Migrate from Aderant Expert Sierra to Pipedrive

Expert Sierra clients are law firm entities — the firm name goes to a Pipedrive Organization, and individual attorney and client contacts go to Pipedrive Persons linked to that Organization. The contact's role (client, attorney, billing contact) is preserved as a custom pick-list field on the Person record.

Individual named contacts in Expert Sierra map directly to Pipedrive Person records. Name, email, phone, and address fields carry over. The contact's relationship to the matter (lead attorney, opposing counsel, client representative) is preserved as a custom field on the Person.

Expert Sierra matters map to Pipedrive Deals — the matter name becomes the deal name, and the matter number is stored as a custom field (Matter_Number__c). The responsible attorney maps to the Pipedrive deal owner via email resolution. Matter status (open, closed, on-hold) maps to Pipedrive deal stage.

Expert Sierra practice area codes (Litigation, Corporate, Real Estate, IP, etc.) map to Pipedrive Deal labels as a value-mapping exercise. If the firm uses more than 20 distinct matter types, we create a custom pick-list field (Practice_Area__c) on the Deal rather than overloading labels.

Individual time entries do not map to individual Pipedrive Activity records — Pipedrive lacks a billing-hour model. Instead, we summarize time-entry totals per matter (total hours logged, total WIP amount) and store those as custom fields (WIP_Hours__c, WIP_Amount__c) on the corresponding Deal. The detail remains in Expert Sierra.

Expert Sierra invoice numbers, outstanding balances, and trust account balances have no Pipedrive equivalent. These are stored as read-only custom fields on the Deal (Invoice_Number__c, Outstanding_Balance__c, Trust_Balance__c) and updated manually post-migration or via a scheduled sync. The read-only status prevents accidental overwrites in Pipedrive's interface.

Client-specific billing arrangements (hourly rate, fixed fee, contingency percentage) are captured as custom fields on the Organization (Billing_Type__c, Standard_Rate__c) and optionally on individual Deals. These are stored for reference — the billing logic itself cannot run in Pipedrive. Your accounting team should continue using Expert Sierra for all billing calculations and invoice generation.

Expert Sierra calendar entries tied to matters (court dates, filing deadlines, client meetings) map to Pipedrive Activities with Type='Task' or 'Event'. The Pipedrive Activity is linked to the corresponding Deal (the matter). Due dates and reminders are preserved; all-day flag and recurrence are not supported in Pipedrive Activities.

Expert Sierra documents attached to matters (pleadings, contracts, correspondence) have no native Pipedrive equivalent beyond linked file attachments. We store the document reference as a URL field (Document_Link__c) pointing to the document's Expert Sierra location or re-upload to a designated storage bucket with the link stored in Pipedrive.

Conflict check status and related parties stored in Expert Sierra are preserved as a custom multi-select field (Conflict_Status__c) on the Organization. The detailed conflict-check report remains in Expert Sierra and is not migrated. Firms should run a fresh conflict check in Expert Sierra before opening matters in Pipedrive to ensure compliance.

Expert Sierra notes and communication logs attached to matters map to Pipedrive Activity notes. The original timestamp and author are preserved. If the note contains billing-related content, it is flagged with a custom tag for review. This helps the billing team quickly identify entries that require reconciliation in Expert Sierra.