Migrate from Civicrm to Zoho CRM

CiviCRM Individual contacts migrate to Zoho CRM Leads for unprocessed constituent records and to Contacts for active donor, member, or program participant records. We determine the split using the CiviCRM contact_type field and any program-specific custom fields that indicate active status. The original CiviCRM contact ID is preserved in a custom field civicrm_contact_id__c for reconciliation and cross-reference.

CiviCRM Organization contacts map directly to Zoho CRM Accounts. Organization name maps to Account Name; website maps to Website; any address on the primary organization record maps to the Account's billing address fields. Organization-to-individual relationships (e.g., employer-employee) reconstruct as Account-to-Contact lookups and relationship custom fields in Zoho.

CiviCRM Household contacts represent families sharing an address. Zoho CRM has no native Household object. We create Contacts for each household member and apply a custom lookup field Household__c pointing to the designated head-of-household Contact. Address aggregation (single-letter mailing for the household) is preserved by setting the head-of-household address as the primary and linking members to it via the Household__c reference.

CiviCRM relationship types (household member of, employee of, spousal, parent-child, and any custom types) require Zoho custom fields since Zoho's native relationship model is unidirectional (Account-to-Contact) rather than network-based. We create a custom Relationship__c module with fields for contact_a_id, contact_b_id, relationship_type, start_date, and end_date. Employer-employee relationships map natively to the Account field on Contact.

CiviCRM Contributions map to Zoho CRM Deals because Zoho has no native financial transaction object. Each CiviCRM financial_type becomes a Zoho Deal Stage (e.g., Donation, Grant Disbursement, Event Fee, Membership Dues). We map total_amount to Amount, receive_date to Closed Date, payment_instrument to a custom field Payment_Method__c, and currency to Currency. Contribution source (campaign, event, membership) maps to the Deal's Source dropdown. Line items from price-set contributions flatten into Deal Line Items or custom subform fields.

CiviCRM Membership records require a custom module in Zoho CRM (Membership__c) since Zoho has no native membership entity. We create fields for membership_type, status (Current, Grace, Expired, Pending), start_date, end_date, join_date, source (campaign or event reference), and a Contact lookup. Membership price-set tiers map to separate Membership Type records with corresponding amounts stored on the membership module. We preserve the membership_id in a custom field civicrm_membership_id__c.

CiviCRM Activities (meeting, phone call, email, event attendance, and custom activity types) map to Zoho CRM Tasks (for calls, emails, and to-dos) and Events (for meetings and event registrations). Activity type maps to Task Subject or Event Subject; activity_date_time maps to Activity Date on Task or Start Date/Time on Event; details and location fields transfer directly. Assignee from CiviCRM activity assignments resolves to Zoho CRM User via email match.

CiviCRM Cases map to Zoho CRM Cases, but CiviCase statuses are defined within each case_type XML definition rather than as global integers. During scoping, we enumerate every active case_type, extract its status option values, and map each set individually to Zoho's global Case Status picklist. Status values that exist only within a specific case_type become separate Case Status values in Zoho or custom picklist fields on a case-type-scoped layout. We preserve the full activity chain within each Case by migrating related CiviCRM Activities as Zoho Tasks and Events attached to the Case.

CiviCRM Groups (static membership lists) migrate to Zoho CRM Tags on the relevant Contacts. The group name becomes the tag name. For groups with explicit start and end dates, we add custom date fields Group_Start__c and Group_End__c to the tag or create a custom Segments module. Smart (dynamic) groups cannot be reproduced without re-running the underlying search criteria; we document each smart group's filter logic as a Zoho workflow rule candidate for the admin to rebuild.

CiviCRM Events map to Zoho CRM Events. We map event title to Event Subject, start_date to Start DateTime, end_date to End DateTime, location, and event_type. Participant roles and counts map to Event fields or custom subform records. Online registration profiles are documented separately as candidates for Zoho Forms or a registration page rebuild; the historical participant roster migrates as Event-related Contact records.

Single-record CiviCRM custom groups appear as fields on the parent entity via the custom.* selector in APIv4. We map each to a Zoho CRM custom field of equivalent type: text to Text, date to Date, integer to Long Integer (max 18 digits), checkbox to Checkbox, select to Picklist, multi-select to Multi-Select Picklist. Multi-record sets (prefixed Custom_) migrate as separate Zoho custom modules with a lookup field back to the parent Contact or Organization.

CiviCRM Grants (an optional extension module) map to Zoho CRM Deals with a Grant-specific record type if the organization tracks grant applications and disbursements. We map grant_type to Deal Type, amount_requested to Estimated Value, amount_granted to Amount, status to Deal Stage, and deadline to Close Date. Tight coupling between Grant and the related Contact and Contribution records preserves via Deal lookup and custom reference fields.