A Shogo account contains one or more stores. There are situations where a store needs to move from one Shogo account to another — for example, when an accounting firm manages stores on behalf of many merchants, or when a merchant hires a new bookkeeper who already uses Shogo. This article explains how store migrations work in Shogo, what you can do yourself, and what Shogo Support can do for you.

Common Migration Scenarios

An accountant manages a store on a shared account, and the merchant wants their own Shogo account. An accounting firm might have a single Shogo account containing 100 stores owned by 100 different merchants. If one of those merchants decides they'd like to manage their own store from their own Shogo account, the merchant can either sign up for a Shogo account and set the store up themselves (just like any new Shogo customer), or have Shogo copy the existing store over for them. Either way, the accountant deactivates the store on the shared account when ready.

A merchant hires a bookkeeper who already uses Shogo. In this case, the store currently lives in the merchant's own Shogo account and needs to move to the bookkeeper's account. The bookkeeper can either add the store fresh on their account through the normal onboarding flow or have Shogo copy it over. The merchant then deactivates the store (and, if desired, their now-empty account) on their end.

Important Things to Know Before You Migrate

One payment method per Shogo account. A Shogo account can have only one payment method, and the account owner is responsible for paying for every store on that account. When you decide where a store should live, keep in mind who you want paying the bill.

Shared accounts and end-customer access. When a store is on a shared account (such as an accountant's account that contains many merchants' stores), it is rarely advisable to give individual end customers access to that account. Doing so would expose other merchants' data. If a merchant needs hands-on access to their own Shogo store, the right answer is usually to set them up on their own account rather than to grant access to the shared one.

FYI: If you do want to give specific end customers their own Shogo logins while you still manage their stores, the cleanest approach is to set them up on separate Shogo accounts. Note that a given email address can only be associated with one Shogo account at a time, so if you (the accountant) need to be the owner of multiple Shogo accounts, you'll need to use a sub-alias of your email (for example, you+clientname@yourdomain.com) for each additional account.

Both source and destination accounts need to exist before the migration. Whoever will own the store after the move needs to have a Shogo account set up and ready to receive it. If the destination is a brand-new account, sign it up first using our normal self-service signup flow.

We need approval from both account owners. Before Shogo will copy a store into a destination account or do anything on either account's behalf, we need written approval from the owners of both the source and destination accounts. You can submit the request — and start the approval process — through this form:

https://support.shogo.io/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=5862211065108

You only need to fill the form out once. Whichever party submits it can list the other approver's email address in the request, and Shogo will CC them on the ticket and ask for their approval directly. Once both owners have confirmed in writing, we'll proceed.

What Shogo Can and Cannot Copy

What Shogo can copy (optional): With approval from both account owners, Shogo can copy the store itself, its POS connection credentials, and its store settings and preferences into the destination account. This is optional — many customers prefer to set the store up fresh on the destination side using our normal onboarding flow. Either path is fine; just let us know your preference in the request and we'll handle it accordingly.

What Shogo cannot copy: Sales data, accounting mapping, accounting history, and previously posted accounting entries do not carry over between accounts. The destination store starts clean.

History loads from your POS. If you'd like Shogo to pull historical sales data from your POS into the new store on the destination account, just ask as part of your request and we'll handle it.

Posting historical accounting. If you'd like Shogo to post historical accounting from the new store into your accounting system, we're happy to do that as well. As long as the requested history was already posted on the source account, we'll do the re-post on the destination account for free — we won't double-bill you for posting the same history twice. Please provide specific start and end dates so we only post the range you actually need (and so we don't create duplicate entries in your accounting system).

The Step-by-Step

1. Set up the destination account. The new account owner signs up for a Shogo account (if they don't already have one).
2. Submit the request. Either account owner submits the request form, lists the other owner's email, and tells us:
   • whether you want Shogo to copy the store/credentials/preferences over, or whether you'll set the store up fresh on the destination,
   • whether you'd like a history load from the POS, and
   • whether you'd like historical accounting posted (and for what date range).
3. Approvals. Shogo CCs the other account owner on the ticket and requests their approval. Once both owners have confirmed, we proceed.
4. Deactivate the original store. The source account owner deactivates the original Shogo store on demand, whenever they're ready. See Deactivating a Shogo Store for the steps. If the source account is now empty and no longer needed, the account owner can also deactivate the account itself.

Still Have Questions?

If you're not sure which path is right for your situation, open a request with our Customer Care team and we'll help you sort it out before any changes are made.