes the first column and loses every surname. Look at the preview and confirm you are seeing whole names before you approve anything.

Phone formatting is inconsistent. Square usually stores E.164 with a country code, but hand-entered numbers vary. Leave it alone — normalising two thousand rows by hand is a wasted evening, and the import should match on the last ten digits so the same client entered twice is merged rather than duplicated.

Item exports contain more than services. Your Items library holds retail products alongside haircuts. Decide which rows are services and which are stock before you import, or you will end up with a bookable appointment called "Sea Salt Spray".

Bringing it into Clientara

1. Open Import in your dashboard.
2. Choose Square as your source. The wizard then expects Square's column headers instead of asking you to match twenty fields by hand.
3. Import in this order: clients, then services, then appointments.
4. Review each preview. Nothing is written until you approve it.

Appointments are matched back to the right client, service and staff member on the way in, and anything already in your calendar at the same time for the same person is flagged as a duplicate rather than double-booked. Rows that cannot be matched to a client are reported instead of quietly skipped.

What does not come across

Your payment history and payouts. That stays in Square, and it should — it is financial record-keeping tied to their processing. Export your reports as PDFs for your accountant before you close the account.

Cards on file. Stored card details never transfer between processors. This is a rule, not a limitation of any one platform: the card data lives with the processor and cannot be handed over. Clients will re-enter a card the first time they book with you on the new system. It is one extra step, once.

Reviews left on Square. They belong to Square.

Gift cards and outstanding balances. If you have sold Square gift cards, they are Square liabilities. Settle or honour them manually, and do not close the account until you have a list of what is outstanding.

Move in the right order

1. Export clients, services and appointments while the account is fully active.
2. Save your reports as PDFs.
3. Set the new system up and take real bookings on it.
4. Change your booking link everywhere — Instagram, Google Business Profile, the sticker on the door.
5. Let your last Square appointments run out.
6. Then close the account.

Do not cancel first. An export from a closed account is a support ticket you do not want to be raising while a client is waiting for you to confirm their Saturday.