Migrate from Novo Work Order to Zoho CRM

Novo customers with name, email, phone, and address map directly to Zoho Contacts. Multiple contact points such as billing contacts, site managers, or operations leads from Novo collapse to one primary Contact record per customer account, with additional roles stored as custom fields to preserve the full contact ecosystem.

Novo organizations including municipal departments, property management companies, and facility operators map to Zoho Accounts. The Account Name, phone, website, industry, and billing address fields carry over directly without transformation. In multi-department Novo setups, all departmental sub-units collapse to a single Account record per organization to align with Zoho's flat account hierarchy.

Novo assets (equipment, vehicles, infrastructure components) map to Zoho Products if the asset list resembles a product catalog, or to a custom Assets module if the migration preserves serial numbers, warranty dates, and parent-child hierarchies. Zoho Products lack native sub-component tracking — sub-components migrate as separate Product records with a custom Parent_Asset__c lookup.

Novo Work Orders have no native Zoho CRM equivalent. We map them either into Zoho Deals with 15–25 custom fields (WO number, status, priority, type, department, asset lookup, labour cost, parts cost, total cost, scheduled date, completed date, assigned technician, source request ID) or into a custom Work Orders module. The choice depends on your Zoho plan and reporting needs — Deals gives you pipeline views out of the box; a custom module gives you a dedicated work-order schema.

Novo work order status values (Open, In Progress, On Hold, Closed, Cancelled) map to Zoho Deal Stage values on the target module. Every status value must exist in Zoho's pick-list before import — we seed the pick-list first. Stage-entered timestamps from Novo become Stage_Changed_To__c custom datetime fields for audit continuity.

Novo priority values (Low, Medium, High, Critical, Emergency) map to a custom Priority__c pick-list field on the Zoho deal or custom module. If your Novo priority field uses custom values beyond the standard four, we add each one to the Zoho pick-list before migration runs.

Novo work order types such as Repair, Preventive Maintenance, Inspection, Emergency, and Installation map to a custom Type__c pick-list on the Zoho module. Each type value is added to the pick-list in Zoho prior to migration. Types with no corresponding Zoho equivalent are flagged for manual pick-list creation before the migration job runs to avoid import failures.

Novo PM records have no Zoho equivalent. We create a custom Preventative_Maintenance module in Zoho with fields for PM schedule name, frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual), last performed date, next due date, asset lookup, estimated hours, and assigned technician. The asset lookup links back to the migrated Products or custom Assets record.

Novo work-order activity log entries (technician call logs, email notes, site visit records) map to Zoho Tasks and Events linked to the corresponding Deal or custom Work Order record. Original timestamps, owners, and activity type are preserved. Zoho Tasks support Subject, description, status, due date, and owner — matching Novo's activity structure.

Novo file attachments on work orders (photos, PDFs, inspection reports) re-upload to Zoho as Attachments on the deal or custom Work Order record. Zoho's per-file size limit (20 MB on Standard, 30 MB on Professional+) applies — files above the limit are flagged for manual download links stored in a URL field.

Novo technicians and users (assigned to work orders, PM schedules) are resolved by email against Zoho Users. Unmatched technicians are flagged before migration — you either invite them to Zoho first or assign their records to a fallback Zoho user. Original technician name preserved in Assigned_Technician__c for reporting continuity.

Novo allows unlimited custom fields on work orders, assets, and PM records. Each custom field maps to a Zoho custom field on the corresponding module. Data type conversion happens automatically: date fields, pick-lists, numeric fields, and text areas all receive their correct Zoho field type. Pick-list custom fields in Novo require pre-seeded values in Zoho before migration.