Migrate from CRM and Deals for Zendesk to Freshsales

Zendesk Contact records map directly to Freshsales Contact. Standard fields (name, email, phone, address) migrate 1:1. Custom fields on Contact migrate as Freshsales custom contact fields. Org associations (Zendesk contact.org_id) resolve to Freshsales Account lookups after the Account import phase completes. Email uniqueness is used as the dedupe key during import.

Zendesk Organization records map to Freshsales Account. Organization-level custom fields migrate as Freshsales custom account fields. Zendesk's flat org structure maps directly to Freshsales Accounts without hierarchical nesting. We extract the organization's domain from the website field and use it as the dedupe identifier. Account import completes before Contact import so that AccountId lookups are satisfied at the moment of Contact insert.

Zendesk Deal records map to Freshsales Deal. The Zendesk dealstage maps to Freshsales Deal Stage, and pipeline_id maps to a Freshsales Pipeline that we configure before migration. Deal owner (user_id) resolves to Freshsales User by email match. Amount, expected_close_date, and custom fields migrate directly. Closed-Lost and Closed-Won status preserve from Zendesk.

Zendesk does not store stage-change events as Deal field changes; stage transitions are logged as Activities linked to the Deal. We run a de-normalization query during extraction that joins Activities to Deals, filters for stage-change activity types, and constructs a synthetic stage-history array (stage name, timestamp, owner) that we write to a custom Freshsales text area field for audit. This preserves the pipeline audit trail that would otherwise be lost.

Zendesk Pipeline definitions (stage names, order, probabilities) map to Freshsales Pipeline configurations. Each Zendesk pipeline becomes a separate Freshsales Pipeline with its own stage sequence. Stage probabilities migrate as percentage values on Freshsales stage definitions. We configure pipeline mapping before any Deal records are imported.

Zendesk Activities (calls, emails, meetings, notes) linked to Contacts or Deals migrate to Freshsales equivalent objects. Call activities map to Freshsales Call records with duration and disposition preserved. Email activities map to Freshsales Tasks with rich text body. Meeting activities map to Freshsales Events with start/end time and attendee data. Notes map to Freshsales Note records. Activity type is preserved in a custom field for filtering in Freshsales.

Zendesk Users/Agents referenced as Deal owners or Contact owners map to Freshsales Users by email address lookup. We extract the full list of distinct owners from Zendesk records during scoping and match against Freshsales User email addresses. Any Zendesk owner without a corresponding Freshsales User enters a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before Deal and Contact import begins.

Zendesk Custom Objects (v2 only; Legacy v1 must be migrated first) map to Freshsales Custom Modules. We pre-create the destination schema in Freshsales, including all custom fields and relationship fields, before importing any records. Legacy v1 custom objects are not migrated directly; we run the five-step v2 schema migration (object type definition, schema creation, relationship type creation, record import, relationship linkage) as a separate phase before Freshsales import begins.

Zendesk tags on Contacts, Organizations, and Deals migrate as Freshsales Tags. Tag values are preserved as string arrays. Tag-based automations and tag-triggered workflows do not migrate; we document every active tag-triggered automation in the workflow inventory deliverable.