Switching social media schedulers: a migration checklist for agencies

Agencies change schedulers for ordinary reasons: the price grew with every account, approvals were locked behind a higher tier, a network stopped working, or the team simply outgrew the tool. Whatever the reason, the move itself worries people more than it should. The real risks are few and specific: losing posts that were already scheduled, losing the history you report on, publishing the same post twice from two tools, and a client noticing before you do. This checklist walks through a move in five stages so none of those happen.

Stage 1: Take an inventory

Before you sign up anywhere, write down what you actually have. A spreadsheet with one row per client is enough.

• Clients and brands: every brand you post for, including small ones that only get a post a month
• Connected accounts per client: network, account name or handle, and who on the client’s side owns the login or admin role
• Scheduled posts: how many posts are waiting to go out per client, and the furthest date
• Approval arrangements: who signs off for each client, and how (inside the old tool, by e-mail, in chat)
• Users: everyone with a login, and what they need to see
• Reporting: which numbers each client receives, how often, and from which tool
• Integrations: link shorteners, shared media libraries, anything else wired into the old tool

The inventory tells you how big the move is, and which clients to move first.

Stage 2: Export what you need to keep

Most schedulers let you export scheduled posts, published post history and analytics in some form, usually CSV. Check what yours offers while your account is still active, and export:

1. Scheduled posts for every client, with dates, times, captions, links and media.
2. Published post history and analytics for the periods you report on, at least the last full year if clients compare year on year.
3. Media you do not have elsewhere: if the only copy of a client’s images is inside the old tool’s library, download them now.
4. Any saved captions, templates or hashtag sets your team relies on.

Be realistic about history. A new scheduler cannot pull the numbers of posts it did not publish, so past analytics generally stay in your exports and in each network’s own analytics. Plan for a report or two that combines old exports with new data, and tell clients in advance.

Stage 3: Set up the new tool before you move anything

Build each client properly in the new tool before a single post moves:

• Create the client with its name, logo or colour, and time zone (use the named zone, such as Europe/Madrid, not an offset)
• Write the client’s brand voice and posting rules where your team will see them
• Set the approval rule: which clients need sign-off before posts are scheduled
• Invite your team, then the client’s approvers, with the least access they need
• Connect the social accounts. This is the step that needs the client’s help most often: networks require someone with the right admin role to authorise each connection. Book a short call with each client or send clear instructions, and check each network’s requirements in advance

Connecting an account to a new tool does not usually disconnect it from the old one, so you can run both for a short overlap. That is useful, and it is also how double posting happens.

Stage 4: Move scheduled posts and cut over

This is the stage where care matters most.

Pick a cut-over date per client

Choose a date after which the new tool publishes everything for that client. Posts before that date stay in the old tool; posts on or after it move. Moving one or two clients first, then the rest a week or two later, lets you find problems on a small scale.

Move the posts

Clean up the exported scheduled posts in a spreadsheet: keep only those on or after the cut-over date, match the column names the new tool expects, check dates and time zones, and make sure every media link is public. Our guide to building a clean bulk upload file covers the details. Upload, then read the client’s calendar in the new tool against the old one.

Remove them from the old tool

As soon as posts are confirmed in the new tool, delete or unschedule the same posts in the old one. Do not leave both scheduled “just in case”: two tools will both publish. Check the old tool’s queue for that client is empty from the cut-over date on.

Watch the first week

For the first week after each cut-over, check every client’s published posts daily on the networks themselves. Look for failed posts in the new tool, anything published twice, and anything missing.

Stage 5: Close down the old tool

Only when every client has been on the new tool for a full reporting cycle:

• Confirm your exports open and contain what you need
• Disconnect social accounts from the old tool, and revoke its access in each network’s settings where the network offers that
• Remove team members’ logins, then cancel the subscription before its next renewal date
• Update client onboarding documents, approval instructions and report templates to the new tool

A note on telling clients

Tell clients before the move, not after. A short message is enough: what is changing, the date, whether they need to do anything (usually reconnecting an account or accepting an invitation), and how approvals will work from now on. Clients who approve posts will notice the new tool immediately; it is better that they hear about it from you.

Moving to PostRoost

PostRoost does not import from other tools, so the move follows the steps above: create each client with its time zone, brand voice and approval rule, connect its accounts (each integration page lists what the network requires), invite your team and the client’s approvers, and upload the exported scheduled posts with bulk upload, which checks every row before anything is created. Past posts and analytics from the old tool are not brought across; PostRoost’s analytics start with posts it publishes, and follower counts are collected daily from the moment an account is connected, for networks that share them.

Each client is its own workspace with its own accounts, calendar and approvers, and one subscription covers the agency. Agency plans are Standard (3 clients, $99/month), Professional (10 clients, $199/month) and Enterprise (unlimited clients, $500/month), all with every Team feature. Every paid plan has a free trial, once per agency. Compare them on the pricing page, or start with one client on Free and move the rest when you are happy.