Migrate from Markate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Discovery and schema design

We audit Markate across all six record types (Customers, Estimates, Work Orders, Invoices, Items and Categories, Expenses) and export a sample CSV for each object to verify field counts, required fields, and data types. We pair this with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales environment audit: edition selection (Professional at $65/user for standard CRM; Enterprise at $105/user if Copilot, advanced AI, or Sales Insights is required), existing Record Types and Sales Processes, and any custom entities already present. We design the Work Order-to-Case or Work Order-to-custom-entity mapping strategy, confirm the Items-to-Product2 mapping, and document any custom fields that cannot migrate from Markate for customer sign-off before migration begins.

CSV extraction and pre-flight duplicate analysis

We extract full CSV exports for each Markate object through the Data Migration tool, run a pre-flight duplicate analysis against the exported data (identifying same-name customers, duplicate addresses, and records with identical email addresses), and produce a deduplication report for customer resolution. We validate field counts, required field presence, and data types against Markate's documented format. Any required field that is empty in the source is flagged with a transformation plan — either a default value inserted or the record held for manual correction. This step must complete before any Dynamics 365 import begins because the CSV structure determines the field mapping in the next step.

Sandbox import and reconciliation

We run a full migration into a Dynamics 365 Sandbox environment (Full Copy or Partial Copy) using production-like data volume. The customer's Dynamics 365 admin and operations lead reconcile record counts (Accounts in, Contacts in, Cases in, Opportunities in, Orders in, Products in), spot-check 25-50 random records against the Markate source, and sign off the schema and mapping before production migration begins. Any corrections to the field mapping, deduplication decisions, or Case status configuration happen in sandbox — not in production. If the Work Order mapping to Case or a custom Job entity requires Dataverse schema changes, those are deployed to sandbox first for validation.

Production migration in dependency order

We run production migration in record-dependency order using Markate's Data Migration CSV tool with Dynamics 365 as the target. First: Accounts and Contacts (with Team Members resolved to Users by email). Second: Product2 records from Items and Categories with Standard Price Book entries. Third: Cases (from Work Orders) with OwnerId resolved from the Team Member mapping. Fourth: Opportunities and Quotes from Estimates with AccountId and Pricebook2Id resolved. Fifth: Orders from Invoices with line items referencing Product2 records. Sixth: Expenses to custom Dataverse Expense entity or Notes on Case. Each phase emits a row-count reconciliation report and a field-occupancy sample before the next phase begins. We perform a final delta export from Markate during cutover to capture any records modified after the main export window.

Cutover, validation, and automation rebuild handoff

We freeze writes in Markate during cutover, run the final delta import into Dynamics 365, then enable Dynamics 365 as the system of record. We deliver a post-migration validation report: record counts by entity, a random-sample spot-check of 30 records across all object types, and a list of any records that failed import with error reasons. We deliver a separate Work Order mapping summary documenting the Case or custom Job entity schema for the customer's admin to configure Dynamics 365 Field Service if they plan to add that module. We do not rebuild Markate's appointment reminders, follow-up emails, or payment automation as Power Automate flows inside the migration scope; we provide a written inventory of each Markate automation with a Power Automate or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Insight equivalent recommendation for a separate rebuild engagement.