Native importer
Migrate from Mitchell 1 Manager SE to Pitlane.
Pitlane has a native column-aware importer for the Mitchell 1 Manager SE customer + vehicle export. The desktop-rooted format trips up most generic CSV tools. Pitlane's parser handles the column variations Mitchell 1 has shipped over the years.
Pitlane runs alongside Manager SE. It doesn't replace it. Keep ProDemand for labor times and OEM repair info, keep Manager SE for repair orders and estimating, and let Pitlane pick up the customer-side work SocialCRM was doing: review requests after pickup, follow-ups, the after-the-job workflow. The migration tool lives at /settings/migration inside your Pitlane account.
What transfers from Mitchell 1
- Customer first/last name, phone, email. Deduplicated on email or phone
- Mailing address (street, city, state)
- Vehicles per customer with VIN, year, make, model, license plate
- Last-known mileage when present
- Service-record stubs from the most recent RO date (full RO line items don't transfer)
What stays behind (and why)
- —Full RO line items, parts, and labor (Mitchell 1 retains those)
- —ProDemand. Keep it running for labor times and OEM repair information
- —Mitchell 1's invoice and payment history (running totals don't transfer)
Where to find the export inside Mitchell 1.
Mitchell 1 Manager SE → Reports → Customer / Vehicle export. Use the standard CSV output. If your version emits one row per customer with concatenated vehicles, the importer will split them; if it emits one row per vehicle, it deduplicates customers automatically.
The full migration in five steps.
- 1
Run the Manager SE customer / vehicle export
From Manager SE, run the standard customer + vehicle export to CSV. Don't pre-filter. Let the full list come out. The Pitlane importer deduplicates safely so re-imports are non-destructive.
- 2
Sign up for Pitlane
Create your account on /signup. The migration tool is part of the free trial; you don't need a card first.
- 3
Open Settings → Migration
Drop the CSV. The importer auto-detects the Manager SE format from the column fingerprint (Manager SE distinctively concatenates vehicles or uses a vehicle-id column).
- 4
Confirm and import
Preview the row count, the column mapping, and any warnings (malformed phones, unparseable dates, dropped rows with no first name). Click import. A preview shows the row count and warnings before anything writes.
- 5
Switch off SocialCRM where it overlaps
Pitlane's review automation and customer-outreach replace what SocialCRM does on the customer-relationship side. If you keep SocialCRM running in parallel, you'll get duplicate review requests. Turn off the SocialCRM equivalent or stop paying for the module.
After the migration: what to keep, what to drop.
Keep
- Mitchell 1 Manager SE for repair orders, estimating, and parts/labor catalog
- ProDemand for labor times and OEM repair information
- Your accounting integration if it's tied to Manager SE
Drop
- —SocialCRM (Pitlane's review automation and PitCrew drafting cover the same customer-side surface)
- —Mitchell 1's mobile inspection add-on if you're paying for it separately (Pitlane DVI is in the base price)
- —Any third-party SMS or review-request tool you've been bolting on. Pitlane's two-way SMS is in the price. Texting activates after carrier registration, usually a few business days. Pitlane files the registration
Questions about migrating from Mitchell 1.
Does Pitlane integrate with Mitchell 1 directly?
No native real-time integration today. The migration tool brings your Manager SE customer + vehicle data into Pitlane in one shot. After that, mark a service complete in Manager SE for the RO and let Pitlane fire the customer-facing workflow (review request, service summary, follow-ups). It's a one-way data pull, not a two-way sync.
Can I run Pitlane and Mitchell 1 in parallel?
Yes. Import your Manager SE customer + vehicle export into Pitlane, run Pitlane's customer-side workflow (review requests, follow-ups, inspections, payments), and keep Manager SE for repair orders and estimating. There's no duplicate-billing risk: Pitlane's customer outreach takes over what SocialCRM was doing, it doesn't stack on top of it. Turn off the SocialCRM equivalent so customers don't get the same request twice. The import is a single one-way CSV pull you run inside your Pitlane account, previewed before anything writes, so Manager SE keeps running the whole time and there's no cutover downtime.
Will I lose my ProDemand integration if I switch?
No. ProDemand runs separately from Manager SE's customer-side modules. Keep ProDemand and Manager SE running, drop SocialCRM and the marketing add-ons, and let Pitlane handle the customer-side workflow alongside them. The net change is usually a couple of overlapping customer-outreach modules you stop paying for.
Mitchell 1 has been around for decades. Pitlane is new. Why switch?
Mitchell 1's repair-info dataset and Manager SE's RO workflow are mature and battle-tested. Keep using them where they're strong. The customer-side modules (SocialCRM, the marketing add-ons) are where Pitlane is purpose-built and ships weekly. The bet is a tool for the customer relationship that ships new work every week. That's where Pitlane puts its time.
What happens to my historical RO data?
It stays in Manager SE. Pitlane's importer pulls customer and vehicle records plus a service-record stub for the most recent RO date so reminder logic works. Pitlane's RO writer handles new repair orders; historical RO line items don't come across in a CSV, so that history stays in Manager SE.
Migrating from another tool?
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