Data Migration: An Overview

What is a data migration?

A data migration, often referred to simply as a migration, is the process of collecting subscription data from your existing, or legacy, subscription platform and recreating those subscriptions in Yari Flow.

This effectively transfers your subscribers to Yari Flow so that all future subscription management and billing can take place through the Yari Flow platform.

What does a typical migration involve?

A typical migration follows these steps:

1. Connect your payment processor (if required)
2. If your subscribers are not currently billed through Shopify Payments, the Migrations team will ask you to connect your existing payment processor using Yari Flow’s migration wizard.
3. This step is not required for Shopify Payments.
4. Review the migration previewThe Migrations team will generate a CSV preview of the data that will be migrated.They will also provide:
   • The total number of subscriptions included in the migration
   • A list of subscriptions that cannot be migrated, including the reason
   • A complete JSON file containing the subscriptions that will be created, if requested
5. Approve the data and schedule the migration
6. Once all questions have been answered, any required clarifications have been made, and the migration preview has been approved, your team will agree on a migration date.
7. Migrations are usually scheduled early in the week, such as Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. This ensures that both the Migrations team and the Yari Flow Support team are available to assist with any questions following the migration.
8. Complete the migration
9. On the agreed migration date, the Migrations team will contact your team to confirm that you are ready to proceed.
10. Before beginning, they will verify that all billing scheduled for that day has finished processing in your legacy platform. Once confirmed, the team will recreate your existing subscriptions in Yari Flow.
11. Important Yari Flow does not technically move the original subscription data. Instead, Yari Flow creates copies of the subscriptions.
12. Your original subscription program will continue to exist until billing is disabled or the legacy app is removed. This is necessary because Shopify subscription contracts created by one app cannot be taken over by another app.
13. Disable billing in the legacy platform
14. Once the migration is complete, the Migrations team will notify your team.
15. You must then cancel, delete, or otherwise disable recurring billing in your previous subscription platform on the same day.
16. The required steps depend on the platform you are migrating from. Some platforms, such as ReCharge, allow recurring billing to be disabled without deleting the app. Other platforms may require the app to be removed entirely.
17. Note You do not need to delete the ReCharge app after migrating to Yari Flow. The Yari Flow team can cancel recurring billing while leaving the app installed, allowing your team to access historical subscription data in ReCharge after the migration.
18. Complete post-migration setupOnce the previous platform has been disabled, the Migrations team will complete any remaining post-migration tasks. These may include:
    • Enabling billing for migrated subscriptions in Yari Flow
    • Updating customer login links to direct customers to the Yari Flow My Account
    • Adding redirects from the previous platform’s My Account to the Yari Flow My Account

How does Yari Flow migrate payment information?

The process depends on the payment processor used by your previous subscription platform.

For Shopify Payments, no additional action is required because the necessary information is available through Shopify’s API.

For other payment processors, such as Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.net, your team will need to connect the payment processor to Yari Flow or Shopify. This may involve following a connection link or entering API credentials into Yari Flow’s migration wizard.

Yari Flow does not store customers’ payment method details in its own database. Payment information remains securely stored with the payment processor.

Yari Flow uses the payment processor’s API to associate the correct payment method token with the relevant Shopify customer and subscription. Yari Flow then creates orders through Shopify, and Shopify charges the customer’s payment method through the connected payment processor.

Note Authorize.net migrations involve additional steps. Your existing subscription platform may need to release the payment tokens into Authorize.net, and your team may also need to download a Customer Information Manager, or CIM, export.

Your Migrations engineer will provide detailed instructions for this process.

What does the migration summary CSV contain?

When your migration preview is ready, the Yari Flow Migrations team will send you a CSV containing a high-level summary of the subscriptions that will be migrated.

Your team should review this file to confirm that the subscription information appears accurate and is consistent with the data in your current subscription platform.

The CSV includes the following columns:

• productTitle: The title of the Shopify product included in the subscription
• productPlatformId: The Shopify product ID
• variantId: The Shopify ID of the specific product variant
• variantTitle: The title of the specific product variant, where applicable
• price: The price the customer pays for that product or variant at the listed subscription frequency

Contact your Migrations engineer if you have questions about any of the information in the migration summary.

What data is required to migrate a subscription?

Yari Flow requires the following information to create a new Shopify subscription contract:

• Customer email address
• Customer shipping address
• Subscription status, such as Active or Paused
• Next billing date
• Subscription line items, including:
  • Product ID
  • Product title
  • Shopify variant ID
  • Quantity
  • Price
• Billing frequency, such as every month
• Delivery frequency, if different from the billing frequency

The line-item price must be the amount charged when the quantity is set to one. It should reflect the actual subscription price after discounts, rather than the original pre-discount price.

Cancelled subscriptions cannot be migrated.

What are the prerequisites for starting a migration?

Before the Migrations team can begin preparing your data, your store must be live with Yari Flow and actively selling subscriptions through Yari Flow.

This allows the team to confirm that new subscriptions are no longer being created through your legacy platform. Yari Flow usually requires a period of approximately 24 hours to verify this.

Creating a clear separation between the old platform and Yari Flow ensures that:

• The migration data is accurate
• New subscribers are not missed
• The same subscription is not created in both platforms
• The final migration preview reflects the latest subscription data

If your previous platform does not use Shopify Payments, you must also connect your payment processor through Yari Flow’s migration wizard.

Your Migrations engineer will provide the relevant connection instructions during the migration process.

Are there subscriptions that cannot be migrated?

Yari Flow cannot migrate cancelled subscriptions.

Cancelled subscriptions often do not contain all the information required to create a new subscription contract. Yari Flow is also unable to take ownership of the Shopify subscription contract created by the previous app.

A valid payment method is not required to create a subscription contract in Shopify.

However, when a migrated subscription does not have a valid payment method, it will enter Yari Flow's Payment Recovery system when its next billing attempt takes place.

To avoid failed payments, confirm that migrated customers have a valid payment method before their next scheduled billing date.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Can paused subscriptions be migrated into Yari Flow?

Yes. Yari Flow can migrate subscriptions with a Paused status.

Let your Migrations engineer know if your store uses paused subscriptions so that this status can be maintained during the migration.

When a customer resumes a paused subscription:

• If the original next order date has not passed, the subscription will keep that date.
• If the original next order date has already passed, the customer will be asked to select a new order date.

Can Yari Flow migrate payment tokens between payment processors?

No. Yari Flow cannot transfer payment tokens from one payment processor to another.

Yari Flow does not store payment tokens. Orders are created through Shopify, which uses the payment tokens stored by your existing payment processor.

If your team has already transferred payment tokens to a new processor, such as moving from Braintree to Stripe, let your Migrations engineer know. The team can then use the payment token data from the new processor when migrating your subscriptions.

Can products or variants be updated during the migration?

Yes. Products and variants can be replaced during the migration process.

Your team must provide a mapping file that identifies:

• The current product or variant
• The replacement product or variant
• Any updated pricing, where applicable

This file is usually provided in CSV format and should contain at least the following columns:

• Old Variant ID
• New Variant ID

Contact your Migrations engineer if you need to include additional mapping information.

What happens if the old platform is not disabled after migration?

Yari Flow will not enable billing for migrated subscriptions until the team has confirmed that recurring billing has stopped in your previous platform.

This prevents customers from being charged by both platforms.

If subscriptions continue to process in the legacy platform after the migration, their next billing dates in Yari Flow will need to be updated to reflect the orders that have already been charged.

Yari Flow has a process for correcting these dates. However, your team should ensure that the legacy subscription platform can be disabled on the agreed migration date to avoid additional work and billing delays.

What happens if new subscribers are created in the old platform after migration?

Yari Flow can perform a follow-up, or top-up, migration to transfer any remaining subscriptions created in the legacy platform.

Your store must publish its Yari Flow subscription experience before the main migration to minimise the risk of new subscriptions being created in the previous platform.

Your Migrations engineer will also review the store for any additional places where customers may still be able to create subscriptions through the legacy provider.

For questions about your migration, contact your assigned Migrations engineer

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