Import iBiz data into Studiometry

PLEASE NOTE: If you're importing from iBiz server or from a database with nested clients, you should make sure you have Studiometry 11.0.2, build 6100 or newer. You can check the build number of your copy of Studiometry via Studiometry Menu > About Studiometry. If you have a build older than 6100, simply download Studiometry and install the new build to properly import nested clients and iBiz server data.

Studiometry 11.0.2 and newer have updated capabilities for importing your iBiz© 2.x to 4.x data. Depending on the version of iBiz you're coming from, Studiometry can import your:

• Clients
• Contacts
• Projects
• Work/Expense Items
• Work/Expense discounts as separate line items
• Work/Expense taxes as separate line items
• Invoices
• Payments
• Custom Job Events as Categories & Rates

I. Begin iBiz Data Import

To start the import process, select File Menu > Import > iBiz/iWork© Data

II. iBiz Importing Options

iBiz Data Folder
In the window that appears, Studiometry will attempt to automatically select your iBiz data location. This is normally located in the Application Support folder, but if you want to import a different iBiz data folder, you can click the Change button to select another folder.

Import iBiz Custom Job Events as Categories & Rates
iBiz has a Custom Job Events file that matches up closely with Studiometry's Categories & Rates section of the preferences window. These are work categories that have a name and hourly rate associated with them. While these items can be imported into Studiometry, they cannot be automatically assigned to your imported iBiz work items because there is no reference to the category within each work item in the iBiz database.

Import Finished iBiz Projects as Non-Live Projects in Studiometry
Studiometry manages a project's completion status using the Live/Non-Live setting. Non-live items do not appear in project lists throughout the program, but still remain in the database and the search window. iBiz has had several project completion statuses throughout the years, and enabling this checkbox when importing will attempt to match up Studiometry's Live settings with iBiz's project completion statuses. If this option is not checked, all projects will be imported as Live projects.

III. Other Information

Studiometry will attempt to intelligently import your iBiz data, but some information might not match up exactly.

• If an invoice's balance does not match the combined total for the imported items, for example, Studiometry will override the calculated total and assign a fixed balance to the invoice to ensure that it does not change on import. This will cause the imported work items to not properly be attached to the invoice.
• Studiometry will attempt to import client's using their company name first, and if none exists, it will attempt to use the contact's first and last names
• If you have already imported your iBiz data, going through the import process again will create duplicates of the items. If you'd like to reimport your iBiz data, we recommend simply wiping your database and settings and starting over with a fresh Studiometry installation, as there is a very large amount of data that can be imported.
• We've included the ability to import discounts for items as a separate line item, however iBiz has some calculation errors related to the totals for percentage discounts that could cause Studiometry's balances to be off by a penny or two. For example on a test invoice we imported: the iBiz data for all of the invoice items have jobEventEarnings tags that add up to $107.25 (19.50 + 6.50 + 39.00 + 16.25 + 26.00). Studiometry matches these calculations and matches the correct earnings when considering the discount, however iBiz gives the invoice total amount as $107.26, most likely due to a rounding issue in iBiz.

•  We've included taxes in a similar way, which appear as a separate line item (and is not associated with Studiometry's taxes)

• We are unable to parse the data for payments that are stored directly to invoices as line items. This means many of the balances might be off if you used that feature.

• If a client has imported as multiple, split clients in Studiometry, you can use File Menu > Data Management > Merge Clients to combine the two.

IV. Cleaning Up

If your data is slightly off after import, we recommend doing a once-over and checking the client balances vs. the iBiz balances. 

In some uses of iBiz, we cannot get 100% accurate data because of the differences between the apps, the storage of payments embedded within invoices, and the rounding bugs within iBiz for discounts. Because of this, there is a chance that balances might be off and will have to be fixed with a one-time "iBiz adjustment" item in Studiometry. You can create an expense, payment, or invoice item to manually fix the balance for a project or invoice if necessary.

The Client's Statement tab is a good place to see what has been charged and what payments were successfully imported. You can see the total for the projects and the total income, and also the total billed from invoices.

V. Number Formatting Issues

Because of the way that iBiz stores numbers into the database, and the way that Studiometry imports number formats from the iBiz database, there can be issues importing databases on machines that use a comma as the decimal separator instead of a period. To get around this, you can simply temporarily change your computer's region settings to United States to ensure that data imports properly, and then change the region setting back when the import is complete.

To do this:

1. Make sure Studiometry is not running
2. (on Mac OS 10.8 or older) Go into your System Preferences > Language & Text section, go to the Region tab, and temporarily change the region to United States
   (on Mac OS 10.9) Go into your System Preferences > Language & Region section, and select Region: United States
3. Launch Studiometry and import the iBiz data. This will store the data into Studiometry's database in a region-independent format that Studiometry can properly save and write.
4. Quit Studiometry again, go back into your System Preferences, and change your region back to the desired region.