Migrate from CRM and Deals for Zendesk to Zoho CRM

Zendesk Contacts map directly to Zoho CRM Contacts. The email field is the dedupe key during import. We preserve all standard contact fields (name, phone, address, job title) and map any Zendesk custom fields to Zoho custom fields of matching type. Organization associations on Zendesk Contacts become Zoho Account Lookups resolved after the Account import phase.

Zendesk Organizations map to Zoho CRM Accounts. Organization names become Account names, and domain information becomes the Website field. This is the first parent object created during migration so that Contact and Deal imports can resolve their AccountId references. Org-level custom fields from Zendesk map to Zoho Account custom fields of equivalent type.

Zendesk Deals map to Zoho CRM Potentials (Deal module). The central migration design challenge is that Zendesk stores pipeline metadata on the Deal itself while Zoho separates the Pipeline (Sales Pipeline), Stage, and Potential record. We extract pipeline ID, stage name, stage probability, and owner from Zendesk, create the matching Zoho Sales Pipeline and Stages first, then write Deals against the resolved stage. Closed-Lost and Closed-Won status migrates to Zoho Stage values.

Each Zendesk Pipeline becomes a Zoho CRM Sales Pipeline. Zendesk stage names, ordering, and probability percentages map to Zoho Stage names and probabilities. We create all stages via Zoho CRM API before any Deal import begins. Stage count in Zendesk is not capped, but Zoho Standard allows up to 5 pipelines with multiple stages each; we warn customers exceeding this on Standard tier.

Zendesk Activities of type call map to Zoho CRM Tasks with Task_Subform call-related fields (Call Duration, Call Start Time, Call Purpose). ActivityDate from Zendesk sets the Task Due Date, preserving the timeline ordering. The Contact or Deal linked to the Zendesk Activity resolves to the Zoho Contact or Potential reference via the parent lookup.

Zendesk email Activities map to Zoho Tasks of activity type Email. The email body migrates as the Task content, and attachments fetch from Zendesk's attachments API and re-upload to Zoho as related records. We preserve the email timestamp as the Task Due Date and resolve the Contact or Deal lookup.

Zendesk meeting Activities map to Zoho Events with Start DateTime, End DateTime, and Location preserved. We create Zoho Event participants linked to the Contact and User records via the Participants subform. The original Zendesk timestamp ordering is preserved in the Event start time.

Zendesk note Activities map to Zoho CRM Notes attached to the parent Contact, Account, or Potential. Rich text body migrates as Note content with image attachments preserved as separate file records linked via the related record.

Zendesk Tickets migrate to Zoho Desk Cases if the destination includes Zoho Service Cloud, or to Zoho CRM Cases if the CRM-only plan is in scope. Ticket status, priority, requester, assignee, tags, and custom fields map to the equivalent Zoho fields. The Zendesk ticket ID is preserved in a custom field for cross-reference. Zendesk's conversation threads (agent and customer replies) migrate as Case thread entries.

Zendesk v2 Custom Objects map to Zoho CRM custom modules. We pre-create the target module schema in Zoho (module name, field labels and types, lookup relationships) before any records import. Plan-tier constraints matter: Zoho Standard and Professional limit custom module field counts; Enterprise and Ultimate allow broader custom objects. Any Zendesk Legacy Custom Objects require the five-step v2 migration (object type definition, schema creation, relationship type creation, record import, then relationship linkage) before they can map to Zoho.

Zendesk Agent and Owner records map to Zoho CRM Users. We resolve by email match against the Zoho destination User table. Any Zendesk Owner without a matching Zoho User goes to a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before Deal and Activity import continues. Agent roles and group memberships do not migrate because Zoho's security roles operate on a different model.