Migrate from LawPracticeZA to Salesforce Sales Cloud

LawPracticeZA clients map to Salesforce Accounts. Client account codes become a custom field (LPZA_Account_Code__c) for reconciliation. Primary address, email, and phone transfer directly. Multi-office clients may require parent AccountId mapping if the firm structure is hierarchical. Where a client has multiple branch offices, we recommend creating a parent Account for the organization and child Accounts for each location to preserve the relationship hierarchy and enable roll-up reporting across all branches.

Contacts associated with LawPracticeZA clients map to Salesforce Contacts linked via AccountId. The contact's relationship to the client (e.g., Managing Partner, Billing Contact) becomes a custom pick-list field since Salesforce has no native contact-role-on-account concept beyond Account Contact Relationships. We recommend enabling the Account Contact Relationship feature to capture multiple roles per contact and visualize connections across the organization.

LawPracticeZA matters map to Salesforce Opportunities. Matter reference numbers become the Opportunity Name or a custom field (Matter_Reference__c). Each matter's status (active, closed, on-hold) maps to Opportunity Stage values via value_mapping. Matter type/practice area maps to RecordTypeId so different practice groups get different page layouts.

LawPracticeZA fee earners (lawyers, paralegals, assistants) resolve to Salesforce Users by email match. Unmatched fee earners are flagged before migration — firms either invite them to Salesforce or assign their records to a fallback OwnerId. Fee earner zones/roles do not transfer; those map to Salesforce Profiles and Permission Sets post-migration.

Billable time entries in LawPracticeZA (work-in-progress) map to Opportunity Products on the related matter-Opportunity. Each fee entry becomes a line item with quantity = hours, unit price = rate. Fee earner attribution becomes a custom field on the product since Opportunity Products have no native owner field.

LawPracticeZA invoices have no direct Salesforce equivalent. We create a custom Invoice__c object with fields for invoice number, date, amount, status, and a lookup to the related Account and Opportunity. Invoice line items map to Invoice_Line_Item__c with description, quantity, rate, and total.

Trust accounting transactions (deposits, withdrawals, transfers) are preserved in a custom Trust_Transaction__c object linked to the Account. Transaction type, amount, date, and reference number map to custom fields. This is a reference-only model — Salesforce has no native trust accounting enforcement.

LawPracticeZA departments (e.g., Litigation, Corporate, Conveyancing) map to a custom Department__c pick-list on the Account and Opportunity, or to Salesforce Territories if the firm uses territory management. Each department's billing preferences require separate configuration post-migration. Firms with department-specific pricing models should consider Salesforce CPQ to automate rate cards and billing rules per practice group after migration completes.

Documents attached to matters in LawPracticeZA download and re-upload to Salesforce Files linked to the corresponding Opportunity. File size limits apply (Salesforce default 25MB per file). We preserve the original document name and any version metadata as ContentVersion fields. For very large document sets such as discovery bundles, we recommend chunked uploads or integration with an external Document Management System via Salesforce Content Connector.

Matter-related activities in LawPracticeZA map to Salesforce Tasks (calls, emails) and Events (meetings). Original timestamps, fee-earner owners, and matter links (WhatId) are preserved. Notes map to Salesforce Notes with rich-text body formatting intact. This activity timeline provides your team with a complete interaction history per matter, supporting compliance documentation and client service continuity.