Migrate from Essential MD Software Suite to Odoo CRM

Essential MD contacts migrate as Odoo res.partner records. Odoo merges person-type contacts and company-type records into a single model — the is_company boolean on partner distinguishes them. Partner addresses and phone/email fields map directly via XML-RPC write. Birthdate and specialty fields require custom fields on res.partner.

Essential MD company records map directly to Odoo res.partner records with is_company=True flag. Parent-child company hierarchies in Essential MD translate to parent_id relationships on res.partner — the parent company must migrate before child companies to satisfy the PostgreSQL foreign-key constraint. Multi-address companies are decomposed into child partner records, each representing a distinct location or office.

Essential MD's N:1 contact-to-company link transforms into res.partner.parent_id pointing to the company partner record. The primary company association is determined by most-recent-modification date or an explicit primary-flag in Essential MD. Secondary company associations are preserved in a custom Many2many field or stored as a structured note field on the contact record for later reconciliation.

Essential MD deals migrate as Odoo crm.lead records. In Odoo's CRM module, leads and opportunities share the crm.lead model — the type field distinguishes 'lead' from 'opportunity'. The deal name becomes crm.lead.name; amount maps to planned_revenue; close date maps to date_deadline.

Essential MD pipelines map to Odoo crm.stage records scoped by crm_team_id. Each Essential MD stage name becomes a crm.stage record with a sequence number and probability percentage matching the source. Teams in Essential MD map to crm.team records so stage ownership is preserved.

Stage names are mapped one-to-one to Odoo crm.stage records per team. Probability values are translated from Essential MD percentages to Odoo's stage probability field. Stage-entered timestamps are stored as custom datetime fields on crm.lead since Odoo does not track stage-entry history natively.

Essential MD call, email, and meeting activities map to Odoo mail.message records linked to res.partner or crm.lead. The message_type field is set to 'comment' for calls/notes, 'email' for emails, and 'notification' for meetings. Original timestamps and owner IDs are preserved on the message record.

Essential MD file attachments re-upload to Odoo as ir.attachment records linked to the target res.partner or crm.lead via res_model and res_id reference fields. Odoo's filestore serves the files through the web interface. Large files exceeding Odoo's default attachment size limit are flagged and reported before migration begins so the team can decide whether to proceed or archive them separately.

Essential MD custom properties become Odoo custom fields on the target model (res.partner or crm.lead). FlitStack creates the ir.model.fields records with the correct type (char, selection, float, date) matching the Essential MD property data type before writing data. Type mismatches are flagged in the sample migration.

Essential MD owner IDs are resolved by email match against Odoo res.users. Unmatched owners are flagged before migration — the team either creates Odoo user records first or records are assigned to a fallback user. Owner history is preserved in a custom field on the target record.

Essential MD workflows, sequences, and automation rules do not transfer to Odoo. These are expressed in Essential MD's proprietary rule engine and have no Odoo equivalent. FlitStack exports workflow definitions as a structured JSON document for Odoo Studio or custom Python automation to reference during the rebuild phase.

Essential MD email and notification templates are not migrated due to incompatible merge field syntax and internal ID references that have no Odoo counterpart. FlitStack exports template bodies as HTML text files along with variable mapping documentation for manual recreation using Odoo's email templates editor and mail.merge.fields mechanism.