Migrate from Filevine to Nutshell

Filevine stores individual contacts as contact cards with name, email, phone, address, and custom fields. These map 1:1 to Nutshell People. The contact's Filevine ContactExternalID is preserved as a custom field on the Nutshell Person record so the source record can be traced after migration.

Filevine allows contacts to be typed as companies (organizations). These migrate as Nutshell Companies. A company-type contact in Filevine that has an individual contact linked as primary gets that individual linked as a Person record associated with the new Company.

Filevine Projects are the primary case record and have no direct Nutshell equivalent. We map each Project to a Nutshell Deal and store all project-level custom fields (case type, court venue, filing date, statute fields) as custom fields on the Deal. The Deal name defaults to the Filevine project title. Workflow phases and deadlines are stored as custom fields — they require Nutshell automation rebuild.

Filevine's Person Fields link contacts to a project and can represent the plaintiff, opposing counsel, or other parties. We migrate each project contact as a Person record and create a Deal Person association in Nutshell, tagging the contact role (plaintiff, defendant, witness) as a custom field on the association.

Filevine's Customs Editor creates nested field groups within a project section — text lists, person links, date fields, radio buttons, multi-select pick-lists. Each custom field in Filevine's schema becomes a Nutshell custom field scoped to the appropriate object (Person, Company, or Deal). Multi-select Filevine fields become comma-separated values in Nutshell text fields.

Filevine tracks billable time entries with TimeCode, billing status, and amount. Nutshell has no time-tracking module. We preserve time entry data (date, duration, TimeCode, status) as a custom field on the related Deal, formatted as a text block. Firms that need billing functionality must configure a Nutshell-integrated time-tracking app post-migration.

Filevine expense entries include description, amount, and billing status. These map to a custom text field on the Deal summarizing each expense. Full expense reporting requires Nutshell's reporting tools or a third-party billing integration. Historical expense data from Filevine is preserved as reference information in the custom field, allowing teams to review past expenses in Nutshell after migration, though real-time expense tracking requires a dedicated billing application.

Flat fee items in Filevine carry an amount and item type label. These are stored as a custom field on the Deal listing the flat fee type and amount. Recurring billing logic built in Filevine requires rebuild in Nutshell. Any tiered fee structures, volume discounts, or automated billing schedules configured in Filevine will need to be manually reestablished using Nutshell's workflow tools or integrated billing software.

Filevine Deadline Chains auto-populate calendar dates based on a trigger date. This automation does not migrate. We preserve the deadline dates themselves as custom date fields on the Deal. The Nutshell team must rebuild deadline logic using Nutshell Tasks and due dates or a calendar integration.

Filevine notes attached to a project or contact migrate as Nutshell Notes on the corresponding Person, Company, or Deal. Original timestamps and the creating user's name are preserved on each note. Rich-text formatting is converted to plain text. Any embedded links, images, or formatting within Filevine notes will be stripped during migration, so teams should review important notes after migration to ensure all critical information remains accessible.

Filevine calendar events (deposition dates, court hearings, filing deadlines) attached to a project migrate as Nutshell Tasks with a due date matching the event start time. The event title becomes the task subject and the event type is stored as a custom field label on the task.

Filevine permission levels (Org Admin, Collaborator, follower, locked fields) have no Nutshell equivalent — Nutshell roles are account-wide Admin or Standard. We cannot preserve per-project access scoping. Filevine's permission structure must be translated into a Nutshell user-role plan and applied manually post-migration.

Filevine owner IDs are resolved by email match against Nutshell users. Unmatched owners are flagged before migration; their records are assigned to a designated fallback Nutshell user. Filevine user role titles (paralegal, attorney, admin) are stored as a custom field on the Nutshell Person record for reference.

Filevine phase assignments (Intake, Discovery, Filing, Trial, Settlement) on a project are stored as a custom pick-list field on the Nutshell Deal. The phase-transition history is not preserved. Nutshell pipeline stages replace phase logic for deal-tracking purposes — a separate pipeline stage setup is needed to reflect the firm's legal workflow stages.