Migrate from Aderant Expert to Pipedrive

Aderant client records (firm name, address, billing contact, client type) map directly to Pipedrive Organizations. Primary billing address from Aderant's CLIENT_ADDRESS table migrates to the Organization's address fields. Multiple Aderant billing contacts become Person records linked to the Organization. Any additional contact roles, such as billing managers or secondary paralegals, are also created as linked Person records to ensure full representation.

Aderant contact records — attorney names, client representatives, billing contacts — map to Pipedrive People. Email addresses, phone numbers, and job titles transfer as direct fields. Unnamed or deceased contacts from Aderant are flagged as incomplete and surfaced in the migration report.

Aderant matters carry billable rates, billing authority, client references, and matter status. Pipedrive Deals do not natively support billing rates, so Aderant matter fields (billing_rate, billing_method, retainer_balance) migrate as custom fields on the Deal. The Aderant matter number becomes a custom field (Matter_Number__c) for cross-reference.

Aderant matter status values (Active, Closed, On-Hold, Pending-Approval) map to Pipedrive Deal stage names. Each Aderant matter status gets a corresponding Pipedrive stage. Firms with custom matter-status codes receive a pre-migration value-mapping worksheet to define the stage assignment. If a firm uses custom status labels beyond the standard set, the mapping worksheet includes a row for each custom value, ensuring no matter is left unmapped due to an unknown status.

Aderant time entries — date, hours, description, billable flag, attorney — migrate as Pipedrive Activities of type 'Task'. The time-entry description becomes the Activity subject; billable flag migrates as a custom boolean field. Non-billable entries mark the Activity as internal. Original attorney owner matches to a Pipedrive user by email.

Aderant invoices, outstanding balances, and trust-account data have no Pipedrive native equivalent. These migrate as read-only custom fields on the corresponding Deal and Organization records. Pipedrive's API allows numeric and currency-formatted custom fields so totals and balances display correctly in list views.

Aderant employee records (name, email, department, billing rate) map to Pipedrive Users. Matching is by email address — if an Aderant attorney has no Pipedrive user account, they are flagged as unmapped and assigned to a designated fallback user. Department codes become Pipedrive visibility groups or are stored as a custom field.

Aderant conflicts-check records are legal-compliance data with no Pipedrive equivalent. They migrate as a custom text field on the Organization record for reference. Conflicts rules and automated checks must be re-established in Aderant or a dedicated conflicts tool post-migration. The migrated text field holds the complete adverse-party list and conflict-clearance flags, yet Pipedrive lacks automated conflict detection, so manual review is needed post-migration.

Aderant document URLs and file attachments link to People, Organizations, and Deals. Files are re-uploaded to Pipedrive's file storage. The 25MB per-file limit applies. Aderant's internal document-manager links that cannot be resolved are preserved as external URL custom fields. Files exceeding the limit are flagged in the migration report and can be stored externally with a link stored as a custom URL field, preserving access while respecting Pipedrive's storage constraints.

Aderant custom matter fields (e.g., practice_area, referral_source, engagement_letter_status) map to Pipedrive custom fields on the Deal. Field type mapping follows the SQL column type — varchar to string, int to int, decimal to double, date to date. Pipedrive generates per-account hash keys during field creation.

Aderant custom client fields (e.g., industry_classification, risk_rating, client_since_date) map to Pipedrive Organization custom fields. The same type-mapping rules apply. Client_since_date migrates as a date field and can drive Pipedrive filters for retention reporting.

Aderant attorney billing rates and matter-level fee schedules are financial configuration, not record data. These do not migrate as Pipedrive fields. They are exported as a separate CSV reference sheet for use in rebuilding billing rules in Aderant or a dedicated time-and-billing tool. The CSV file can be imported into external billing systems for reference.