How to switch from ScribeWare to Househound

ScribeWare's documentation doesn't describe a self-serve way to export templates, the narrative library, contacts or past reports. Its FAQ points questions it doesn't cover to support@getscribeware.com. Before you cancel, email them and ask for:

• a contacts export (clients and agents) as a CSV or Excel file, which Househound can import
• your templates and narrative library in a spreadsheet or document you can open
• what happens to your cloud copies when the subscription ends

What you can do yourself today:

• Report PDFs. ScribeWare's FAQ says you can generate a PDF of any report with one click. Make one for each report you must keep.
• Local copies. Per the FAQ, reports are saved to your hard drive under Documents\ScribeWare\Inspections. Copy that folder somewhere you back up.

Choose 1 to 3 finished reports with the most findings: a long report on an older house carries more of your library than a clean new build. If you run separate templates (home, condo, sewer scope, commercial), make a PDF from one report of each. Each file becomes its own Househound template.

If support sends your library as a spreadsheet, that works too. Househound reads any .xlsx, .xls, .csv or .tsv file by working out its columns from the header row, then reading every row. A Word .docx file imports directly as well; an old .doc has to be opened in Word and saved as .docx or PDF first.

Sign up on the web at househoundusa.com/signup. Your first 3 reports are free and no card is needed.

Open Templates and choose Import, or use the Templates step in the setup wizard. Drop up to 10 files at once, each up to 20 MB. Import is on the web dashboard only.

Each file is read by Autodraft into a template of areas, items and comments. The import keeps running if you close the page.

A template read from a PDF is a draft. Open it and check the area and item names, each comment's type (informational, limitation or deficiency) and, for deficiencies, the severity (major, moderate or minor).

ScribeWare-specific things to look for:

• Gunnysacks print as one bulleted comment holding several defects. Check whether each came in as one comment or several, and split or merge it the way you want to use it.
• Connected fields, modifiers and text replacement print as finished sentences. They come in as plain wording; Househound comments can carry option lists, checkboxes, dates and numbers, which you add in the template editor.
• Inspector-only notes don't print, so they won't come in.

Both are on the web dashboard only.

• Contacts: open People, then Clients or Agents, and choose Import contacts…. Pick the CSV or Excel file support sent (up to 5,000 rows), map each column (name, email, phone, company, type, notes), check the preview and choose what untyped rows become. A contact whose email is already saved is updated rather than duplicated, and every skipped row is listed with the reason.
• Past reports: open Reports › Archive › Past reports and upload your report PDFs, up to 50 at a time and 50 MB each. Househound reads the address, client, email and date from each PDF, and you can correct them. They're read-only: you can search, open, download, copy a share link or email one to the client, but they don't become Househound inspections.

• Services: Settings › Services & pricing.
• Agreement: Automations › Agreements. Upload the contract you used in ScribeWare's Contract Editor, or paste its text. It goes out 48 hours before the inspection by default, and you can require a signature before the report can be published.
• Email wording: Automations › Email.
• Booking page: Settings › Booking page.
• Payments: Settings › Services & pricing › Set up payments. Money goes to your own Stripe account. The 3.25% + 40¢ fee includes Stripe's processing, so it's one deduction. A Canadian company chooses Canada when connecting Stripe and takes card payments in CAD (3.25% + C$0.40); invoices carry no GST, HST, PST or QST lines.

ScribeWare is a desktop writer with phone capture apps. Househound puts the whole report editor on the phone, and the web dashboard is for templates, settings and review at a desk. Write one ordinary inspection start to finish on the phone and note every comment you reach for that isn't there. Save those to the library from inside the report.

Replace the ScribeWare booking link or embed with your Househound booking page link or embed code. Leave ScribeWare running until the jobs booked there are done and published.

ScribeWare's unlimited plan is $99 a month billed monthly, or $89 a month billed annually ($1,068 a year). If you're on the annual plan, time the move to its renewal date. If you pay per report ($12 each), there's no subscription to time. Ask support how to keep cloud access to old reports; ScribeWare's FAQ says cloud storage can be kept after closing a business "for a nominal fee".