Migrate from Inception to Zoho CRM

Inception contacts map directly to Zoho CRM Contacts. Every Inception contact property (name fields, email, phone, address) becomes a Zoho CRM field on the Contact module. If the Inception contact has no associated company, it lands in Zoho CRM without an Account link — the Account Name field remains empty and can be populated later or mapped to a dummy account.

Inception records that represent unqualified prospects map to Zoho CRM Leads. Lead Status pick-list in Zoho CRM receives the Inception lead stage value. Lead Source field captures the origin data from Inception if present. If Inception uses a single contact object for both qualified and unqualified records, we split by a status property or manual flag provided during discovery.

Inception company records map to Zoho CRM Accounts. Account Name maps to the standard Name field. Industry, phone, website, and employee count fields map directly where present in Inception. Parent company relationships in Inception map to the Parent Account lookup in Zoho — we resolve the parent company first so the lookup ID is available during child record migration.

Inception deals map to Zoho CRM Deals (which use the API name Opportunities). Deal Name becomes the Zoho Deal Name field. Deal amount maps directly to Amount. The Inception pipeline name maps to the Zoho CRM Pipeline lookup field, which must be created in Zoho before migration if it does not already exist. Stage values are mapped via pick-list value mapping.

Each Inception pipeline stage name maps to a corresponding Zoho CRM stage value within the target Pipeline. We preserve the stage-enter timestamp as a custom datetime field (Stage_Entered_Date__c) since Zoho does not store stage history natively. Probability percentages associated with each stage in Inception are noted for manual re-entry in Zoho's stage configuration.

Inception activity records are classified by type: calls become Zoho CRM Calls, meetings become Events, and generic to-do items become Tasks. The parent record link (contact ID or deal ID) is preserved as a lookup in Zoho. Original timestamps and owner IDs are carried forward. If Inception activities have custom activity-type fields, we create custom fields on the Zoho target module.

Inception notes migrate as Zoho CRM Notes linked to the parent record. File attachments are downloaded and re-uploaded to Zoho's file storage, linked to the corresponding record. We handle inline images in notes by downloading and rehosting. Zoho's 25MB per-file limit applies; files exceeding this are flagged for manual handling.

Any Inception custom field that has no direct Zoho CRM equivalent is created as a custom field in Zoho before migration runs. Field data type is inferred from Inception's type definition: text becomes Single-line or Multi-line text, numbers become Currency or Number, dates become Date or Datetime, pick-lists become Picklist. Custom fields are created via Zoho's Settings > Fields API with the correct module context.

Inception user records are matched to Zoho CRM users by email address. Unmatched owners are flagged before migration — the team either invites the user to Zoho first or assigns records to a fallback owner (configured during discovery). Owner history on records is preserved as a custom field if the Inception system tracks multiple owner transitions.

If Inception stores product records or price book entries, these map to Zoho CRM Products. Unit price, product code, and description fields carry over directly. Product-to-deal associations in Inception are preserved by linking the migrated product to the migrated deal via Zoho's Deals Products junction.

Inception workflows and sequences are not migrated. We export the workflow definitions and rule logic as a written reference document and a Zoho Blueprint template skeleton. Your Zoho administrator rebuilds the automation logic using Zoho's Blueprint designer and Workflow Rules. We prioritize documenting trigger conditions, field update actions, and notification steps from the Inception rules.