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From e-Act to the new Autorespond: step-by-step migration guide with go-live checklist

12 min read

The migration from e-Act to the new Autorespond runs in three clear phases. You set the pace: we get everything ready, you give the signal.

This guide is specifically for customers migrating from the old e-Act Autorespond system. New customers do not have to go through these steps.

See also the explanation in the lesson Migration from the old Autorespond to the new system: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/migratie-van-het-oude-autorespond-naar-het-nieuwe-systeem/view

Video contents (jump to the moment that is relevant for you):

Minute 0-6:30 Explanation of the migration process, which important emails you receive and where to find information
Minute 6:30 Adding the DNS records in your own domain management
Minute 13:20 Checking the migration of your data from e-Act to the new Autorespond system
Minute 14:30 Going through the checklist after the migration and before going live
Minute 42:30 Website live on your own domain: the email that follows and the steps involved
Minute 45:10 Placing a form on your own website (on your main domain)
Minute 47:00 Placing an order link to a specific product on your main site
Minute 48:30 Testing a form sign-up in an incognito tab (with a test email address)
Minute 51:30 The most important sources of information about how the new system works

Terminology of the new Autorespond compared with the e-Act system

  • Groups become ‘lists’.
  • Free fields become ‘custom contact fields’.
  • List managers become ‘forms’, and if they contain follow-up emails, separate automations are created for those. If there is more than one follow-up email in the list manager, it is transferred as an ‘email sequence’.
  • Workflows become ‘automations’.
  • The emails created in the old e-Act Autorespond under the ‘Content’ menu are created in the new system as ‘email templates’ (menu CRM > Email templates). You can import those at any point you like in an automation or an email sequence.
  • Mailings (such as newsletters) are called ‘campaigns’ in the new system (not mentioned in the video)

Overview: the migration process in three phases #

Phase 1: exploring the onboarding environment #

Once your migration has been scheduled, you get access to your personal onboarding environment at yourcompanyname.inwerker.dev. Everything has already been migrated into it for you: contacts, forms, automations and products from your e-Act (the old Autorespond) environment.

The onboarding environment is meant for getting to know the new system. Please note: emails are switched off in this environment. You cannot embed forms on your website here and you cannot send emails.

At the same time you receive the DNS records needed to go live on your own subdomain later (phase 2).

Phase 2: active on your subdomain #

As soon as you have added the DNS records, we put you live on your own (sub)domain, for example my.yourwebsite.com. Your e-Act environment stays active during this phase.

From this moment you can test everything on your real URL: embedding forms, testing orders and going through the checklist.

Please send us a message by email when you have done this (reply to the DNS email), and we will move you to your own subdomain.

Would you rather not set up the DNS yourself? Send us temporary login details for your domain management and we will arrange it free of charge.

Phase 3: fully switched over #

When you have finished the checklist and everything works to your satisfaction on your own subdomain, you give us the signal: ‘I am ready to switch over’. Then:

  • We freeze your e-Act environment (new sign-ups and orders no longer come into e-Act)
  • We transfer any running subscriptions to the new system
  • You keep access to your old e-Act data until the end of 2026

Go-live checklist, step by step #

You go through the checklist below after you are live on your own subdomain (phase 2). Your e-Act environment is still active then, so you can compare and check at your own pace.

1. Checking contacts #

Take a few samples to check that your contacts have been transferred correctly:

  • Are the contacts in the right lists? (In e-Act these were called ‘groups’, in the new Autorespond they are called ‘lists’)
  • Do contacts have the right tags?
  • Have any free fields (called ‘custom contact fields’ in the new Autorespond) come across and been filled in correctly?

In the dashboard, go to CRM & Emails → Contacts to check this.

Do you see something that is not right? Let us know at [email protected] and we will look into it.

2. Checking list managers and automations #

In e-Act you had list managers with follow-up emails. In the new Autorespond these have been converted into:

  • A form (for the sign-up)
  • An automation (for the starting step)
  • An email sequence (for the follow-up emails)

Start with your most important sign-up form and check:

  1. Go to Forms → Forms and look the form up by name (the name and ID of your ‘old’ list manager are included in the name to make searching easier)
  2. Open the form through Edit and check that the field names are correct: first name, last name, email address, any consent fields
  3. Under Settings → Integration, check which list sign-ups are added to
  4. Go to CRM & Emails → Automations and search for the same name, then open the automation and check that the starting step and the fields are correct
  5. Go to CRM & Emails → Email sequences and open the sequence, then check that the emails are present with the right waiting steps

Please note: the double opt-in setting, confirmation texts and post-sign-up handling have been carried over as far as possible, but do check this for your most important form or forms.

3. Checking the emails in the automation #

Open your email sequence and check the content of every email:

  • Have the images loaded correctly? (Broken images often mean the image was already missing in e-Act)
  • Have attachments come across as a download link in the email?
  • Are the social media buttons present?
  • Are there small formatting differences you want to adjust?

Go to CRM & Emails → Email sequences, open the sequence and click an email to edit it.

4. Adding extra settings to the automation #

This is a good moment to rethink your sign-up flow. The new Autorespond offers more possibilities than e-Act:

  • Conditional steps (yes/no branches based on behaviour)
  • Assigning or removing tags
  • Creating tasks in Administration → Project Management
  • Adding members to lists or removing them

Once everything is as you want it, set the automation live with the ‘Active’ button in the automation. Only then are new sign-ups processed through the automation.

5. Cleaning up email templates and setting up one basic design #

All emails from e-Act have been transferred as separate ‘email templates’. There can be a lot of them. Consider:

  • Deleting old or unused templates in bulk through CRM & Emails → Email Templates → Bulk actions → Delete
  • Creating one new basic template design that you reuse from now on

See also the explanation in the lesson Mailing overview: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/mailing-overzicht/view

6. Setting the subdomain indexing (no index) #

Decide whether your subdomain (for example my.yourwebsite.com) may be found in Google. If you use the subdomain for your shop, landing pages or blogs, you may well want that. If you use it purely as an administration environment, no index is the sensible choice.

Setting no index:

  1. Go to Website → SEO → SEO – Titles and metas → Advanced
  2. Tick No index for the whole subdomain

See also the explanation in the lesson SEO and privacy settings: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/seo-en-privacy-instellingen/view

7. Testing a form on your own website #

Now that you are live on your own subdomain, you can embed your forms on your main website.

This is how you get the embed code:

  1. Go to Forms → Forms and open the form you want
  2. Go to Settings & Integrations → Landing page and switch on Landing page mode
  3. Click Share
  4. Make sure Pretty URL is switched off
  5. Scroll down to the HTML iFrame code and copy it
  6. Paste the code into an HTML/code block in your own website builder (Divi, Elementor, WordPress blocks, and so on)

Always test in incognito with an email address that is not your admin address, so you see exactly what a visitor sees.

After the test, check:

  • Is the contact in the right list?
  • Has the automation started?
  • Has the first email been sent?

See also the explanation in the lesson Migration from the old Autorespond to the new system: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/migratie-van-het-oude-autorespond-naar-het-nieuwe-systeem/view

8. Adjusting the look of your subdomain: logo and menu #

When visitors end up on your subdomain, it has to look recognisable.

Setting the logo:

  1. Go to Website → Website Settings to open the Customizer
  2. Open the Site identity panel and upload your logo

Adjusting the menu:

  1. Go to Website → Website Settings and open the Menus panel
  2. Adjust the primary menu: remove items you do not need and add a link to your main website through ‘Custom link’

See also the explanation in the lesson Website settings: adjusting logos, layout, menus and pages: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/website-instellingen-logo-s-layout-menu-s-en-pagina-s-aanpassen/view

9. Checking products #

Take a few samples to check that your products have been transferred correctly:

  • Are the name, price and description correct?
  • Are the right product types set (one-off, subscription)?
  • Are there old products you can clear out?

Go to Shop → Products.

In e-Act you could not delete products if orders were linked to them. In the new Autorespond there are no orders yet, so this is the ideal moment for a big clean-up. Select products in bulk and move them to the bin.

Please note: actions that were set in the e-Act product itself have not been transferred. Think of adding a contact to a group or follow-up emails that were sent from the product. Only separate workflows and list manager follow-ups have been converted into automations. Whatever was in the product itself, you set up again per product:

  • Assigning a tag after a purchase is set directly in the product screen, so you do not need an automation for that.
  • Adding a contact to a list or sending follow-up emails is done with an automation that starts on the purchase of the product.

See also the explanation in this documentation: Creating a paid product with an automatic list link and follow-up email

Did you have a separate workflow in e-Act that started on the purchase of a product? That has been converted and you find it under CRM & Emails → Automations (search for the product name, the starting step is ‘Product purchased’). Check the steps and then set the automation to active.

10. Checking the shop settings and setting your terms and conditions #

Go to Shop → Shop Settings and go through the tabs:

  • General: shop address, currency
  • Tax: check the tax rates
  • Accounts and privacy: guest checkout or a compulsory account
  • Mollie settings: enter your live API key from Mollie if Mollie is your payment provider. The payment methods enabled in your Mollie account are then shown automatically among the payment options, which you set through the menu Shop Settings, tab ‘Payments’. See also this documentation: https://autorespondhub.com/docs/connect-mollie-to-your-shop-with-an-api-key/

The most important action: set up your terms and conditions. Go to Website → Pages, open the ‘Terms and conditions’ page and replace the example text with your own. This page is shown automatically in the checkout.

See also the explanation in the lesson Shop general settings: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/shop-algemene-instellingen-belasting-verzending-emails-etc/view

11. Adjusting the shop checkout and testing an order #

Go to Sales funnels → Shop Checkout and adjust the general checkout:

  • Replace the Autorespond logo with your own logo
  • Adjust texts and styling as you wish
  • Check that the terms and conditions are shown correctly

Testing an order link:

The new URL for a direct order link is:

https://yoursubdomain.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=PRODUCT-ID&reset=y

You find the product ID in Shop → Products on the product concerned. The parameter ‘reset=y’ makes sure any existing basket is emptied. Test this link in your browser to check that it works correctly.

See also the explanation in the lesson Shop sales funnels and the general shop checkout: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/shop-verkoopfunnels-en-de-algemene-winkel-checkout/view

12. Creating a manual test order and test invoice #

Before you configure the invoice settings, first create a test order, because otherwise you will not see a sample invoice.

  1. Go to Shop → Orders → Add order
  2. Add a test customer and a product
  3. Save the order
  4. Go to Shop → Invoice management to view the generated invoice

See also the explanation in the lesson Shop manual order and invoice: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/shop-handmatige-bestelling-en-factuur-aanmaken/view

13. Configuring the invoice settings #

Go to Shop → Invoice management and set up the invoice as you want it:

  • Upload your own logo (under Shop information)
  • Enter your company details (name, address, company registration number, IBAN, telephone number)
  • Set when the invoice is created automatically
  • Adjust the layout through the Customizer if you wish

âš  Important: adjust the invoice numbering shortly before the final switch. If you have already created invoices in e-Act, set the starting number in the new Autorespond higher so that no duplicate invoice numbers arise. Do this shortly before you switch over definitively (to phase 3), not earlier.

See also the explanation in the lesson Setting up shop invoice management: https://mijn.autorespond.nl/community/course/inwerk-cursus/lessons/shop-factuurbeheer-instellen/view

14. Hiding products in the /shop overview #

By default, all products are visible in the public /shop overview on your subdomain. If you do not want visitors to be able to find the product pages through that overview:

  1. Go to Shop → Products
  2. Select all products through Bulk actions → Bulk edit → Apply
  3. Set Visibility to Hidden
  4. Click Update

The products are then no longer visible in the overview, but they can still be reached through a direct order link.

Ready to go live? #

Once you have gone through all the points above, your forms work, your orders are correct and the invoice looks right, you are ready for the final switch.

Send an email to [email protected] with the text: ‘I am ready to switch over’. We will then freeze your e-Act environment and transfer any running subscriptions.

We wish you every success and a lot of enjoyment with your new Autorespond.

Useful links #

Updated on September 18, 2026

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