Can absolutely everything be transferred?
Not always. Source exports and destination imports may support different record types. Check notes, files, conversations, timestamps and authorship separately. For KeyCRM, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM and Dynamics 365, verify the operation for your specific product and access. Agree on an archive format before launch when history cannot be reproduced correctly.
Map fields and relationships
Record source IDs, destination IDs, field transformations and dependencies for every object. Referenced records must exist before dependent records are connected. Do not assign arbitrary owners just to make an import succeed.
- Companies, contacts and their relationships.
- Deals or orders, stages and owners.
- Tasks, deadlines and required history.
- Currencies, time zones and reference values.
Scenario: one person has two customer records
In this illustrative example, a customer first used a work email and later ordered by phone. A matching name alone is not sufficient evidence for merging. Define reliable identifiers, review ambiguous pairs manually and retain record provenance. Bulk merging without an agreed rule can corrupt different people’s histories.
What should a trial import verify?
Start with a limited sample: a normal customer, a company with several contacts, a deal with history and a record with custom fields. Row counts are not the only acceptance criterion. Open records as a future user and check whether work can continue.
- Record counts and rejected rows.
- Relationships, amounts, currencies and dates.
- Ownership and visibility across roles.
- Repeating an import does not create uncontrolled duplicates.
An example acceptance record
Run these checks with test data. Record a cause and an agreed resolution for each discrepancy.
Scroll horizontally to read the table.
| Check | Action | Reason to stop |
|---|---|---|
| Open deal | Sign in as its owner and open the customer and next task. | The deal exists but the owner has no access or the customer link is missing. |
| History | Compare reference notes, dates and attachments with the source. | Required history is missing and no archive has been agreed. |
| Repeated import | Repeat the test sample using the defined update rules. | The repeat creates new records instead of updating existing ones. |
Takeaway. Recovery must also account for changes made in the new CRM after launch. Restoring an old backup alone will not preserve them.
How does the team switch systems?
Choose when new records will start being created only in the new CRM. If work cannot stop during migration, define how changes made after the first export will be transferred. Give the team one clear instruction: where to work now and whom to contact if something fails.
A designated owner approves launch after the acceptance checks. Keep the source and verified backups until then. Agree on stop conditions and recovery procedures; having a backup file does not prove that it can restore operations.
What is needed for an estimate?
System names and editions, approximate record counts, required objects, custom fields and integrations. A file structure with fictional data is enough initially. Before handling the real database, agree on minimum permissions, backup storage and deletion rules after acceptance.