How to switch from Palm-Tech to Househound

Start here, while your account is active. Palm-Tech's Terms (effective August 7, 2024) say all charges are non-refundable unless the Terms say otherwise, and that once your account is terminated Palm-Tech has no obligation to keep or give you any of your content (Palm-Tech Terms of Use). Palm-Tech's own cancellation article also recommends backing up with the Export option before access ends (Palm-Tech: managing your subscription).

In the Palmtech Portal, open Inspections from the main menu and click Export. You get an Excel (.xlsx) file of all the inspections your company has created (Palm-Tech: portal inspections). It's a list, not the reports themselves, and Palm-Tech doesn't publish which columns it holds, so open it and check before you go further.

That spreadsheet is the only export Palm-Tech's help center describes. For anything else, email Palm-Tech support (support@palmtech.com) and ask in writing what they can send you:

• your client and agent lists, which the Agents article gives no export for
• your templates and comment library
• your past reports in bulk

Ask early. Whatever they can't provide, cover with the next step.

Palm-Tech's interactive report comes with a PDF version (Palmtech 11), but the help center doesn't document how to download it from a past inspection, and there's no published bulk download. Open each inspection you need from the Inspections list and save its PDF, or ask support for the steps on your version. Decide which reports you need first: the ones your state's record-keeping rule covers, open claims, and anything an agent or client may ask for again.

Then save one more PDF per template you use (home, condo, mold, radon). This is what your Househound template is built from. The better the PDF, the better the template: a practice report where every comment you use is selected carries your whole library, and a real report carries only what applied to that house.

On a legacy Windows version (7, 8 or 9), the Backup Program Data file is meant to be emailed to a Palm-Tech specialist, and its format isn't published (Palm-Tech: backups in legacy versions). Keep it, but Househound can't read it, so print a report to PDF for the template.

Sign up on the web at househoundusa.com/signup. Your first 3 reports are free and there's no card to enter. The dashboard runs in a browser, and the inspecting happens in the iPhone, iPad or Android app, which works with no signal.

In the Househound web dashboard, open Templates, click Import, and drop your PDFs on it. During setup, the templates step opens with Bring your own template, which does the same thing. Import isn't in the phone apps.

Up to 10 files go in at once, 20 MB each. Each file becomes its own template, and the import keeps running if you close the page. Spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls, .csv, .tsv), Word .docx files, JSON, photos of printed pages (including HEIC) and text files work too. An older Word .doc file has to be opened in Word and saved as .docx or PDF first.

A template read from a PDF is a draft, so read it before you use it. Autodraft builds the areas, items and comments from what's on the page and suggests a comment type and a severity (major, moderate or minor) for each deficiency. Check that every Palm-Tech section has an area, the comment wording matches yours, the severities match how you rate those defects, and narrative comments read the way you want them in a finished report.

Fix anything in the template editor on the web. Every comment also lands in the comment library, which is what Autodraft reuses when it turns your spoken notes into drafted findings.

If Palm-Tech support sent you a client or agent list, go to People → Clients → Import contacts… (or People → Agents) on the web. CSV and Excel files both work, up to 5,000 rows and 5 MB. You map each column (name, email, phone, company, type, notes) and see a preview first. A contact whose email is already saved is updated, never duplicated, and every skipped row is listed with the reason.

Then open Reports → Archive → Past reports and upload the report PDFs you saved, up to 50 at a time, 50 MB each. Househound reads the address, client, email and date from each PDF, and you can correct them. Archived reports are read-only: you can search, open, download and share them, but they don't become Househound inspections. The Backup Program Data file from a legacy version isn't accepted; only PDFs are.

Add your services and fees and any price rules for square footage, bedrooms or units. Upload your agreement (a .docx works for agreements) and choose how far ahead it goes out. Go through the client and agent emails and paste in your Palm-Tech wording. Set your booking start times and crew rules.

Then connect your own Stripe account from Househound's payment settings. Money goes straight to that account. Each client card payment carries 3.25% + 40¢, and that includes Stripe's processing, so it's one deduction.

Use one of your 3 free reports on a real job, start to finish on the phone: photos, dictated findings, publish. Keep Palm-Tech for jobs already booked there until they're delivered.

Point your website's booking link at your Househound booking page, or paste the booking widget onto the page, and remove Palm-Tech's Online Scheduler.

To cancel, go to Settings → Billing Plan in the Palmtech Portal, click the red Cancel Plan button and confirm; a Palm-Tech team member then contacts you, and access continues to the end of the period you've paid for (Palm-Tech: managing your subscription). On the $500 a year plan, time it with the renewal date, since charges are non-refundable unless the Terms say otherwise.