Migrate from Column Case Management to Nutshell

Column Cases map directly to Nutshell Deals. The case name becomes the deal name, case status (Open, In Progress, Closed) maps to a deal stage in Nutshell's pipeline, and the case priority level (Low, Medium, High, Critical) migrates to a custom priority field on the deal. Nutshell's deal amount field can be populated with a case value estimate if available in Column; otherwise it remains blank and is populated post-migration. Original Column case create dates and last-modified timestamps are preserved as custom datetime fields on the Nutshell deal.

Column Subjects (individuals associated with a case) map to Nutshell People records. Subject name maps to Person name, subject email to Person email, subject phone to Person phone, and subject address fields to the Person address block. Each Person is then linked to the migrated Deal via Nutshell's Person association on the deal. Subjects without email addresses are still migrated as People with the name and available contact details populated.

Column allows N subjects per case. When a case has more than one subject, we split it into multiple Nutshell Deals — one per subject — linked to the same case-level metadata (case type, priority, risk score, status, evidence count). The Subject Name on each resulting deal varies; all other case metadata is identical across the split deals. We apply a configurable split rule (most-recently-added subject or alphabetical first subject) for the primary person association on each deal. Unsplit cases with a single subject create one deal with one Person link, which mirrors Column's original structure.

Subjects that are corporate entities (organizations rather than individuals) map to Nutshell Companies. The organization name becomes the Company name, and any associated contact person for that organization becomes a linked Person record. If Column stores a corporate subject without an individual contact, the Company record is created standalone and can be linked to Person records later in Nutshell.

Column Evidence records have no direct equivalent in Nutshell's CRM model. We capture evidence metadata (evidence type, item count, custody chain status, exhibit number, collection date) as custom fields on the migrated Deal. Evidence files are downloaded from Column, re-hosted as attachments on the corresponding Nutshell Deal, and the original Column evidence ID is preserved as a custom reference field. Teams needing chain-of-custody tracking should use a dedicated evidence management tool post-migration; the migration preserves the file and metadata but not the forensic audit trail.

Column Documents attached to a case migrate as files on the Nutshell Deal. Document name becomes the file name, and any document description stored in Column is captured as a Note on the deal. If the document is a text-heavy report, its content migrates as a Note record in Nutshell. Binary documents (PDFs, images) are re-uploaded as Deal attachments. Large evidence files are batched to avoid Nutshell attachment size limits.

Column Tasks and action items linked to a case migrate as Nutshell Tasks on the associated Deal. Task name maps to the Task subject, task due date maps to due date, task status (Pending, Completed, Overdue) maps to the Nutshell task status field, and the assigned owner is resolved by email match against Nutshell users. Historical task completion records retain their original completed date as a custom datetime field for audit continuity.

Column workflows and investigative task automations (routing rules, escalation triggers, electronic workflow steps) have no equivalent in Nutshell's CRM automation model. Nutshell supports email sequences and lead-stage automation, but not investigative workflow routing. We export the Column workflow definitions as a structured document for your team to reference when rebuilding workflows in Nutshell or a dedicated process tool. This is always disclosed in our migration scope before work begins.

Column Investigators and users are matched to Nutshell users by email address. Unmatched users are flagged before migration and assigned to a fallback owner. Inactive Column users (user records that exist but are not assigned to cases) are not migrated to Nutshell. Active user assignments on tasks and cases carry forward as the Nutshell deal owner; if the Nutshell user does not yet exist, the deal is assigned to the fallback owner and a flag is set for manual reassignment post-migration.