Migrate from Folder HelpDesk to Zoho Desk

Folder HelpDesk Tickets map to Zoho Desk Tickets with Subject, Description, Status, Priority, created time, and updated time preserved. The ticket number becomes the ticket ID; the original Folder ticket ID is stored in a custom field folder_ticket_id__c for cross-reference. Thread history (comments, replies, internal notes) migrates to the Zoho Desk Ticket Thread with the author, timestamp, and content preserved. Folder HelpDesk's internal-note flag maps to Zoho Desk's Internal Note comment type. Status values (Open, Pending, Resolved, Closed) map to Zoho Desk's equivalent Status values or custom Status picklist values created during schema setup.

Folder HelpDesk Customer records map to Zoho Desk Contacts. Name, email address, phone number, and custom fields transfer directly. The Contact is created before the related Ticket so that the Contact Lookup field on the Ticket is satisfied at insert time. Folder HelpDesk's customer portal status maps to the Zoho Desk Contact's IsPortalUser or a custom portal_enabled__c flag if the customer intends to use Zoho Desk's self-service portal.

Folder HelpDesk Organizations present a routing decision for Zoho Desk: they can map to Zoho Desk Accounts (company-level records with Contacts linked under them) or to Zoho Desk Departments (routing queues that assign tickets to a team). We recommend mapping Organizations to Zoho Desk Accounts for reporting and CRM continuity, and creating Departments based on the Folder routing-group membership or the customer's desired agent queue structure. The choice is made during scoping and documented in the object map before migration.

Folder HelpDesk Agents map to Zoho Desk Agent records resolved by email address match. Agent name, email, role (Admin, Agent), and group assignment migrate. Zoho Desk's role-based access control (RBAC) model maps Folder agent roles to Zoho Desk profiles and territory assignments. If the Zoho Desk destination has fewer agent seats than the Folder account has agents, we flag the discrepancy during scoping so the customer can upgrade the Zoho Desk plan or deprovision inactive Folder agents before migration.

Folder HelpDesk Groups map to Zoho Desk Departments, which serve as the primary routing queue structure in Zoho Desk. Each Folder Group name creates or maps to a Zoho Desk Department, and agent membership is transferred as Department membership. Folder routing rules referencing specific Groups require manual re-creation in Zoho Desk's Department routing settings because routing logic is configuration, not data.

File attachments on Folder HelpDesk tickets transfer to Zoho Desk Ticket Attachments. Filename, MIME type, and binary content migrate. Folder HelpDesk's per-file attachment size limit may affect the export of large files; we chunk large attachment batches and flag any file exceeding the Zoho Desk API maximum upload size (currently 25 MB per file) in the transfer log for manual retrieval. Inline images embedded in ticket descriptions and comments migrate as ContentDocument records linked to the parent Ticket.

Folder HelpDesk tags migrate to Zoho Desk Tags. If Folder HelpDesk uses hierarchical tags (e.g., Product-Category-Bug), we apply a flatten strategy using a prefix delimiter (Product_Category_Bug) to preserve the hierarchy in a flat tag model. Zoho Desk does not support nested tag hierarchies natively, so the flatten strategy is the standard approach. Tags apply to Tickets at migration time via the ticket tag association endpoint.

Folder HelpDesk custom fields on Tickets and Customers migrate to Zoho Desk custom fields of equivalent data type. We inspect the source schema during discovery, flag any tier-gated fields that exist on Professional but not on the customer's current Folder plan, and map each field to a Zoho Desk custom field created in the destination before import. Text fields map to Single-Line Text or Multi-Line Text; dropdown fields map to Picklist with the same options; date fields map to Date fields. Conditional visibility on custom fields requires manual re-creation in Zoho Desk's layout editor.

Folder HelpDesk SLA policies and running breach timers do not export as data. The SLA configuration (time-to-respond, time-to-resolve, business hours, escalation contacts) is documented in a written summary during discovery and handed off for manual re-creation in Zoho Desk's SLA module. Breach state resets on migration day; teams should expect to monitor SLA compliance from day one in Zoho Desk rather than carrying forward accumulated breach history.

Folder HelpDesk Knowledge Base articles (title, body HTML, category placement, attachments) migrate to Zoho Desk Knowledge Base articles in the corresponding Section. HTML content normalizes to Zoho Desk's wiki-format article body. Folder HelpDesk article categories map to Zoho Desk Sections, and sub-categories map to sub-sections. Formatting differences between the source HTML and the destination article renderer are flagged in a pre-migration sample review so the customer can correct any display issues before full migration.

Folder HelpDesk macros and email templates export as text with variable placeholders preserved. We map macro name, body text, and variable syntax to Zoho Desk Macros. Conditional logic embedded in Folder HelpDesk macros requires manual rebuild in Zoho Desk's Macro editor because the conditional branching model differs between platforms. The macro inventory (with text and variables) is delivered as a CSV alongside the migrated data.

Folder HelpDesk time entries (hours logged against a ticket) map to Zoho Desk Time Logs on the corresponding Ticket. Time value, agent, and ticket linkage migrate. Zoho Desk's time tracking feature must be enabled in the destination portal before time entries are imported. If the customer's Folder plan does not include time tracking, we flag this during discovery so the customer can evaluate whether Zoho Desk's time tracking (available on Professional and Enterprise plans) meets the billing or reporting need.