CRM data migration: move contacts and open work with a clear checking plan
A new CRM interface is easy to notice. The harder work often sits in the data: duplicate contacts, unclear ownership and open opportunities without reliable relationships. Our workflow treats migration as a handover you can verify. It is a working template; formats and import capabilities must be checked against the actual source and destination systems.
Define scope before exporting
List the record types you need: companies, contacts, open opportunities, tasks, notes and possibly attachments. Decide what is actively transferred, archived separately or handled under an approved retention rule. Agree access and storage for export files; exporting data is not itself a decision to keep everything indefinitely.
- Record type, count and date of the starting inventory.
- Business owner and intended treatment.
- Dependencies between companies, contacts and work records.
- Authorised people and protected storage location.
Write field mapping with examples
Our template contains source field, meaning, example format, destination field, transformation rule and behaviour when empty. Do not stop at name maps to name: a full name does not automatically fit separate fields. For statuses, an old value such as in progress needs business mapping to a new sales stage. Record exceptions rather than silently skipping them during import.
- Confirm required fields and permitted destination values.
- Define date, number and telephone formats.
- Have a business owner resolve unclear statuses.
- Retain a source identifier for traceability where supported.
- Document values that cannot be transformed in an exception list.
Do not merge contacts on name alone
A shared family name is not proof of the same person. An email address can also be a shared mailbox. Define matching rules per record type and review ambiguous cases. Record which source wins when values conflict and how tasks and notes remain attached. Fewer contacts with incorrectly assigned work is not successful cleanup.
Import a representative sample
Deliberately test a company with several people, an open opportunity, a contact without a phone, accented characters and a known duplicate. Have future users open the company, contact, task and opportunity in the destination. Are ownership, amount and status correct? Reconcile source and destination counts and explain every skipped row. Import statistics alone cannot replace this business acceptance.
Agree the switch and fallback plan
Define a window in which source changes are restricted or captured separately. Plan the import sequence around relationships. Agree who decides to stop, how the last reliable state is restored and what happens to newly added work. Check notifications and automations before approval: an import should not unexpectedly message customers or create the same task repeatedly.
Support the first working week
Name an owner for problem reports and keep a log with the record, expected state, observed state and decision. Fix repeated problems in the rule rather than repeatedly patching individual records. The handover package includes field mapping, duplicate decisions, test results, open exceptions and owners for follow-up. Handover is complete when the team can reliably work with the records it needs.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a CSV export enough?
- It depends on the systems and data. Check relationships, notes, tasks and attachments separately. A contact list can import correctly while important connections are missing.
- Should cleanup happen before or after import?
- Define the rules first. Then test where source or destination supports reliable cleanup. Ambiguous cases need a documented decision.
- How long does a migration take?
- A reliable estimate needs an inventory, system checks and a trial import. Data quality and relationships often matter more than contact count alone.
- Should sales participate in testing?
- In our workflow, yes. Future users check their real working records. Technical import statistics cannot replace that.
Tell us the source and destination systems and the record types you need. We can plan inventory, trial import and acceptance checks with your team.
Discuss CRM data migration