If you would like to migrate to PayWhirl from another payment platform and have existing customers in one of our supported payment gateways, you can import them with a few clicks from within the gateway settings page in your account.
Note: Currently, imports are only supported through Stripe, Braintree, and Authorize.net.
Payment Method Import
The example below shows how to import customers from Stripe, but this can be done from any of our supported gateways from the settings page in PayWhirl:
Once you have connected your PayWhirl account to the same gateway your existing customers are in, you can use the import link on the gateway settings page in PayWhirl to import all of your customer information.
Payment import settings:
Overwrite existing customers - used to switch customers from one gateway to another. This assumes you have already migrated the payment information into the new gateway and this process simply re-associates them to the new gateway. This will not move the payment methods themselves that needs to be done directly with the Payment gateways.
On duplicate customer - used to determine what happens when we detect duplicate email's in your payment gateway. We usually recommend using the most recent customer account, which should have the latest payment details on file.
Choose customers to import - used to limit or exclude customers during the import process.
After you've finished importing your customers into PayWhirl, you can "map" them to existing payment plans in your account using their imported payment methods.
Importing Address Information
Note: This method can only pull in information saved in the gateway account.
Sometimes it is the customer's billing info instead of shipping info that is imported into the account. If you are migrating over from another recurring payment system, you may want to export your customer's shipping information and use our import tool to fill in the missing info. If you go to the Manage Customer's page, you can upload a CSV with the correct info to update it. You can also click their ID number and update their information manually.
A sample import file can be used as a guide to formatting the import correctly.
Importing the Subscriptions
From the subscriptions page, click on the import button to start the process. This example shows the Bigcommerce process, but the standard plans are also supported:
When importing subscriptions into PayWhirl using BigCommerce Native mode, your CSV file will need to include specific fields.
Below is a guide to each field and how to obtain it.
🔹 Customer Info
customer_idoremail(required)
Use the BigCommerce customer ID or the customer's email address. You can export this from your BigCommerce Customers page. Either value will work, but email is often easier to manage.
🔹 Subscription Details
plan_id(required)
The internal ID of the subscription plan in PayWhirl. You can find this in the PayWhirl dashboard under your plan settings (left column under plans).
next_payment_date(optional)
The date the customer should be charged next. If left blank, it will default to the billing interval set in the plan. Format:YYYY-MM-DD.admin_note
Internal notes for your team—this won’t be visible to customers.
🔹 Pricing & Totals
currency(required)
The currency code (e.g. USD, CAD, GBP) for the subscription.tax_total(required)
The total tax amount charged per billing cycle. Pull this from your prior system or invoices.shipping_total(required)
The shipping cost associated with the subscription. Use what the customer paid previously.discount(required)
Total discount amount applied to the subscription. If no discount was used, enter0.
🔹 Line Items
For each item in the subscription (e.g. line_1, line_2, etc.), the following fields apply:
line_1_description(required)
Description of the item. This appears on the invoice. Match it to the product title in BigCommerce.line_1_amount(required)
Price per item, before tax or discounts.line_1_quantity(required)
How many units the customer receives each billing cycle.line_1_bc_product_id(required)
The BigCommerce Product ID. You can find this under Products > View > ID column.line_1_sku(optional)
SKU for inventory tracking. Optional but recommended if you use SKUs.line_1_bc_variant_id(optional)
The variant ID, if the product has variants (e.g. size, color).line_1_bc_product_options(optional)
Any selected product options (e.g. "engraving: Yes"). Format must match BigCommerce product options.
💡 Tip: You can download a sample CSV file directly from the import screen to use as a template.
Let us know if you need help preparing your file—we’re happy to review it!
To summarize:
Get all your customers into a supported payment gateway.
Import your customers using the gateway settings page in PayWhirl after you've connected to the gateway with your customers.
Update your customers with any additional information through the customer import tool.
Map your imported customers to NEW plans in the system with the correct billing cycle start date set as you are doing the migration to ensure customers are billed on the correct day(s) of the month going forward.
You will also want to be careful about EMAILS that are sent when you subscribe customers to plans. You might want to disable one or more of the emails during the migration to make sure that customers are not notified of changes, etc.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
The PayWhirl Team