Migrate from STEL Order to Zoho CRM

STEL Order Clients store company name, primary contact name, phone, email, and multiple service addresses in one record. We split this into a Zoho Account (company-level data) and a primary Zoho Contact (person-level data). Additional addresses on the client record migrate as Address records linked to the Account. Multiple contacts per client in STEL Order each become separate Zoho Contact records related to the same Account.

STEL Order supports multiple service addresses per client (job locations). Each service address maps to a Zoho Account Address record with address type (Billing, Shipping, Service Location). Primary service address becomes the Account's default address. Secondary addresses preserve the location context for work-order scheduling.

STEL Order catalog products (parts, labor items, service packages) map directly to Zoho Products. Product name, SKU, unit price, unit of measure, tax specification, and stock quantity translate field-for-field. Bundle products in STEL Order map to Zoho Product Bundles (Kits). Discontinued or inactive products in STEL Order flag as inactive in Zoho.

STEL Order quotes with line items map to Zoho Quotes. Quote number, revision, validity date, subtotal, tax, total, and status (Draft, Sent, Accepted, Lost) translate directly. Line items map to Quote Items with product lookup, quantity, unit price, and discount. Original quote PDF attachments migrate to Zoho Notes or Files attached to the Quote record.

STEL Order work orders are the core entity — they contain job description, scheduled date/time, assigned technician, service address, status, and linked quote or invoice. We map these to Zoho Tasks with Subject, Status, Priority, Due Date, and the assigned technician as Task Owner. Work-order status values (Quoted, Scheduled, In Progress, On Hold, Completed, Invoiced) require a custom pick-list field (STEL_WO_Status__c) since Zoho Task Status is a fixed pick-list. Original job description and notes migrate to Task Description.

STEL Order work orders commonly include photos, signatures, equipment manuals, and signed work documents. We re-upload each attachment to Zoho Files and link it to the corresponding Task record. Signature images collected via STEL Order's mobile app preserve the original timestamp. Zoho's 20 MB per-file limit is checked per attachment — large files are flagged for splitting.

STEL Order invoices (paid, pending, overdue) map to Zoho Invoices with invoice number, date, due date, line items, tax, total, and payment status. Invoice PDFs from STEL Order attach to the Zoho Invoice record. Partial payments tracked in STEL Order migrate as Payment records linked to the Invoice. Credit notes in STEL Order map to Zoho Credit Notes.

STEL Order expense records (parts cost, subcontractor fees, travel costs linked to work orders) have no direct Zoho CRM equivalent — Zoho Expenses requires Zoho Books integration. We create a custom Expenses module in Zoho CRM with fields for expense date, amount, category, linked Task (work order), and receipt attachment. This preserves the full expense context for technician cost tracking without requiring Zoho Books.

STEL Order team members and technicians map to Zoho CRM Users resolved by email match. Active technicians in STEL Order become active Zoho CRM users with the Field Technician role. If a STEL Order technician email does not match an existing Zoho CRM user, we flag the record and create a placeholder user or assign the task to a fallback owner. Role and profile assignments require destination-side configuration post-migration.

Scheduled jobs with start/end times in STEL Order's calendar map to Zoho Events with Subject (job description), Start DateTime, End DateTime, Location (service address), and Owner (assigned technician). All-day scheduling events migrate as all-day Zoho Events. Recurring maintenance schedules in STEL Order generate individual Event records per occurrence up to the migration cutoff date.

STEL Order custom fields capturing field-service attributes — warranty codes, service-type classifications, equipment IDs, customer tier flags — migrate to Zoho CRM custom fields on the appropriate module. We create the custom fields in Zoho before migration using the Settings > Fields API, respecting the 300-field-per-module limit. Field type mapping: text → text, number → number, date → date, pick-list → pick-list with value-by-value mapping.