Migrate from Bilr to Zoho CRM

Bilr clients represent people or organizations. Individual clients map directly to a Zoho Contact, while corporate clients map to a Zoho Account with a linked Contact for the primary billing contact. The Account Name field then serves as the matter‑parent reference for all associated Deals, preserving relational integrity.

Street, city, state/province, postal code, and country fields map one‑to‑one to Zoho Account or Contact address blocks. When a client has multiple addresses in Bilr, the primary billing address migrates to the Account’s Mailing Address, while any secondary or shipping addresses are stored in custom text fields (Secondary_Address__c) on the Contact record for reference.

Primary phone and email address fields map directly to the Zoho Contact record, preserving the client’s main contact details. If the client exists only as an Account (for corporate entities), the phone and email are placed on the primary Contact linked to that Account. Any secondary or alternate phone numbers are stored in a custom text field (Secondary_Phone__c) on the Contact, ensuring all communication channels are captured.

Bilr matters are 1:N children of clients. We map each matter to a Zoho Deal with the client as the Account lookup. Matter type (litigation, corporate, estate, etc.) becomes a custom pick-list field on the Deal. If your firm uses multiple matter pipelines, we can create a custom 'Matters' module to mirror Bilr's structure.

Bilr matter statuses — such as Active, Pending, Closed, and On Hold — map to Zoho Deal Stage values, creating a direct value‑mapping for each status. Each Bilr status receives a matching Zoho stage, preserving the original workflow state. Stage transition timestamps are stored as custom datetime fields (Stage_Changed__c) on the Deal, providing a full audit trail of status changes over time.

Each Bilr time entry becomes a Zoho Task with Subject set to the matter name and description carrying the entry notes. Billable hours and hourly rate migrate as custom number fields (Billable_Hours__c, Billing_Rate__c). Total billed amount calculates as a formula field or is pre-computed from hours × rate.

Bilr invoices map to Zoho Invoices. Invoice number, date, due date, and total amount migrate directly. Line items map to Invoice Line Items with Product lookup, quantity, and list price. If Bilr uses flat-fee invoicing without line items, the description field carries the narrative.

Bilr trust-account IOLTA balances have no native Zoho CRM equivalent. We migrate the current balance as a custom currency field (Trust_Balance__c) on the Account or Contact. A separate Zoho Blueprint workflow triggers reconciliation reminders. Manual reconciliation process must be built in Zoho.

Bilr documents attached to clients, matters, or invoices download and re-upload to Zoho Files linked to the parent record type. File size limits per Zoho's 25MB per-file Bulk Write constraint are respected; large files are flagged for manual re-upload if they exceed the limit.

Bilr staff members resolve to Zoho Users by email match. Unmatched staff members are flagged for admin invitation before migration. Billing attorney assignments on matters become Deal Owner assignments in Zoho. Role and profile mapping is out of scope (Zoho roles/profiles are destination-side configuration).

Bilr activity notes and call records map to Zoho Tasks for action‑oriented entries or to Zoho Notes for narrative records. Meeting records are translated into Zoho Events, capturing start/end times, location, and attendee lookups to maintain the full schedule context. All original timestamps, staff‑owner assignments, and linked entity references are preserved during the migration, ensuring audit continuity and historical accuracy.

Any Bilr custom fields on matters or clients create corresponding custom fields in Zoho CRM before migration. Multi-select pick-lists in Bilr map to Zoho multi-select pick-lists. Text fields map directly. Validation rules that existed in Bilr must be recreated in Zoho's field-validation settings.