Migrate from HaloCRM to Zendesk

HaloCRM Tickets map 1:1 to Zendesk Tickets with status, priority, assignee, requester, created date, and last modified date preserved. We disable SLA escalation rules in HaloCRM before export to prevent timers from firing on migrated records. Zendesk's requester field maps from HaloCRM's Client lookup; assignee maps from the agent lookup. Tags transfer as flat arrays and re-apply at the destination ticket.

HaloCRM Client records (name, email, phone, and address fields) map to Zendesk End User records. Client-scoped custom fields from HaloCRM map to Zendesk user fields on the End User. We resolve the Client-to-requester relationship for every Ticket before import so that the Zendesk ticket requester link is satisfied at insert time.

HaloCRM Agent records map to Zendesk Agent accounts. Email, name, and role transfer; team assignments and permission sets require reconfiguration in Zendesk's admin roles and groups interface as the access control models differ structurally. Any HaloCRM Agent without a corresponding Zendesk user is held in a reconciliation queue.

HaloCRM Organization records map to Zendesk Organizations. The organization name, domain, address, and custom fields migrate directly. Zendesk Organizations can be linked to multiple End Users; we resolve the organization relationship for every Client record during the Client import phase so that organization membership is established before ticket import begins.

Ticket-scoped custom fields from HaloCRM require explicit mapping to Zendesk ticket fields. We create the Zendesk field with the matching type (text, dropdown, checkbox, date, integer) before migration, then map values during the ticket import. HaloCRM Ticket-scoped fields that share a name with Client-scoped fields are distinguished explicitly to prevent cross-contamination of data at the destination.

HaloCRM Knowledge Base articles with title, body, category assignment, and publication status migrate to Zendesk Articles. Article-to-category relationships map to Zendesk Section and Folder structure. Draft versus published status transfers as Zendesk draft versus published state. Large articles are chunked for API transfer to avoid timeout on the HaloCRM export side.

File attachments associated with HaloCRM tickets are downloaded during export and re-attached to the corresponding Zendesk ticket via the Zendesk Attachments API. Large attachment batches are chunked into groups of 50-100 files per batch to stay within HaloCRM's API timeout envelope and avoid the bulk action degradation reported on large volumes.

Tags applied to tickets and KB articles in HaloCRM export as flat label arrays and re-apply to the corresponding Zendesk records by tag name. Tag duplicates do not create duplicate tags in Zendesk; the API uses tag name as the dedupe key.

HaloCRM Service Contracts with dates, values, and linked Client and Company associations transfer to a custom object in Zendesk Enterprise (Sunshine Objects) or as a custom record type in Professional tier. The destination schema for contracts differs from HaloCRM's schema and requires explicit field mapping of dates, monetary values, and linked entity lookups. Contracts without a matching Customer in Zendesk are held for resolution before import.

HaloCRM Device and Asset records with serial numbers, device types, and custom fields transfer to a custom object in Zendesk Enterprise. Serial number and device type map directly; custom fields require pre-creation in the Zendesk destination before import. Ticket-to-asset relationships in HaloCRM are preserved via ID cross-referencing in a custom ticket field pointing to the Zendesk asset custom object.

HaloCRM SLA definitions (first response time, resolution time, and breach actions) map to Zendesk SLA Policies at the Plan level (Growth and above). Custom breach-action logic that extends beyond pause, notify, or escalate in HaloCRM requires manual recreation in Zendesk's SLA Policy builder. We document every HaloCRM SLA rule with its conditions and actions during discovery.

HaloCRM canned text entries migrate as plain-text Zendesk Macros. Variable substitution syntax differs between platforms; any dynamic placeholders in HaloCRM templates are flagged in the migration report for manual review and update in Zendesk's macro editor. HTML-formatted canned text is converted to Zendesk's placeholder format.