Migrate from Fergus to Pipedrive

Fergus API rate limit of 100 requests per minute requires adaptive throttling

Fergus enforces a hard 100 requests-per-minute ceiling shared across every token on the account, with a 429 Too Many Requests response and retry-after header when exceeded. Pipedrive also enforces token-based rate limits with a rolling 2-second burst ceiling on top of daily token budgets introduced in December 2024. We build our migration pipeline with adaptive throttling that monitors x-ratelimit-remaining and retry-after headers on the Fergus side and Pipedrive's token-budget headers on the destination side simultaneously. Migrations that ignore either limit will stall mid-run and leave your CRM in an inconsistent state that is harder to clean up than starting over.

Fergus job and quote records have no direct Pipedrive equivalent and must be forced into Deals with custom fields

Pipedrive is a sales CRM with no native field-service management object. Fergus Jobs and Quotes become Pipedriver Deals with a custom Job_Type__c field set to 'Job' or 'Quote', a Pricing_Tier__c field, and a Line_Items_JSON__c field serializing Fergus line items. This is a structural mismatch — Pipedrive deals have one monetary value field, while Fergus quotes carry multiple line items with material, labor, and markup components. We handle the serialization but the resulting Pipedrive UI shows a summary value rather than the full breakdown without clicking into the custom field.

Fergus line items require serialization into a custom field since Pipedrive has no native line-item table

Fergus quotes store materials, labor, and markup as individual line items with quantities, unit prices, and totals. Pipedrive deals have no line-item sub-table — Products are a separate object that optionally links to deals but is not the same as a quote line-item breakdown. We serialize Fergus line items into a Line_Items_JSON__c custom field on each Deal. If your team needs to act on individual line items in Pipedrive (e.g. trigger an automation when a specific material is added), those items need to be created as Pipedrive Products and linked via a custom mapping — an extra configuration step your Pipedrive admin should plan for.

Fergus pricing tiers map to a custom pick-list that does not drive Pipedrive pricing rules

Fergus pricing tiers let trade businesses apply different material and labor rates to different customers — a key feature for service contracts and negotiated pricing. Pipedrive has no equivalent mechanism; pricing tiers have no native effect on deal calculations. We preserve the tier name as a Pricing_Tier__c custom pick-list field on the Deal, but Pipedrive will not automatically apply tier-based pricing. Your Pipedrive admin must rebuild tier-based pricing logic in Pipedrive using Products and custom automation triggers if tiered pricing is a core part of your quote workflow.

Fergus site and asset data has no Pipedrive equivalent and must be stored in custom Person fields

Fergus Sites track service-location addresses and the assets installed at each site with service history. Pipedrive has no native Site or Asset object — it is a CRM focused on the sales relationship, not field-service inventory. We map site name and site address to custom fields on the Person record, and serialize the asset list (name, model, serial number, last service date) into an Assets_JSON__c field. Service history that your team relies on for recurring job scheduling lives in a custom field rather than a structured object, which means recurring job generation must be rebuilt in Pipedrive using automation triggers.