CRM migration
Bring the relationships.Keep the context.
Changing CRM should give the business a clearer operating system. The migration needs to account for the history and relationships that made the old one useful.
The short answer
CRM migration
CRM migration moves accessible records, fields and relationships from a source system into the new model. Files and activity history require separate export and permission checks. Wall & Fifth scopes an inventory, mapping, test imports, reconciliation, cutover and rollback plan before moving the business to a custom CRM.
Source inventory
Find out what is actually exportable.
Contacts and deals are only part of the picture. A source CRM may also hold companies, associations, custom fields, owners, stage history, notes, tasks, attachments and email activity. Each has its own export format, access rules and limits.
We inspect the supported exports and APIs in the client’s account before promising completeness. HubSpot, Salesforce and spreadsheet sources have different capabilities, and access can depend on the subscription and administrator settings. Some information may need an archive or reference link rather than a direct import.
Create a retention decision for each category. The migration plan states what moves, what remains accessible elsewhere and what is unavailable. The business can then make an informed decision before closing the old system.
Model & mapping
Move meaning, not just columns.
Map the old records into the new business model. Decide how a company links to its people, which stages correspond to each other and how former owners are represented. Preserve stable source identifiers so relationships and later imports can be reconciled.
Duplicate handling is a business rule. Two contacts with the same name may be different people; two companies with similar names may be separate legal entities. Agree matching rules, an exception queue and who can approve merges. Do not let a bulk import make irreversible guesses.
Normalise dates, currencies, dropdown values and empty fields against a written mapping. An empty amount should not silently become zero, and a missing date should not become today. Keep a record of transformations so the team can trace the result.
Test imports
Reconcile the things that matter.
Import representative data into a test environment first. Check counts by record type, the important financial totals, field values and relationship coverage. Review long notes, unusual characters, former users and older activity, as well as the newest clean records.
Record counts alone are insufficient. A thousand deals linked to the wrong companies still produce a matching count. Ask users to review important live relationships and repeat their normal workflows against the imported data.
The exception report should show rejected records, missing links and inaccessible files with a decision for each. A sign-off confirms the mapping and agreed treatment of exceptions before production cutover.
Go live
Plan for the data that changes during the build.
While the new CRM is being built, the business keeps working. Agree a strategy for those changes: a final export after a freeze, an incremental import or another supported mechanism. A weeks-old test import is not a launch-ready database.
Set the cutover owner, timing, user communication and rollback criteria. Decide how long the previous system remains available, subject to the client’s retention policy and contractual access. Migration is complete when people can find their records and carry on the work, not merely when an import job finishes.
After cutover, monitor the connections and imports for duplicates or delayed events. Keep any source-to-target identifier mapping needed for reconciliation and audit. The operating documentation should explain how future imports are performed safely.
Common questions
Before you build.
Clear scope. Clear responsibilities.
A better decision for the business.
Can you migrate everything from HubSpot or Salesforce?
We inspect the actual account, permissions, exports and APIs before agreeing coverage. Records, relationships, attachments and activity history may have different restrictions. The migration scope states what can move and how remaining history is retained.
Can we migrate from spreadsheets?
Yes, after reviewing the structure and mapping. We define record identifiers, relationships, duplicate rules, owners and field types, then test a representative import before loading the full dataset.
Will our team need to stop using the old CRM?
A change freeze or incremental import may be needed around cutover. We agree the approach, timing and rollback criteria in the migration plan rather than assuming uninterrupted changes will reconcile themselves.
How do you verify the migration?
We check counts, important totals, fields and record relationships, review exceptions and ask users to test real workflows. Matching record counts alone do not prove a correct migration.
Build around the business
Show us where the
work needs to move.
Your current CRM. The way your team works. The handover that keeps getting missed. We’ll start there.
Discuss your CRM Custom CRM builds from £50,000