Migrate from CDK Global to Freshsales

CDK customer records map directly to Freshsales Contacts. Address, phone, email, and owner fields translate field-for-field. Customers without a company affiliation land as standalone contacts with no AccountId. If a customer record includes a company link, we resolve that link to an AccountId after the Account has been created. All original timestamps and source IDs are preserved in custom fields for traceability.

CDK stores business/dealership affiliations as separate Company records. These map to Freshsales Accounts — name, address, website, industry, and employee count translate directly. Parent-company hierarchies in CDK collapse to a primary AccountId in Freshsales. When a parent-child hierarchy exists in CDK, we map the top-level company to the primary Account and link child companies as child Accounts, preserving the relationship if the target Freshsales plan supports it.

CDK deal records map to Freshsales Deals with stage, amount, close date, and owner. CDK Deal Status values (Pending, Submitted, Funded, etc.) require value-mapping to Freshsales Deal Stage pick-list per pipeline. Deal owner resolves by email match to Freshsales users.

VIN, make, model, year, trim, mileage, and color have no Freshsales native equivalent. We create a Vehicle custom object in Freshsales and link it to the Contact or Account via a lookup relationship. The original CDK Vehicle record ID is stored as Source_Vehicle_ID__c for traceability.

RO number, service type, date, advisor, and description require a custom object. Service records link to the Vehicle custom object or the Contact/Account. Timestamps and advisor assignments are preserved; CDK service status values map to a custom pick-list in Freshsales.

F&I product type, product name, price, term, and provider do not exist in Freshsales native model. A Deal F&I Product custom object is created with a lookup to the Freshsales Deal. F&I product types (GAP, Tire & Wheel, Paint Protection, Extended Service Contract) are value-mapped to the custom pick-list.

Down payment, finance amount, APR, lender, and payment amount have no Freshsales native equivalent. A Payment custom object linked to the Deal captures finance details. Lender name maps to a text field; APR and payment amount map as number fields.

CDK user records resolve against Freshsales users by email address. Unmatched CDK owners are flagged before migration — the team either creates Freshsales users or assigns those records to a fallback owner. CDK user role and permission data has no Freshsales equivalent.

CDK service notes, deal notes, and general activity records map to Freshsales Tasks (for action items) or Notes (for informational records). Original timestamps and owning user are preserved. Subject and description fields map directly. Any attachments linked to a note are downloaded and re‑uploaded as Freshsales Files, preserving file names and sizes. If a note references a vehicle or deal, we link it via a lookup relationship to maintain context.

CDK documents attached to customers, deals, or vehicles are downloaded and re-uploaded as Freshsales Files associated with the corresponding record. File size limits apply (Freshsales default 25MB per file). Inline images in notes are rehosted. During the download step we verify each file’s integrity with a checksum, and any file exceeding the 25MB limit is flagged for manual handling or compression before upload. We also log the original file path in Freshsales for auditability.