If you have freelanced for more than a few years, you have probably lived through a tool shutting down. Fiverr Workspace closed in March 2026. AND.CO, its earlier form, was folded and rebranded before that. Tools get acquired, sunset, or quietly discontinued, and every time it happens, freelancers are left with the same scramble: get your data out before the lights go off, then find something new fast enough to keep billing clients.
The scramble is avoidable. If you treat a shutdown as a project with a checklist instead of an emergency, you keep every invoice, contract, and client record, and you land on a better tool than the one you lost. Here is how to do it cleanly.
First: find your real deadline
When a shutdown is announced, there are usually two dates that matter, and they are not the same. There is the date the service stops working, and there is the date after which you can no longer export your data. Sometimes export closes before the service fully shuts down.
Find both. Check the shutdown announcement email and the tool's help center. Put the earlier of the two in your calendar with at least a two-week buffer. Everything else in this guide happens before that date.
What to export before it's gone
Data is easy to underestimate until you need it and it is gone. Pull all of it:
Client records. Names, emails, phone numbers, billing addresses, and any notes. This is your book of business and the hardest thing to rebuild from scratch.
Invoices, paid and unpaid. You need paid invoices for tax records and unpaid ones so you can keep chasing them in the new tool. Export as PDF and, if offered, as CSV so the data is machine-readable.
Contracts and signed agreements. Anything with a client signature is a legal record. Download every one.
Proposals and templates. Your reusable proposals, rate cards, and email templates represent hours of past work. Save them so you are not rewriting from zero.
Payment history and reports. Year-to-date income summaries make tax season far easier. Grab them while the reports still run.
If the tool offers a single "export all" option, use it, then spot-check that the file actually contains what you expect. Exports are sometimes incomplete.
Handle your in-flight work first
Before you migrate anything historical, deal with what is live. Any unpaid invoice or open proposal sitting in a dying tool is at risk. Get those moving:
- For unpaid invoices, send a follow-up now and, where you can, move the payment link to a tool that will still exist next month.
- For open proposals, let clients know you are switching systems and resend from the new tool so acceptance and the resulting invoice do not vanish with the old one.
In-flight money is the thing you are most likely to actually lose in a shutdown, so it goes first.
Choosing what to switch to
A shutdown is a forced decision, which is annoying, but it is also a chance to fix whatever you disliked about the old tool. Do not just grab whatever the sunsetting company points you at. When Fiverr Workspace closed, it steered users to HoneyBook on a free year, which is fine if HoneyBook fits, but the free-year offer converts to paid at suite pricing later, and it may not be what you actually need.
Pick based on your real workflow:
- If you mostly send proposals, invoices, and follow-ups, a focused tool is cheaper and faster than a full suite.
- If you run a heavy client-management operation with intake, scheduling, and portals, a suite may be worth it.
- Either way, trial the tool on one real project before you commit your whole business to it.
For a deeper breakdown of what handles the full flow, see From Proposal to Paid: The Best Freelance Software in 2026.
Rebuilding in the new tool
Once you have chosen, set up in this order so you can bill clients again as fast as possible:
- Import your client list first. Everything else hangs off it.
- Recreate your rate card and templates. This is where saved proposals and line items pay off.
- Reissue any open invoices so unpaid work is being tracked and chased in the live system.
- Store your exported historical records somewhere safe, cloud storage or a dedicated folder, for taxes and reference.
With Nvoyce specifically, the setup is light: describe a project in plain language and AI drafts the proposal, your client accepts, and the invoice generates automatically. It is designed to get you from "new tool" to "sending invoices" in an afternoon, which is exactly what you need when a deadline forced the move.
The one-page shutdown checklist
- Find the service-end date and the export-cutoff date. Calendar the earlier one, minus two weeks.
- Export clients, invoices, contracts, proposals, templates, and reports. Spot-check the files.
- Move in-flight unpaid invoices and open proposals to a tool that will still exist.
- Choose a replacement based on your real workflow, not the vendor's suggestion.
- Trial it on one live project, then import clients, rebuild templates, and reissue open invoices.
Do those in order and a shutdown becomes a scheduled migration instead of a crisis.
Related Reading
- Fiverr Workspace Alternatives 2026: Where to Go After the Shutdown
- From Proposal to Paid: The Best Freelance Software in 2026
- How to Follow Up on an Unpaid Invoice Without Sounding Rude
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to export data when a freelance app shuts down?
It varies by tool, and the export window sometimes closes before the service itself stops. Check the shutdown announcement and help center for both dates, then act before the earlier one with a buffer.
What data should I export before a tool closes?
At minimum: your client list, all paid and unpaid invoices, signed contracts, proposals and templates, and income reports. Export in both PDF and CSV where available so the data stays usable.
What happens to unpaid invoices when my tool shuts down?
They are at risk. Follow up on them immediately and move the payment link or reissue the invoice from a tool that will still be running, so you can keep collecting after the old one goes dark.
Should I use the replacement the shutting-down company recommends?
Not automatically. Vendor-recommended migrations are convenient but may not fit your workflow or budget, and free-year offers often convert to higher paid pricing later. Choose based on what you actually use.
How fast can I start invoicing again after switching?
With a focused tool, often within a day. Import your client list, rebuild your rate card, and you can send invoices immediately. Nvoyce drafts proposals and invoices from a plain-language description, so setup is quick.
Try Nvoyce free for 7 days at nvoyce.ai. No credit card required.