Migrate from CentralStationCRM to Pipedrive

CentralStationCRM People map directly to Pipedrive Person records. Standard fields (name, email, phone, website) use the same field names at the destination. We apply a dedupe check on email during import to prevent duplicate Person records. Custom fields on People are discovered during scoping and mapped to Pipedrive custom fields of matching type (text, numeric, date, picklist). The migration user requires admin-level API access in CentralStationCRM to export closed and archived People records.

CentralStationCRM Companies map to Pipedrive Organizations. Organization is created before any linked Person records so that the relationship (org_id on Person) is satisfied at the moment of Person insert. Company custom fields map to Organization custom fields. HubSpot-style multi-address on a single Company is flattened to the primary address fields in Pipedrive, with additional addresses stored as activity notes if the customer's workflow depends on them.

CentralStationCRM Deals map to Pipedrive Deals with the closest stage alignment. We extract dealstage values from CentralStationCRM and create corresponding stages in Pipedrive's pipeline during setup. Deal value, owner (by email lookup to Pipedrive User), expected close date, and custom fields transfer directly. Deals linked to People or Companies in CentralStationCRM are associated in Pipedrive using the resolved Person and Organization IDs.

CentralStationCRM's separate Lead object has no direct Pipedrive equivalent at Essential or Advanced tiers. Pipedrive handles unqualified prospects as Lead-type deals or as Activities (notes, tasks) attached to a Person. We classify CentralStationCRM Leads by status: open leads with a contact date become Lead-type deals; cold leads or unqualified prospects are migrated as Activity records on the linked Person with the original status preserved in a custom field lead_status__c for audit and rebuild reference.

CentralStationCRM Activities attached to People or Companies export via nested routes (GET /api/people/{id}/activities.json). We traverse these routes per-record, collecting the full activity history for each contact. Calls migrate as Pipedrive Activity with type=call and the disposition stored in a custom field. Meetings migrate as Activity type=meeting with location and duration. Notes migrate as Activity type=note. All activities are linked to the resolved Person or Organization at the destination. The 50 req/10s rate limit applies per-activity-route traversal, so we throttle and introduce cooldown delays during the activity export phase.

CentralStationCRM tags are flat key-value labels applied to People, Companies, Deals, and Offers. We export every tag assignment per record and create matching Labels in Pipedrive, then apply the same label set to each migrated Person, Organization, and Deal. The tag vocabulary is preserved as-is; no normalisation or deduplication is applied unless the customer requests it during scoping. Pipedrive labels are not hierarchical, matching CentralStationCRM's flat model.

CentralStationCRM's custom fields have no fixed schema across accounts. We discover all custom fields during scoping, capture their data types (text, number, date, picklist, checkbox), and configure matching Pipedrive custom fields on the Person, Organization, Deal, and Activity objects before migration. Pipedrive supports custom fields on all paid tiers. Type mapping is explicit: CentralStationCRM date fields map to Pipedrive date fields, not text; picklists map to Pipedrive options with the same values preserved.

CentralStationCRM Tasks (title, due date, completion status) attached to People or Deals map to Pipedrive Activity records of type=task. Completion status in CentralStationCRM is stored as a custom field completed__c on the Pipedrive Activity rather than a hard delete, preserving the full history. Overdue tasks migrate with the original due date; open tasks migrate as open. Task ownership resolves by email match to a Pipedrive User.

CentralStationCRM Offers (standalone objects with line items and totals) map to Pipedrive Products if the customer uses Pipedrive's Product feature. The offer header (client, total value, date) is stored as a Deal with a custom field offer_id__c linking to the original CentralStationCRM Offer. Line items become Pipedrive Product entries attached to the Deal. Pipedrive's quoting feature is not directly populated; the customer's admin rebuilds quotes using Pipedrive's built-in Product-focused workflow post-migration.

CentralStationCRM stores addresses as 1-n children of People, fetched via GET /api/people/{id}/addrs.json. We traverse every nested address route during export and write the primary address to Pipedrive's standard address fields (street, city, state, zip, country) on the Person or Organization. Additional addresses beyond the first are stored as activity notes with the label Additional Address and the full address string, since Pipedrive does not support multiple address records per contact without a custom app.

CentralStationCRM owners are identified by user ID on People, Companies, Deals, and Activities. We resolve owners by email match against the destination Pipedrive account's User table. Owners without a matching Pipedrive User are held in a reconciliation queue; the customer's Pipedrive admin provisions the missing User before record import resumes. This is a prerequisite step before any Deals or Person records with assigned owners can be migrated.