Migrate from Aderant Expert Sierra to Freshsales

Aderant Client records map directly to Freshsales Accounts. The client name becomes the Account Name, and the primary billing address maps to the Account's address fields. Client status (active/inactive) is preserved as a custom pick-list field on the Freshsales Account so inactive clients can be flagged without being deleted.

Aderant Matter records map to Freshsales Deals. The matter number maps to a custom field (Matter_Number__c) on the Deal, and the matter description maps to the Deal's description field. Practice area maps to a custom pick-list field (Practice_Area__c) so deal records retain their legal domain classification in Freshsales.

The one-to-many relationship between Aderant Client and Matter translates to Freshsales Deal linked to an Account by the account_id foreign key. Each matter lands as a separate Deal associated with its parent Client Account, preserving the firm-level view of client activity in the Account record.

Aderant contacts associated with active matters are imported as Freshsales Contacts and linked to their corresponding Account. The contact's role on the matter (Attorney, Paralegal, Client) maps to Freshsales Contact's job_title field and a custom Role_on_Matter__c field. Original create dates are preserved as a custom datetime field.

Aderant client contacts that have no currently active matter split into Freshsales Leads rather than Contacts — this preserves them in the firm's prospect pipeline without conflating them with active client relationships. When a Lead converts later, Freshsales will create a Contact and Account from it.

Aderant time entries have no direct Freshsales equivalent — Deals do not support line-item billing records. We create a Time_Entry__c custom object in Freshsales (Estate or Forest plan required for custom objects) linked to the Deal by a lookup relationship, with fields for date, hours, rate, description, and billing status.

Aderant bills and invoices are financial ledger records that do not map to any native Freshsales object. We create a Billing_Record__c custom object linked to the Account, storing invoice number, date, amount, status, and currency. The full financial ledger is preserved as an exported CSV kept alongside the Freshsales migration for audit purposes.

Aderant document and file attachments on matters are downloaded and re-uploaded to Freshsales as file attachments on the corresponding Deal or Contact record. File size limits apply — Freshsales enforces a maximum file size per upload, which we manage by chunking large document sets.

Aderant user-defined fields on Matter records map to Freshsales custom fields on the Deal object. The field type is translated: text fields become Freshsales text fields, numeric fields become number fields, and pick-list fields become Freshsales dropdown fields. All custom fields require pre-creation in Freshsales before migration runs.

Aderant trust and IOLTA accounting records have no Freshsales equivalent and cannot be represented in a CRM. We export these records as a separate CSV financial file and flag them for retention in Aderant or a dedicated accounting system. This is a critical disclosure: Freshsales is not a financial or legal billing system and should not be used to store trust account data.

Aderant rate tables and billing tiers attached to clients are stored as custom pick-list fields on the Freshsales Account (Billing_Tier__c, Default_Rate__c). Individual matter rates can be stored on the Deal custom fields. These are reference data for the firm's pricing model — they do not drive billing in Freshsales.

Aderant workflow rules governing matter intake, conflict checks, and billing automation have no equivalent in Freshsales. These are explicitly excluded from migration and must be documented separately. We provide a workflow audit export from Aderant so your team can reference it when rebuilding automation rules in Freshsales.