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Real questions inspectors asked our support team, with the answers. Tap a question to open it; each one has its own link you can share.

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Switching from Horizon or Spectora

Export your data from Horizon and forward the export emails to our team. We import your templates, clients, agents and past inspection reports for you, often the same day. You can do this during your free trial.
  1. In Horizon, open your company Profile page and export your Company Template (json), CRM Agents and CRM Clients. Export your past inspections too if you want them.
  2. Horizon emails you download links. Past inspections come as one link per year.
  3. Forward those emails to the address our team gives you in the chat bubble, from the email on your Hive account. Send the links, not downloaded zip files. If a link has expired, export again in Horizon to get a fresh one.
Horizon structures templates differently, so plan to tidy up the imported templates. Horizon also exports every template it has: keep the ones you use and delete the rest. Fee schedules and agreement signing logs don’t come over.See Switching from other software and our Horizon migration page.
Yes, at no extra cost, once you start a paid subscription. Our team can bring over your templates, contacts, agreements, services, pricing modifiers and automations. It usually takes a few days. Nothing changes in your Spectora account, so you can keep using it while you check everything.Ask in the chat bubble in your dashboard to start. Tell us what you’ve already set up and what you want us to build. Automations work differently in the two systems, so review them yourself, especially complex ones. Past inspections are moved last, after your final Spectora inspection.Prefer to do it yourself? You can import your template and contacts on your own, even during the trial, and follow the onboarding videos in order. Coming from other software? Ask in the chat bubble and we’ll tell you what we can move.See Switching from other software and Onboarding videos.

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Importing past inspections

Our team imports them for you, free. Hive can’t pull reports straight from Spectora, so we import what Spectora backs up to Google Drive.
  1. Wait until you’ve done your last inspection in Spectora, so nothing is missed.
  2. In Spectora, go to Settings → System integrations and check that the Google Drive backup is turned on.
  3. Spectora creates a backup folder, named something like Spectora backup, in the connected Google Drive. It uploads gradually, roughly a hundred reports a night, so a long history can take days or weeks to finish.
  4. In Google Drive, click the three dots on the folder, then Share. Add the email our team gives you in the chat bubble with Editor access. If there are several backup folders, share all of them. You don’t need to download anything.
  5. Tell us in the chat bubble once it’s shared.
If you inspected in Spectora after the import, ask us to import again. We add the reports that weren’t imported yet.See Where imported past inspections show up.
In Business Tools → Past Inspections, not in your main inspections list. Search by address, open an inspection to see its PDFs, and click Email next to a PDF to send it to a client who asks for it later.Imported past inspections are PDFs, because other software only exports PDFs. You can’t edit them or start a re-inspection from them. To re-inspect one, create a new inspection at the same address in Hive. Business metrics from your old software, such as revenue or inspections per agent, don’t come over.Imported templates are under Templates and imported contacts under Contacts.See Past Inspections in your dashboard.
Yes. Our team imports past report PDFs from ISN, HomeGauge and most other software. Do it after your last inspection in the old software, so nothing is missed.
  • ISN: connect Google Drive in ISN under Settings → Office settings → Working with other applications → Google Drive. It syncs overnight. Share that Drive folder with the email our team gives you. Also download a custom report from Reports → My reports → Inspections → Custom downloads: choose Advanced, set the dates back to when you started with ISN, pick all inspection types and all order information, and send us the file.
  • HomeGauge and other software: put your report PDFs in a Google Drive folder, ideally one subfolder per address with the report, invoice and agreement. Share it with our team with edit access.
Ask in the chat bubble in your dashboard for the email to share with. If your old software’s menus look different, its support team can tell you how to export. Imported reports appear in Business Tools → Past Inspections.See Switching from other software.

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Templates from other software

Often, yes. Send your template export to our team in the chat bubble. We import it at no extra cost when the file can be read.
  • PalmTech: we import your sections, items, dropdown options, canned comments and ratings. Open the export first and check that it contains your comments, not only template names.
  • Inspector Toolbelt: the normal ITB export can’t be read, so ask ITB support for a CSV export of your template and send us that. Expect some cleanup, because ITB keeps all comments in one list and Hive sorts them by type.
  • Software we can’t import: start from a Template Hub template and adapt it, or ask in the Facebook group for a template another inspector has shared.
See Templates.
Yes. Go to Templates, click Upload, pick your old software and drop in its export file:
  • Spectora: the Excel file (.xls or .xlsx) from Spectora’s template export. Export it with HTML so your formatting comes through.
  • HIP (Home Inspector Pro): the .tpz export.
  • HomeGauge: the .ht5 export.
  • Horizon (Carson Dunlop): horizon.json, plus the company_*.json file with your customizations, both from your Horizon export.
The import takes a few minutes. Uploading the same template again creates a second copy instead of replacing the first. Each system structures templates a little differently, so check the result before your first inspection.See Templates.

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Contacts

Create your tags first, then import one file at a time.
  1. Go to Contacts and click Manage Tags. Create a tag for each group, such as Clients and Agents.
  2. Back in Contacts, click Import CSV.
  3. Pick your old software: Spectora, ISN, HIP, HomeGauge or Horizon.
  4. Under Assign Tags (Optional), choose the tag for this file. Every contact in the file gets it.
  5. Drop in the CSV or Excel file. Import clients and agents as separate files, so each group gets the right tag.
Large files can take a few minutes. If your software isn’t listed, the import doesn’t work, or you want to keep each contact’s own tags from the file, send the file to our team in the chat bubble and we’ll add the contacts for you.See Import contacts.
Because they’re the same contact. Hive identifies each contact by email, so two people entered with the same email share one record. This often happens when you use your own email for a client and an agent while testing. Editing that record changes it everywhere it appears.To fix it, remove the contact from the inspection and add the right person with their own email. To reuse someone already in your contacts, search for them instead of typing them in again. If one person ended up with two contact records, click Merge Contacts on the Contacts page: Contact 1 is kept, and Contact 2’s inspections, tags and history move to it before Contact 2 is deleted.See Import contacts.
Click Generate one under the email field when you add the contact to an inspection. Hive creates a unique placeholder email and hides it from clients on reports. Replace it when you get the real email. On a contact in Contacts, the same button is called Generate Dummy Email.Don’t use your own email or the agent’s email for a client. Each contact signs in to the client portal with their email, so a shared email links one person’s reports to the other.See Client portal.
Yes. Type several addresses in the contact’s CC Email field, separated by commas. You find the field when you edit the contact in Contacts, or under More details when you add a contact to an inspection.If an assistant or transaction coordinator should get their own messages, add them as their own contact instead, for example as a Transaction Coordinator. Then make sure your automations include that contact type.See Automations.

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Integrations

Webhooks, yes. Create an automation and choose Webhook as the channel. When the automation runs, Hive sends the inspection data you pick, such as property, charges, payments and agents, to the URL you enter. Use this to connect your CRM, Zapier or a similar tool.A public API, with API keys and a connection for AI assistants, is rolling out gradually and isn’t open to every account yet. If you need it, tell us your use case in the chat bubble in your dashboard.See Automations and the API introduction.
Yes. Go to Business Tools → InterNACHI Buy-Back Guarantee, click Connect InterNACHI account, and choose which services include the guarantee. When you publish the first report on an inspection with one of those services, Hive registers the address with InterNACHI for you.You need to be an InterNACHI Certified Professional Inspector enrolled in the Buy-Back program, with a payment method on file at InterNACHI. Hive doesn’t charge for this. InterNACHI bills you for each registration.See InterNACHI Buy-Back.
Yes, both.
  • QuickBooks Online (US and Canada): connect under Business Tools → QuickBooks Integration. Hive copies your invoices and payments into QuickBooks every night, or right away with Sync now. The sync is one-way and for your books only. It doesn’t change how clients pay you. QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Self-Employed aren’t supported.
  • Mailchimp: connect under Business Tools → Mailchimp Integration with a Mailchimp API key. Hive syncs your clients and agents, with their tags, into the audiences you choose.
There’s no Xero integration.See Integrations, QuickBooks and Mailchimp.

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Mailchimp contact sync

Yes, through Mailchimp. Hive has no newsletter or mass email tool of its own, so connect the Mailchimp integration and send your campaigns from Mailchimp.
  1. Go to Business Tools → Mailchimp Integration and connect with your Mailchimp API key.
  2. Turn on Sync clients, Sync agents or both, and pick the Mailchimp audience for each.
  3. Turn on Sync existing clients now or Sync existing agents now to add everyone who already qualifies.
Your contacts reach Mailchimp within minutes, and every new client or agent you work with is added automatically. To email one person, use Compose Email in Hive instead.See Mailchimp.
Yes. You pick a Mailchimp audience for clients and one for agents. Point both at the same audience, or use separate ones. A contact who is both a client and an agent is added to each group’s audience.See Mailchimp.
Not if you pick the right tag sync method:
  • Add alongside my Mailchimp tags adds Hive tags and keeps your existing Mailchimp tags.
  • Only sync new tags going forward syncs only tags added in Hive after setup and leaves existing Mailchimp tags alone.
  • Don’t sync contact tags keeps tags out of the sync entirely.
  • Replace my Mailchimp tags mirrors Hive exactly, so tags that are not in Hive are removed.
If your Mailchimp automations run on tags, pick Add alongside my Mailchimp tags.See Mailchimp.
Both. During setup, turn on Sync existing clients now or Sync existing agents now to sync everyone who qualifies. Leave it off to sync only new and updated contacts from then on.New contacts and changes, such as an edited phone number or a new tag, sync on their own after that. You can also click Sync now at any time to push every qualifying contact again.See Mailchimp.
Make a new key. Mailchimp shows a key only once, so you can’t look it up again.
  1. In Mailchimp, go to Account & billing → Extras → API keys. Revoke the old key and click Create A Key.
  2. In Hive, open Business Tools → Mailchimp Integration and click Reset API key.
  3. Paste the new key.
Your sync settings are kept.See Mailchimp.
Yes. Open Business Tools → Mailchimp Integration at any time. You can turn client or agent syncing on or off, change audiences or your tag sync method, click Sync now, reset your API key, or click Disconnect.See Mailchimp.
Check these:
  • The contact has a real email. Mailchimp identifies people by email. Contacts without one, or with a placeholder email from Generate one, are skipped.
  • The contact qualifies. They have been a client or agent on an inspection, or carry one of the tags you chose for that group.
  • They haven’t opted out. Contacts who unsubscribed from your Hive emails are not subscribed in Mailchimp. People who unsubscribed or bounced in Mailchimp keep that status, and Hive can’t re-subscribe them.
If you changed which tags qualify, click Sync now to check your existing contacts again.See Mailchimp.
No. The integration only adds and updates contacts. It never removes or archives anyone in your Mailchimp audiences, so delete them in Mailchimp if you need to.See Mailchimp.

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Still stuck?

Ask in the chat bubbleOpen your dashboard and use the chat bubble. Our team answers seven days a weekAsk the inspector communityOther inspectors answer in the Facebook group
Last modified on October 18, 2026