Migrate from Time Matters(r) to Freshsales

Time Matters has no API — migration runs through CSV export templates only

Time Matters® does not expose a REST API or any programmatic data access. All migration data must be extracted through the Custom Export Templates built into the Time Matters desktop client. Each record type (Contact, Matter, Event, ToDo, Note) is exported as a separate CSV file. Not every custom form field is guaranteed to appear in the export template by default — some require template re-configuration in Time Matters before the export runs. This is the primary risk vector: an incomplete export means incomplete data in Freshsales. We review the export templates during the planning phase and flag any fields not present before the migration window opens.

Time Matters N:N contact-to-matter relationships collapse to primary association

Time Matters allows a single contact to be linked to multiple matters simultaneously with no limit on association count. Freshsales contacts have a primary AccountId and Account Contact Relationships for secondary associations, but no general-purpose N:N labeling between contacts and deals. We map the primary attorney or client contact to the Freshsales Deal's primary contact, and surface all secondary matter-contact links as Account Contact Relationship records with the role preserved in a custom field. The firm must decide whether to recreate all association labels in Freshsales or collapse them to a primary-plus-secondary model before the migration runs.

Time Matters billing data has no native Freshsales home

Time Matters® includes a full billing module — time entries, expenses, trust accounting, and client invoicing. Freshsales has no equivalent billing object. Billable time entries and expenses migrate as custom fields on the Account or Deal (or into a Freshsales custom module on the Enterprise plan), but Freshsales cannot generate invoices or track trust balances. Firms that rely on Time Matters for billing must plan a separate billing workflow — either a dedicated legal billing tool that integrates with Freshsales, or a manual rebuild of invoice templates in Freshsales.

Freshsales enforces unique email per contact — duplicates require pre-migration cleanup

Freshsales requires a unique, valid email address for every contact record. Time Matters contacts frequently share an email address (e.g., a law firm shared inbox) or have no email at all. During the migration planning phase, we run a duplicate-email audit on the Time Matters export and surface records with missing or duplicate emails. The firm must decide how to handle each case: add a unique email, merge records, or exclude the record from the migration. This decision is required before the Freshsales import run starts.

Custom form fields in Time Matters require manual Freshsales custom field creation

Time Matters custom form builder allows firms to create practice-area-specific data capture screens with arbitrary field names and data types. Freshsales custom fields must be created manually in the Admin Settings before the import run, matching the field name and type. We deliver a custom field creation plan as part of the schema preparation step — but the actual field creation happens in the Freshsales admin UI. Fields that do not exist in Freshsales at import time are skipped and logged. Firms with 20+ custom form fields should budget additional planning time for this step.