If you are switching to 1sixty8 Manifold from TSS, you can bring your customers, vehicles, inventory, invoices, payments, and history across yourself from the Data Import screen. You get a full preview before anything is saved, and every record is tagged so running the import again safely skips anything already brought over.

Getting there

Go to Settings in the sidebar and, under the General section, open the Data Import card. It is available to the shop owner.

Uploading your backup

Drag your TSS backup onto the upload area, or click browse. You can drop the raw backup (the .nx1 table files or the backup ZIP) and Manifold converts it automatically, or upload CSV table dumps if you already have them. You can select all the files at once. If your ZIP was created on a Mac, that is fine; Manifold ignores the extra Mac helper files it contains. Then click Preview Import.

Checking your data

For each table in your backup, the preview lists a few sample rows showing every field that will be imported, from customer and vehicle details to each product's costs and stock levels. Scroll a table sideways to see all of its columns. This is there so you can confirm your data looks right before anything is saved.

Choosing what to bring over

The preview shows what was found and lets you set the scope before you commit

  • How much history to import. Choose All history, the last 10, 5, or 1 year, or pick a Custom date. Only invoices on or after your chosen date are imported. Older invoices are left behind to keep the migration focused, but any balance they still carried is reported on the summary as an opening figure. Nothing is silently dropped, and that older balance is not loaded as live receivables.
  • Clean up customer records. Manifold reviews your customer list and flags two things to fix before import, and you decide on each. First, name order: many shops enter names last name first. When Manifold sees that pattern it offers to import the names in the correct order, so "Knisley Gary" comes in as first name Gary, last name Knisley. The original name is always saved on the customer for reference, and the few names that read the other way are listed for you to check. Second, low-value records: empty entries with no contact details and no history, junk names, and placeholder entries such as "Cash" or "Estimate" are grouped so you can skip them in one step. A customer who ever had a sale is never in that group. Each group is searchable, so you can keep any individual record you want brought over.
  • Brands to import. Check the brands you want carried as active, stocked inventory. Use Select all, In stock (checks only the brands you currently have stock on hand for), or None to set them quickly. Unchecked brands still import, so your old invoices stay intact, but as inactive products with no stock so they do not clutter your active catalog.
  • Vendors to import. This works the same way as brands, with the same Select all, In stock, and None shortcuts. Check the vendors you want kept active. Unchecked vendors still import, so old products and purchase orders stay linked to them, but as inactive so they do not clutter your active vendor list.
  • Employees to bring over. Check the people who still work for you. Manifold pre-checks whoever your old system still lists as current staff, and you can set the list quickly with Select all, Current staff, or None. Unchecked employees still import, so their sales history stays with their name, but as inactive: they cannot sign in and they will not clutter your staff list. Read this list rather than skimming it. Shops often use employee records for things that are not people, such as a service or a department, and those arrive looking like staff. Each row shows the person's position, hire and leave dates, and how many invoices they sold, which makes the difference obvious.
  • Dealers to bring in. Your old system tracks dealers on its invoices rather than as a customer type, so Manifold rebuilds your dealer accounts from your job history and lists them here. Check the dealers you still do business with; use Select all, Recently active (checks the dealers with a sale in the last two years), or None to set them quickly. Unchecked dealers still import, and their wholesale sales history stays attributed to them, but as inactive accounts so long-dead dealers do not clutter your dealer list.
  • Set your service bays. Your old system keeps a wide scheduling grid, so tell Manifold how many service bays your shop actually has. The number defaults to how many lanes your schedule used; enter your real bay count. Bay 1 through that number become your active bays, and any higher lanes from your old system are kept as hidden overflow bays so no past appointment is lost. You can add, rename, or un-hide bays later under Settings > Scheduling.
  • Tidy up your categories. Over the years TSS category lists fill up with cryptic per-size codes (SPK525, SPK65, SPK69) for what is really one category. Manifold suggests a cleaner name for each code, and codes that share a name are merged into one category. Edit any suggestion, set a name back to the code to keep it exactly as it was, or uncheck Consolidate on import to bring your categories over unchanged. Codes Manifold cannot confidently identify default to Miscellaneous for you to sort, and every product keeps its original code, so you can always regroup later.

When the scope looks right, click Confirm Import. A progress screen tracks each stage, and you can leave it running.

Who sold what

Your old system records the salesperson on an invoice as a name someone typed, not as a link to their employee record. Manifold matches those names back to the employees it brought over, so your history is credited to the person who actually sold it and your Salesperson reports work from day one. You can see it on any invoice, and across the shop under Reports in the Salesperson section. Invoices naming someone whose employee record no longer exists in your old system, usually staff removed years ago, still import in full; they are credited to the account that ran the import, and the Data Migration Summary tells you how many.

Your dealers and wholesale sales

TSS records dealer (wholesale) sales on its tickets, not as a separate customer type, so Manifold gathers those up and rebuilds your dealer accounts under Wholesale. Each dealer's sales are attributed to them, so your dealer statements, wholesale reports, and dealer aging work from day one, and the end car owner's name is kept on each ticket. Sales that named a dealer Manifold could not match to a real account (a one-off, a person's name, or a manufacturer used for a warranty return) import as regular retail sales instead, and the Data Migration Summary tells you how many. Imported dealer balances are never charged a finance charge, so migrating your history cannot create a surprise charge; finance charges apply only to new business.

Imported customers and estimates on your sales pipeline

Imported customers are treated as established customers, not new sales leads, so they do not appear on your Sales Pipeline. Imported estimates are likewise kept off the pipeline's Estimated column, since they are historical records rather than live opportunities; you can still find them in the Estimates view and on each customer's record. This keeps the pipeline clear for real opportunities. If an imported customer returns and you write them a new estimate, it shows up on the pipeline like any other active deal.

Tickets that were still open in TSS

If a ticket was never posted in TSS and it still owes money, Manifold brings it across as an open invoice rather than a finished sale, so your customer can come in and pay off the rest. Any deposit you already took shows as paid, the remaining balance stays due, and the matching work order comes in open so the job is still on your board. A ticket that was never posted but was already collected in full comes across as Paid, which records the money without marking the sale finished. When you are ready to finish one of these, open the invoice and click the green Post Invoice button. Manifold marks the sale Posted and closes its imported work order in the same step. Posting is also what moves the ticket into reports that only count finished sales, such as the profitability reports. A ticket that was started and never rung up, with no money and nothing on it, comes in as completed history so it does not clutter your open work.

These balances are money you expect to collect at pickup, and they are not accounts receivable. Manifold only treats an invoice as a receivable when you deliberately put it on account, so these open tickets are never added to your A/R or chased for payment. The Data Migration Summary reports how many open tickets came across and what they still owe, listed separately from your receivables.

Editing an imported ticket that was never posted

Because these were never finalized in your old system, you can open one and correct what is on it, which you cannot do with a finished sale. Two rules apply. You cannot lower its total below what has already been collected, since that would leave money owed back to the customer; issue a refund for the difference first, then edit. Raising the total moves the ticket to Partial, with the new balance showing as due.

Labor, sublet, and other service items

Your old system labels some items as labor, sublet, or other rather than physical stock. Manifold sorts these into matching Labor, Sublet, and Other categories automatically, with nothing for you to set. They come in active and ready to use, even though TSS usually keeps them marked inactive, because you still bill for them. Anything in a Labor category drops onto a new invoice as a labor line on its own, so your imported labor charges keep working going forward. These items carry no stock, so they never affect your inventory counts or valuation.

Stock levels and reorder points

Each product's on-hand quantity comes across, along with the reorder point and maximum stock level you had set in TSS, so your Low Stock report and purchase-order suggestions work from day one. Products you never set a reorder point on come in without one, so they will not trigger a low-stock alert until you set the levels you want on the product's page. Reorder quantities are not imported, because Manifold works those out for you, ordering each item back up to its maximum when it runs low.

Your packages and kits

If you built package or kit deals in your old system (a set of products and labor you sell together as one job), Manifold brings them across so you do not have to rebuild them by hand. Each package comes in with its line items, the products and any labor, at the quantities and prices you had set. Packages you named in your old system keep that name and description; the rest come in under their short package code, which you can rename anytime. You will find them under Inventory > Packages, ready to add to an invoice or estimate.

The Data Migration Summary

After the import finishes, Manifold saves a Data Migration Summary. It is a reconciliation report that compares what was in your TSS export against what is now in Manifold, category by category, and lists anything intentionally left out or adjusted, including any customer records you chose to skip. Review it, and use Print / Save as PDF to keep a permanent copy. You can reopen past reports anytime from the Data Migration Summaries link on the Data Import screen.