Migrate from Helprace to Zoho Desk

Helprace tickets (subject, body, status, priority, assignee, tags, custom fields, and reply threads) map to Zoho Desk tickets. Helprace's bulk export does not cover tickets, so we call the Ticket API endpoint with pagination to extract records. Thread history migrates as Zoho Desk threads with direction (inbound/outbound) preserved where supported; comment author attribution is not natively supported in Zoho Desk KB import so we append author name as inline text. Custom fields on tickets are exported with field name, type, and values, then pre-created on Zoho Desk before ticket import with type mapping applied.

Helprace users have profiles with email, name, organization membership, and group assignment. We map these to Zoho Desk contacts with AccountExtId linking to the corresponding Zoho Desk account record. Helprace group memberships become Zoho Desk contact custom fields or tags. If a user record references an organization, we create the Zoho Desk account first so the AccountId lookup is satisfied at insert time.

Helprace organizations group users and allow ticket sharing across members. We map org names and member lists to Zoho Desk accounts. Zoho Desk accounts support hierarchical parent-child structures, which we preserve if the Helprace data contains org-level hierarchy. Account creation happens before contact import to satisfy foreign-key constraints.

Helprace user groups control access to restricted spaces and drive workflow routing. We preserve group names and membership lists and recreate them as Zoho Desk groups. Groups must exist in Zoho Desk before agents are assigned, so group creation is sequenced before ticket import. Some helpdesk platforms do not allow group creation via API; in that case we provide a CSV with group definitions for manual creation before migration.

Helprace teams represent departments or office branches. We map team names and assign agents to their corresponding department on Zoho Desk. Zoho Desk organizes agents and tickets by department, which is required for department-level workflow rules. Department is a required context for several Zoho Desk settings so we establish department mapping during schema design.

Helprace KB articles have title, body, category, and visibility settings. Helprace supports bulk CSV export for KB content which we use when available, falling back to API pagination for full article fidelity. We import articles into Zoho Desk using the KB import format with sections mapped to Helprace categories. Zoho Desk's native KB import explicitly excludes attachments, so we download all KB attachment files separately and re-upload them with reference links updated in the article body.

Helprace community topics are organized by feedback type (Questions, Ideas, Problems, Praise) with vote counts and status flags. Zoho Desk has no native community forum object, so we handle this as a split: topic title, body, and reply threads migrate to Zoho Desk tickets or KB articles as applicable, while the topic type (Question/Idea/Problem/Praise), vote count, and topic status are stored as custom fields on the destination record. Customers expecting a full community portal should plan a separate Zoho community implementation post-migration.

Helprace Saved Replies are canned responses with {{placeholder}} tokens for customer name and email. We export the full text including placeholders and flag which records require manual replacement with Zoho Desk's ${contact.firstName} and ${contact.email} syntax. Macro creation in Zoho Desk is scoped by department, so we assign macros to the relevant departments during import. This is a content correction step rather than a data-loss risk, but it requires human review before activation.

Helprace macros update multiple ticket properties in a single click. We export the action list (field updates, assignments, tag additions) and document each macro with its trigger conditions and resulting actions. Zoho Desk workflow rules and Blueprint process steps are recreated from this inventory. We do not migrate workflows as code; the admin rebuilds these in Zoho Desk Blueprint or workflow rules post-migration.

Helprace tags organize tickets, filter reports, and trigger workflows. Tag names are free-form strings. We preserve the full tag list and reapply tags to migrated tickets on Zoho Desk. If the destination Zoho Desk plan limits tag counts, we flag any overflow tags for the customer's admin to consolidate or archive.

Helprace custom fields on tickets can be text, number, date, dropdown, or checkbox. We export field names, types, and values, then create matching custom fields on Zoho Desk before loading ticket records. Field type mapping is applied: Helprace dropdown becomes Zoho Desk picklist, Helprace checkbox becomes Zoho Desk checkbox. Required field status migrates with a warning flag if the destination field is required and some source records have null values.

Helprace customers can rate support interactions with a value and optional comment. Zoho Desk stores CSAT ratings natively on tickets, but satisfaction ratings from Helprace may not map directly if the scale differs. We export the rating value and comment, storing them in a Zoho Desk custom field and/or the native CSAT field depending on scale compatibility. Ratings are preserved as historical data; we flag any scale mismatches for the customer's admin to validate post-migration.