CRM migration: prepare your data before changing tools.
Inventory, duplicates, field mapping and acceptance checks to organise before an import.
Inventory the sources
List spreadsheets, sales tools, shared inboxes and other sources containing useful records. Note the owner and freshness of each. Decide what genuinely needs transferring. Importing every file without review can carry old ambiguities directly into the new system.
Define field mapping
Map each source field to its destination: company, contact, opportunity or activity. Specify date formats, accepted values and required fields. Similar names do not guarantee the same meaning. Document transformations and retain identifiers that allow a record to be traced back to its source.
Set explicit duplicate rules
Two records with the same name are not necessarily the same person. Define matching criteria and cases needing review. Decide which value wins when information conflicts. Work from a backed-up copy and avoid merging uncertain records without a way to inspect the result.
Test a representative sample
Include simple contacts, companies with multiple people, missing fields and historical opportunities. Check counts, relationships, permissions and usability. An import can succeed technically while producing unusable records. Ask people familiar with the underlying business to review the result.
Plan the switch and recovery
Agree when editing stops in the old tool, how recent changes are captured and who approves the transition. Retain a backup and a record of checks. Monitor integrations and daily tasks after launch. Data migration deserves its own scope, effort estimate and schedule within a CRM project.