Migrate from FilePro to Pipedrive

FilePro Client records represent both individuals (contacts) and firms (companies). We split each Client into a Pipedrive Person record for the individual and an Organization record if the Client has a firm name. The Person links to the Organization via Pipedrive's contact-to-organization association.

FilePro Matter records are the primary migration unit. Each matter becomes a Pipedrive Deal — matter type determines which Pipedrive pipeline, estimated value maps to Deal amount, and matter metadata (responsible attorney, practice area, billing status) migrate as custom fields on the Deal. Matter UID is preserved as a custom reference field.

Each FilePro practice area (e.g., Commercial, Family Law, Litigation) maps to a Pipedrive pipeline. We create one pipeline per unique practice area present in the FilePro matter types. Pipeline stages within each pipeline are built from FilePro matter status values (Opened, In Progress, Closed). This preserves the firm-specific workflow structure.

FilePro time entries tied to matters map to Pipedrive Tasks with type='Call' and subject prefix 'Billable Time: [ attorney name ]'. Time duration and narrative are stored in the task description. Pipedrive does not natively track billable hours — these are visible in Pipedrive Activities but billing must be handled by a legal accounting integration.

FilePro stores document paths and references linked to matters. Pipedrive has no native document management or document-reference field. We capture document file names and paths in a Pipedrive text custom field on the Deal. Actual file migration requires a separate document management step using Pipedrive's Files API or a document storage integration.

FilePro UDFs on Client records are created as Pipedrive custom fields on the Person object before migration. We match by UDF display name, create the corresponding Pipedrive field with the correct type (text, number, date, single-option, or multi-option), then map values during the Person load.

FilePro UDFs on Matter records are created as Pipedrive custom fields on the Deal object. Common examples include Court jurisdiction, opposing counsel, case number, and filing deadlines. Each UDF is created with the matching Pipedrive field type before the Deal migration runs.

FilePro contact addresses (street, city, state, postcode, country) map directly to Pipedrive's structured address fields on both Person and Organization. The address data in the delimited export is parsed into Pipedrive's address sub-fields (address, city, state, postal_code, country) to preserve the original formatting. Where FilePro stores multiple address types such as mailing, billing, or office addresses, we create separate address records in Pipedrive and link them to the appropriate contact.

Email addresses and phone numbers on FilePro Client records migrate to the corresponding Pipedrive Person fields. Multiple email addresses in FilePro are captured in the secondary email custom field if one exists; otherwise, the primary email is mapped and duplicates are flagged for manual resolution.

FilePro staff accounts are mapped to Pipedrive Users. Resolution is by email address — each unique FilePro staff email that matches a Pipedrive invited user becomes the Owner of migrated Deals and Activities they are responsible for. Staff without a Pipedrive login are assigned to a fallback owner and flagged for admin review.

FilePro billing status values (Unbilled, Partially Invoiced, Invoiced, Written Off) migrate to a Pipedrive Deal custom field of type single-option. The exact values are preserved. Pipedrive has no native billing workflow — these statuses serve as reference data for any legal billing integration rebuilt post-migration.

FilePro supports parent-matter and related-matter relationships for complex multi-party or multi-jurisdiction matters. Pipedrive Deals have no native parent-child hierarchy. We store the related matter FilePro IDs as custom fields on each Deal and add a Note referencing the relationship so admins can manually reconstruct the hierarchy in Pipedrive if needed.