How to Migrate From Paperbell: Data, Payments, Timeline

To migrate from Paperbell without losing a client or a payment, work in five moves: gather everything Paperbell holds about your clients, packages, contracts and website; rebuild those pieces in the new platform; let paying clients finish their current billing cycle or payment plan in Paperbell; send clear emails with new booking and payment links; and cancel Paperbell only after the last scheduled charge has gone through. Most solo coaches can do this in two to three weeks while still coaching. The step that trips people up is recurring billing, because a Stripe subscription that Paperbell created does not move to another platform on its own.

This guide covers each step for a move to Coachful: what you can take out of Paperbell, how each Paperbell item maps to a Coachful feature, a realistic timeline, client emails you can paste, the payment details, and a cutover checklist. We make Coachful, so read the comparisons with that in mind. Every Paperbell fact below is from Paperbell's own pages as listed in October 2026, or from our September 2026 profile of the product where we say so.

Why do coaches migrate from Paperbell?

Coaches usually leave Paperbell because their practice grows past session admin and they want between-session delivery in the same tool. Paperbell is a tidy all-in-one back office for solo coaches; it was not built to run programs with daily habits, check-ins and a community.

Here is what Paperbell documents, and where the gaps sit:

• One plan, one price. Paperbell lists a single plan at $97 a month, or $970 a year shown against $1,164 ("2 Mo Free!"), as listed in October 2026. It includes unlimited clients, sessions, files, packages and traffic, with "no upsells or hidden add-ons". That is good value at a full roster and expensive for a coach with six clients. Our Paperbell pricing breakdown works through the numbers.
• Admin features, not delivery features. The pricing page lists a coaching website, scheduling, payments and packages, a client portal, contracts, email workflows, forms, group coaching, video call integration, notes, digital downloads, online classes and custom branding. Our September 2026 profile found no goal or habit tracking, no community and no course builder in the sense of modules, drip and completion tracking. Online classes and digital downloads appeared on the pricing page this month, so check how far they go for your use.
• No native mobile app. In our September 2026 profile, clients reached Paperbell through a mobile browser. Coaches who want clients logging habits or check-ins from a phone each day tend to want an app.
• Extra tools pile up. Coaches who run cohorts, courses or a community often pay for a course host, a community app and an email tool next to Paperbell. Moving to one platform removes those logins.
• Mixed public reviews. Paperbell's Trustpilot page showed 3.5 from 14 reviews on October 25, 2026, down from 3.9 from 13 in our earlier profile. That is a small sample, so treat it as a signal to read the reviews, not as a verdict.

If you are still deciding whether to leave at all, our Paperbell review and the side-by-side at Coachful vs Paperbell cover the trade-offs. If you have decided, keep reading.

What can you export from Paperbell?

Plan to copy your data out by hand. Paperbell keeps each client's details and history in its Clients area. In our September 2026 profile we could not confirm a documented export that pulls your whole client list, package balances and notes out as a CSV, and Paperbell's help center could not be reached when we checked on October 25, 2026. Before you cancel, search Paperbell's help center for "export" or ask its support team in writing what they can give you.

Whatever export exists, these are the things to collect, roughly in order of how much they hurt to lose:

1. Client roster. Name, email, phone, time zone and status (active, paused, alumni) for every client and lead.
2. Package balances. For each active client: which package they bought, how many sessions remain, and when it expires.
3. Upcoming bookings. Every session already on the calendar after your planned switch date, with its video link.
4. Recurring payments. Who is on a subscription or payment plan, the amount, the next charge date and how many payments are left.
5. Signed contracts. Download each signed agreement as a PDF and save it in a folder per client. Your contract template text too.
6. Session notes and form answers. Intake responses and notes you rely on before sessions. Copy them into a document per client if there is no bulk export.
7. Files you shared. Worksheets, PDFs and recordings you handed to clients through the portal.
8. Website and email copy. Your homepage, package descriptions, email workflow text and any images. Save the live pages to PDF so you have a reference.

Payment records also sit in the Stripe or PayPal account you connected to Paperbell (our September 2026 profile lists both as Paperbell's processors). That gives you a second copy of who paid what, even after Paperbell is gone.

One timing note: according to Paperbell's help center in July 2026, its trial runs for 7 days with the public site offline and client messages and SMS off. If you ever need to reopen an account to fetch something, that trial will not help you serve clients, so collect everything while your paid plan is still active.

How does Paperbell data map to Coachful?

Almost everything in Paperbell has a direct home in Coachful, and several things you handled outside Paperbell gain one too. The table shows where each item lands and how it gets there.

The last row matters for planning. You do not have to launch habits, check-ins or a community on switch day. Move the admin first, keep the client experience familiar, then add between-session delivery once clients have settled into the new app. Our guide to managing coaching clients without Paperbell shows how those workflows connect once you are set up.

How long does a Paperbell migration take?

Plan on two to three weeks of light work for a solo coach, plus a tail of a few weeks while the last Paperbell payment plans finish. The build itself is the quick part. The calendar is set by your clients' billing dates and upcoming sessions.

Here is an example timeline for a coach with about 20 active clients, a few on monthly subscriptions and a few on payment plans. Your dates will differ; the order should not.

Two things stretch the timeline. Payment plans with many installments left can keep Paperbell open for months, which is why the payments section below offers a second route. And an annual Paperbell plan changes the math: if you paid $970 for the year, check your renewal date and decide whether to switch early or use the remaining months as a long parallel run.

What are the steps to migrate from Paperbell to Coachful?

Follow these eight steps in order. Each one has a single job, and none of them asks a client to do anything until the new setup is tested.

1. Freeze changes and set a switch date

Pick a switch date two weeks out, ideally early in a week with lighter sessions. From today, avoid creating new packages or payment plans in Paperbell. New clients who sign up during the move can start directly in Coachful once your checkout is live.

2. Build your payment schedule

Make one spreadsheet with a row per paying client: name, email, what they pay, processor (Stripe or PayPal), next charge date, payments left, and sessions remaining. This sheet drives the rest of the migration. When it is accurate, nothing gets double-charged or forgotten.

3. Collect your Paperbell data

Work through the export list above. Download signed contracts as PDFs, copy notes and form answers, save package descriptions and website copy. File it in one folder per client plus one folder for business copy.

4. Set up Coachful's foundations

Connect your own Stripe account through Stripe Connect, connect Google, Apple/iCloud or Outlook calendar with two-way sync, and choose built-in video or your Zoom, Meet or Teams account. Coachful charges a 0% platform fee on client payments (since August 2026), so you pay only Stripe's processing.

5. Request the white-glove import and build

Open Create > We'll build it for you · FREE, describe what you need, and attach your roster, contract text, package list, website copy and logo. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. The details are in the white-glove section below.

6. Rebuild packages as offers

Each Paperbell package becomes a Coachful offer: a one-time payment, a subscription or a payment plan, with session credits attached. For clients mid-package, add their remaining sessions as credits so they can book straight away without paying again.

7. Recreate contracts, forms and booking pages

Paste your agreement into a Coachful coaching agreement so new clients sign before their first call. Upload each existing client's signed Paperbell PDF to their record so the history sits in one place. Rebuild intake questions on the booking page, then set availability rules, buffers and minimum notice to match what clients are used to. See coaching contracts and scheduling for what each part does.

8. Test as a client, then switch

Create a test client using a second email address. Book a session, sign the agreement, pay with a real card, refund yourself, and check that the reminder emails and video link arrive. Then, on switch day, point your domain, replace booking links everywhere you have posted them (email signature, social bios, link in bio), and send the switch-day email.

The walkthrough below shows Coachful's onboarding from a new coach's first login, which is roughly what you will see on day one.

What should you tell your clients, and when?

Send three short emails: a heads-up a week before, a switch-day email with the new links, and a payment update for recurring clients timed to their billing date. Keep each one about what changes for the client, not about your software.

These are transactional and relationship messages about a service clients already bought. Under the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide, such messages are exempt from most of the rules. If you add a promotion to one of them, the full rules apply, including an accurate header, a valid postal address and a clear opt-out honored within 10 business days.

Template 1: heads-up (one week before)

Subject: A small change to how we book and message

Hi [first name],

Quick heads-up: on [switch date] I'm moving my client portal to a new home. You'll get an invite that day to a private app with your sessions, notes and anything I share with you, all in one place.

Nothing changes about our work together. Your remaining sessions ([number]) come with you, and your next session on [date] stays as booked.

If you pay me monthly, there's nothing to do yet. I'll send one short note when your next payment is due.

Any questions, just reply.

[Your name]

Template 2: switch day

Subject: Your new client app is ready

Hi [first name],

Your new client home is live. Use the invite link in the separate email from me to set your password. Once you're in, you'll see your upcoming sessions, our agreement and your remaining sessions.

From today, please book through this link: [new booking link]. The old link will stop working on [date].

Your next session: [date and time, time zone]. The video link is in the app and in your reminder email.

[Your name]

Template 3: payment update (sent on the day of the last old charge)

Subject: Updating your payment for next month

Hi [first name],

Your payment today went through as usual. It's the last one on the old system. Before [next billing date], please set up your monthly payment here: [checkout link]. It takes about a minute, and you can use a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.

The amount stays at [amount], and nothing is charged until [next billing date].

If you'd rather I send a reminder closer to the date, just reply.

[Your name]

Before you send template 3, make sure the checkout you link to will not charge before the next billing date. If your offer charges on purchase, send the link on the billing date itself instead and drop the "nothing is charged until" line.

What happens to payments and Stripe subscriptions?

They do not move on their own. A subscription or payment plan that Paperbell set up in Stripe keeps running under Paperbell's control until you cancel it, and Coachful does not take it over automatically. Each recurring client needs a new subscription created through a Coachful checkout, and you should plan for every one of them to enter their payment details once.

Here is why. In Stripe, a subscription is a record in the Stripe account where it was created, tied to a price, a customer and a billing schedule. The software that created it, here Paperbell, decides when to start, pause or cancel it. Connecting the same Stripe account to Coachful gives Coachful the right to create new charges. It does not hand over the subscriptions Paperbell is managing. Do not count on saved cards carrying over either.

You have two clean routes for each recurring client.

• Route A: let it finish. Leave short payment plans running in Paperbell until the last installment lands. Deliver sessions in Coachful meanwhile, using session credits. This is the lowest-friction route for plans with three or fewer payments left.
• Route B: cancel at a billing boundary. For open-ended monthly subscriptions or long payment plans, let one more charge go through in Paperbell, cancel that subscription in Paperbell the same day, and send template 3 with a Coachful checkout link for the next cycle. No overlap, no gap.

A few details to check:

• Cancel in Paperbell, not just in Stripe. Cancel through Paperbell's own controls so its records match. Then confirm in your Stripe dashboard that the old subscription shows as cancelled.
• PayPal clients. Coachful does not support PayPal. Clients who pay you by PayPal in Paperbell switch to a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe at their next cycle. Tell them in template 3.
• Payment plans with remaining balances. If you move a client mid-plan under Route B, set up the Coachful payment plan for the remaining installments only, not the full price.
• Refunds after the switch. A refund for a charge Paperbell collected is issued against that original charge. Note in your spreadsheet where each charge came from so you refund in the right place.
• Taxes and invoices. Coachful issues an invoice per transaction and supports manual invoices and Stripe Tax. If you collect sales tax or VAT, check with an accountant how to handle a mid-year change of invoicing system.

More on how payments, plans and coupons work is on the coaching payment software page.

What will the switch cost?

Expect to pay for both tools for about one billing cycle, and less after that if Coachful replaces add-on tools you were running next to Paperbell. The table lists what each documents as of October 2026.

For a clearer total, add the other subscriptions you can drop once you move: a course host, a community app, a separate email tool or a habit tracker. Coachful's membership includes courses, a community, email sequences, habits and check-ins, so those lines can come off your stack. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.

What should be on your cutover checklist?

Use this list on switch day and in the weeks after. Do not cancel Paperbell until every row is ticked.

Coaches moving from more than one tool can use the same checklist; our guide to migrating from a discontinued coaching CRM adds steps for automations, and migrating from Kajabi covers courses and a community.

How does Coachful's white-glove import and build work?

You describe what you want moved and built, attach your files, and the Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding, which is most of the heavy lifting in a Paperbell migration.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can open Create > We'll build it for you · FREE, or the "Want us to build it for you?" card on the Website, Funnels and Programs pages, and ask for a website, funnel, offer or sales page, program, course outline and written material, coaching flow, form or worksheet, email sequence, link in bio, lead quiz, event, automation or something else. You can attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files, such as your logo, photos, brand guide, saved Paperbell copy and contract text. Video files are not accepted.

For a Paperbell move, a useful request looks like this: "Import the attached client list. Rebuild my three packages as offers with session credits. Recreate my coaching agreement from the attached text. Rebuild my homepage and Work With Me page from the attached PDFs, with every button going to my discovery call booking page."

What the team does not do: invent anything. No made-up credentials, testimonials or prices; gaps are left for you to fill. The service does not include recording videos, designing a logo, managing ads or ongoing marketing. A few recent builds, anonymized:

• A leadership coach with a Squarespace renewal days away got one clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button.
• A somatic coach leaving Kajabi had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected.
• A business mentor for beauty professionals got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a free start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails.
• A real-estate and money coach got a year-long cohort program with an application form, an eight-page site and a free nine-day bootcamp funnel.

If your Paperbell site was simple, this is a good moment to upgrade it. Coachful's website builder has 30 designed homepage templates, a blog, SEO settings and an Import website option. Read more in how the white-glove service works and on the coach website builder page. Our earlier piece on the Paperbell website explains what you are moving from.

Is Coachful the right place to move to?

Coachful fits coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, and who want to replace four to six tools with one. If Paperbell does everything you need and you never want habits, check-ins, courses or a community, staying put is a reasonable choice.

What Coachful is. A coaching platform where one membership covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant called Michelle. Coaches get one login; clients get one app under the coach's branding. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and has a Trustpilot score of 4.5 from 21 reviews.

Who it is for. Solo coaches who run multi-week programs, coaches growing into a small team (team plans add coach seats with per-coach availability and staff permissions), and coaches tracking ICF hours, since Coachful counts coaching hours and distinct clients against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds and exports an ICF client coaching log.

What it gives you that Paperbell did not (going by our September 2026 profile): multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks; courses with modules, drip and completion tracking; a community feed with cohort groups created automatically on enrollment; a client status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk; and Michelle, who briefs you before sessions, drafts emails and summarizes recorded sessions. Questions and planning with Michelle are included in your Coachful membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits.

What it does not do. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. There is no PayPal and no permanent free plan. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. There is no Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync, no Salesforce or HubSpot integration, no routing forms that pick a host from form answers, and no third-party plugins. The affiliate program tracks links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but you record payouts manually.

How to start. Start a free trial, connect Stripe and your calendar, then submit a white-glove request with your Paperbell roster and copy attached. Your data stays portable: Coachful exports your full client data as a ZIP (roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses), plus a course export, and it is GDPR-ready.

For a wider look at your options before you commit, see the Paperbell alternatives roundup or our earlier guide on how to switch from Paperbell without losing a client.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export my client list from Paperbell as a CSV?

We could not confirm a documented CSV export of the full client list in our September 2026 profile, and Paperbell's help center was unreachable when we checked in October 2026. Ask Paperbell support in writing what they can export before you cancel. Either way, copy names, emails, package balances and notes into a spreadsheet while your account is active.

Will my clients' Stripe subscriptions move to Coachful automatically?

No. A subscription Paperbell created keeps running under Paperbell until you cancel it there. Each recurring client sets up a new subscription through a Coachful checkout, ideally on the day their last Paperbell charge goes through, so there is no gap and no double charge.

Do clients have to re-enter their card details?

Plan on it. Each recurring client enters payment details once in the Coachful checkout, using a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Template 3 in this guide is written for exactly that moment.

What happens to clients who pay me through PayPal?

Coachful does not support PayPal, so those clients move to a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through your Stripe account. Let their current PayPal cycle finish in Paperbell, then send the Coachful checkout link for the next one.

How do I move clients who are halfway through a package?

Add their remaining sessions to their Coachful record as session credits. They can then book through your new booking page without paying again, and the package history stays in your Paperbell folder for reference.

What happens to contracts clients already signed in Paperbell?

Download each signed agreement as a PDF before you cancel, then upload it to the client's record in Coachful. New clients sign your Coachful coaching agreement by e-signature before their first call.

How long should I keep Paperbell running?

Until the last scheduled Paperbell charge has been collected and every row on the cutover checklist is done. For most solo coaches that is one or two billing cycles after switch day. If you are on Paperbell's annual plan, check your renewal date and cancel before it.

Is the white-glove migration really free?

Yes. The white-glove build service is free on every Coachful plan. You describe what you need, attach up to 8 links and 10 files, and the team builds it in your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not invent content, and it does not cover video recording, logo design, ads or ongoing marketing.

Can I move my Paperbell website and keep my domain?

Yes. Use Coachful's Import website option or ask the white-glove team to rebuild your pages from saved copies, then point your custom domain to Coachful on switch day. Update booking links in your email signature and social bios at the same time.

Can I use Coachful for therapy or clinical work?

No. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so it is not suitable for clinical records or insurance billing. It is built for coaching, where you work on goals and habits rather than diagnosing or treating conditions.