Migrate from Service Buddy to Zoho CRM

Service Buddy's unified customer record contains both prospects (no closed deals) and active clients (closed BuddyPay payments or completed jobs). We split on deal history: customers with at least one closed quote or job payment become Zoho Contacts linked to their Account; prospects without closed deals become Zoho Leads. This split preserves Zoho's lead-conversion workflow for new prospects.

Service Buddy's dealer and vendor company records map 1:1 to Zoho CRM Accounts. Parent-child dealer hierarchies are preserved using Zoho's Parent Account lookup field. If a dealer record exists in Service Buddy without a contact, it migrates as a standalone Account with no linked Contact.

Service Buddy Jobs are rich service records containing job type, crew/installer, scheduled dates, status, and customer notes. Zoho CRM has no native Job object, so Jobs migrate as Tasks with the primary contact linked via LookUp_ID, plus a custom module (Job_Record__c) storing job type, custom pricing, and SQ footage as custom fields. The Job_Record__c is Looked Up from the Task so relationships remain intact.

Service Buddy Quotes contain the full quote body, line items, customer acceptance status, and a job reference. We split into a Zoho Deal (for pipeline tracking) and a Zoho Quote document (for the proposal itself). The Deal Stage tracks quote-to-close progression; the Quote document stores the line items and digital-signature status. A custom field (Service_Buddy_Job_ID__c) on the Deal links back to the Job_Record__c for quote-to-job traceability.

Service Buddy's BuddyPay records contain payment amount, method (card/ACH/Apple Pay), authorization status, and date. Zoho CRM has no native payment sub-object, so BuddyPay fields are mapped as custom fields on the Deal (total_paid__c, last_payment_date__c, payment_method__c, card_on_file__c) and on the Contact (preferred_payment_method__c). Businesses using Zoho Books for AR may prefer to link to an Invoice record instead.

Service Buddy product catalog with SKU, description, unit price, vendor, and stock quantity maps directly to Zoho CRM Products. QR-code label metadata from Service Buddy is stored as a custom field (QR_Label_Data__c) since Zoho has no native QR label generation. Vendor lookup is preserved as a custom field since Zoho's vendor model is for Purchase Orders, not product sourcing.

Service Buddy PO and Work Order records track vendor orders and work dispatch. Zoho CRM has a native Purchase Orders module but it targets procurement workflows, not field-service work orders. We assess whether the PO is a procurement record or a job-dispatch record and map accordingly — procurement-style POs to Zoho Purchase Orders, job-dispatch WOs to a custom Job_Dispatch__c module linked from the Job_Record__c.

Service Buddy owner IDs are matched to Zoho CRM Users by email address before migration. Unmatched owners — team members who exist in Service Buddy but have no Zoho user account — are flagged and either assigned to a fallback Zoho user or held for provisioning before the migration commits. User roles and permissions are Zoho-side configuration and must be rebuilt.

Service Buddy files and photos attached to customers, jobs, and quotes are downloaded and re-uploaded to Zoho CRM as Attachments on the corresponding module records. File size limits follow Zoho's per-file cap (25 MB). Inline images embedded in quote PDFs are extracted and stored as separate file records.

Any Service Buddy custom field — dealer tier, product category, job sub-type, SQ footage, custom pricing tier — requires a corresponding Zoho custom field created via POST /settings/fields before migration data is loaded. We retrieve Service Buddy field names, infer data types, and create Zoho custom fields with matching pick-list values where applicable. Pick-list values on Service Buddy custom fields are mapped one-by-one to Zoho pick-list options.

Zoho CRM sets CreatedDate at record creation time during migration, overwriting the original Service Buddy creation timestamp. We preserve the original create date from Service Buddy as a custom datetime field (Original_Create_Date__c) on each Zoho module so reporting continuity is maintained after cutover.

Service Buddy's internal record IDs are stored on every migrated Zoho record as Source_System_ID__c. This field serves two purposes: it enables delta-run de-duplication (so records modified in Service Buddy during the cutover window can be matched by ID rather than by email or name), and it provides a traceability link for your team to cross-reference records back to the source system.

Service Buddy calendar entries for job scheduling, installer appointments, and crew assignments migrate as Zoho CRM Events with the original start/end times, subject (job name or customer name), and associated contact LookUp preserved. Crew assignment text is stored in the Event description since Zoho Events do not have a native crew-assignment field.

Service Buddy notes attached to customers, jobs, or quotes migrate as Zoho CRM Notes on the corresponding record. Rich-text formatting in Service Buddy notes is converted to Zoho's Note body format. Long notes that exceed Zoho's character limit are split into multiple Note records.