Migrate from DeskDay to Zoho Desk

DeskDay's Client Organization records map to Zoho Desk Account. The client organization name becomes Account Name, and service tier or SLA level stored on the organization in DeskDay maps to a custom field on the Zoho Desk Account (such as sla_tier__c or msp_service_level__c). We create the Account record first in the import sequence so that Contact records can satisfy the AccountId lookup at insert time. MSPs with multiple DeskDay organizations that share a parent (such as a holding company structure) map to Zoho Desk sub-accounts using the parent_account_id__c reference.

DeskDay end-user contact records map to Zoho Desk Contact with full name, email, phone, and mobile fields preserved. The DeskDay Client Organization association becomes the AccountId lookup pointing to the mapped Account. End users without a company association in DeskDay are imported as standalone Contacts without an AccountId, and we flag these for the customer's admin to either associate with an Account or convert to an Account record during reconciliation.

DeskDay tickets map to Zoho Desk Ticket with subject, description, status, priority, and requester information preserved. DeskDay's conversational thread entries transform to Zoho Desk Comments (private notes) and Public Replies (external-facing). Thread direction is inferred from sender type: end-user messages become Public Replies, agent messages become Comments or Public Replies depending on visibility intent. The DeskDay ticket ID is stored in a custom field deskday_id__c on the Zoho Desk Ticket for audit traceability.

DeskDay agent records (name, email, role, team assignment) map to Zoho Desk Agent. We match by email address and create Agent profiles via Zoho Desk API before ticket import so that the OwnerId and Assigned Agent fields on tickets can reference valid Agent records. DeskDay role assignments (administrator vs technician) map to Zoho Desk's Agent and Support Administrator roles, with Light Agent reserved for any read-only user accounts created during transition.

DeskDay team structures map to Zoho Desk Teams, preserving team name and description. We create Teams via the Zoho Desk API before ticket import and add agents to the correct team during the agent migration phase. Zoho Desk's Team Assignment setting must be enabled in Help Desk Settings before migration; we confirm this during the pre-migration configuration step.

DeskDay custom ticket fields require pre-configuration in Zoho Desk before ticket import because Zoho Desk scopes custom fields to individual departments rather than applying them globally. We extract all DeskDay custom field definitions (field name, data type, current values), create the corresponding custom fields in the target Zoho Desk department, and map the field values during ticket import. Fields that have no Zoho Desk equivalent (such as DeskDay-specific MSP metadata fields) are flagged as requiring a custom field or a workaround, and the customer decides whether to create a custom field or drop the data point.

IT-Connect portal associations on DeskDay tickets migrate as reference flags, but the portal theming, branding, and white-label settings are not portable. Zoho Desk's customer portal is configured per department and defaults to Zoho branding on the free tier. We deliver a written inventory of every DeskDay IT-Connect portal setting (URL, branding assets, article visibility) and the customer rebuilds the portal configuration in Zoho Desk post-migration. MSPs on DeskDay Enterprise who used white-label portals will find Zoho Desk's department-level portal provides similar isolation at the department level but not at the individual client level.

DeskDay KB articles and their category assignments map to Zoho Desk Articles within the configured department's help center. Article title, content, and category association migrate. Article view counts, feedback ratings, and internal publication status may not transfer and require manual verification post-import. Internal links between KB articles will break because Zoho Desk assigns new article IDs during import; we deliver a link audit inventory listing every internal URL that needs manual update or redirect configuration in Zoho Desk.

DeskDay SLA configurations (business hours definitions, escalation rules, response and resolution targets) are exported as a structured inventory but cannot be imported as active SLA records into Zoho Desk because Zoho Desk implements SLAs as Help Desk Settings rather than standalone data records. We deliver a written SLA inventory document with DeskDay SLA name, business hours, escalation triggers, and target times, and the customer's admin configures the corresponding SLA rules in Zoho Desk Help Desk Settings post-migration.

DeskDay file attachments on tickets are stored in DeskDay's cloud storage and referenced by internal URL. Zoho's Zwitch tool explicitly does not migrate attachments. We download all ticket attachments from DeskDay, store them temporarily, then upload each file to the Zoho Desk account's attachment storage via API and update the ticket record with the new attachment reference. This adds processing time proportional to total attachment volume. Large attachment volumes (over 10,000 files) require chunked processing and may extend the migration timeline by several days.

Tags applied to DeskDay tickets migrate as flat label arrays to Zoho Desk Tags. We preserve all tag names and apply them to the corresponding Zoho Desk Ticket records. Tags used for categorization in DeskDay map directly; there is no transformation required because both platforms use a tag-based labeling model. Tags used for SLA routing in DeskDay may require review because Zoho Desk routes tickets by department and agent assignment rather than tag-based routing.

DeskDay reporting data is generated at query time from ticket and agent activity logs rather than stored as independent report records. We do not migrate report definitions. We deliver a written inventory of every DeskDay report configuration (report name, filters, grouping, date range) and the customer's admin rebuilds the reports in Zoho Desk's Reports module. Zoho Desk's reporting engine supports standard ticket reports, agent performance, and SLA compliance; custom report types may require Zoho Analytics as an add-on.

If DeskDay includes product or service catalog records used in ticket context (such as affected product fields), these map to Zoho Desk Product records. Product name, SKU, and description migrate. We create Product records before ticket import so that the affected_product reference on tickets can be resolved.