Switching from Joist: What Moves, What Doesn't, and How Long It Takes

Joist was the app a lot of us started on, and for a while it was free. Since 2026 it isn't, and the things a renovation actually generates — change orders, a calendar, more than five documents a month — sit on its dearer tiers. If you are weighing a move, here is exactly what comes with you, what stays behind, and the order to do it in so nothing gets stranded.

Why people leave

Usually not in anger. The common story is that the free plan went away, the $10 Basics tier caps you at five estimates and invoices a month, and the first time a client asks for a change order you discover that lives on Elite at $32 — and a job calendar on Run at $70. A second login for a partner or office manager is not available at any price, because Joist is one user per account. None of that is unreasonable for what Joist is; it is just a lot of tiers between you and the paperwork of a normal kitchen job.

The other reason is the estimate itself. Joist gives you a blank sheet. If the hour you spend pricing a bathroom from memory is the hour you would rather not spend, an estimator that starts from a priced template for your province or state is the actual reason to switch, and the tier maths is just the excuse.

What moves and what doesn't

Be clear about this before you export anything, because two of the rows below surprise people.

The order to do it in

1. Export clients from Joist.Sign in to Joist on the web from a desktop or laptop (the mobile app can't export). Open Clients and use the menu to export. You get a CSV whose first column is Joist's own client ID with a "do not change this" header — leave it alone; the importer ignores it.
2. Export invoices, one month at a time.Open Invoices and use Export. Joist exports a month per file, one row per invoice: number, client name, subtotal, tax, total, dates, and payment received less refunds. Paste the months into one sheet, or import them one at a time — duplicates are skipped either way.
3. Start a free Estiquik account and pick your region.The province or state sets your tax rate and the pricing on the templates. The importer is part of Starter; the 14-day trial needs no card, so the migration itself costs nothing.
4. Import clients first.Sidebar → Import CSV. The importer matches columns by their headings, shows a preview of what it worked out, and writes nothing until you press Import. Doing clients first means every invoice you import next attaches to the right person and shows in their history.
5. Import invoices.Same page. Each Joist invoice becomes one invoice at the stated subtotal, tax and total, with the amount already paid recorded as a payment. If a total in the file doesn't add up, the preview flags it instead of guessing. Run a file twice and nothing doubles.
6. Connect Stripe and send one invoice.Integrations → Connect Stripe, two minutes. From then on emailed invoices carry a Pay by card button at Stripe's standard rate — 2.9% + 30¢ in the US, 2.9% + 30¢ CAD in Canada — with nothing added. If you were on Joist Payments in the US, that alone is a change from 3.49% + 49¢.
7. Rebuild the open estimates.Pick the template that fits — kitchen, bathroom, basement, painting, flooring, ADU, whole house — check the regional rates against your last invoice, adjust, send. Your edits become your baseline for the next one.
8. Tell clients where the invoices come from now.One line in the next invoice email: "We've moved our invoicing; you can pay by card from the button below or e-Transfer as before." Then cancel Joist when the last open estimate there is signed or dead.

Realistic time: an evening. The exports are minutes per month of history, the imports are minutes each, Stripe is two minutes. The only step that scales with how busy you are is rebuilding open estimates, and those you would have been re-typing into Joist's blank sheet anyway.

Run both for a month

Nothing about the switch is a cliff. Joist bills monthly, so keep it running for a cycle: finish the estimates that are already out for signature, take any payments that are already in flight, and do new work in Estiquik. When the last Joist document is closed, cancel. If you export a second time at the end of the month, the importer skips everything it already has and picks up only the new invoices, because it matches on invoice number.

What it costs to switch

The import runs on the free 14-day Starter trial. After that, Starter is $19.99 a month (CA$24.99) for unlimited estimates, the seven priced templates, e-signature, invoicing and card payments; Pro at $29.99 (CA$34.99) adds change orders, contracts, plan takeoff, expenses and QuickBooks. Compare that with where the same features sit on Joist and you land at the honest answer: if you send a couple of invoices a month and know every price by heart, Joist Basics or Pro is the better buy and we say so on our comparison page. If you want the estimate priced before you start typing and the change orders on the same plan, the switch pays for itself on the first job it corrects.

Start a paid plan on or before 31 October 2026 and your rate is held for 24 months under the Price Lock Guarantee. And if you would rather not do the export yourself, email the files to support@estiquik.com and we will do the import with you on a call, free.

Questions people ask before they export

Do my invoice numbers change?

No. The invoice number from the Joist file is kept, which is also what stops duplicates on a second import. New invoices in Estiquik continue from your own numbering.

What about tax on old invoices?

The tax amount in the file is stored as the rate it implies, so an old invoice at 13% HST reads as 13% HST and its total matches the paperwork your client already has. Estimates you build fresh get your region's rate automatically.

My client list has people I'll never work for again.

Import them anyway; storage costs nothing and the invoice history attaches to them. Or delete rows from the CSV before you import — the importer only reads what is in the file.

Can I import from somewhere other than Joist?

Yes. The same importer reads Jobber's exports (including its one-row-per-property client file), QuickBooks customer and invoice exports, and any spreadsheet with a header row. There is a separate guide for Jobber.