Migrate from OneDesk to Salesforce Service Cloud

OneDesk Tickets map to Salesforce Case as the primary customer-facing record. Subject, description, status, priority, and assignee migrate directly. We resolve the assignee by mapping the OneDesk User email to the Salesforce User ID before insert. The original ticket ID is preserved in a custom field onedesk_id__c for reconciliation. OneDesk SLA timer fields migrate to Salesforce Case milestones if the customer has Entitlement Management enabled; otherwise they become custom date fields on Case.

OneDesk Tasks (internal work Items) have no direct Salesforce standard equivalent because Salesforce separates customer-facing cases from internal to-do items. During scoping we confirm whether Tasks represent internal follow-up (mapped to Salesforce Task) or customer-affecting work (mapped to Case with a custom internal-external flag). If Tasks have billable time entries attached, we recommend a custom Case-based object to preserve time tracking in Salesforce. The decision is documented and confirmed with the customer before schema build.

OneDesk Projects serve as container objects grouping related Tickets and Tasks. We assess during scoping whether the Projects represent external customer organizations (mapped to Salesforce Account) or internal work containers (mapped to a custom Project object with a lookup to Account). Projects with associated members and child Items are linked to their parent via WhatId on the migrated Case or via a custom parent-project lookup.

OneDesk Customers are external contacts and map directly to Salesforce Contact. Name, email, phone, company, and address details migrate directly. Custom properties on Customer records require field-level mapping because the destination Contact object may not have matching standard fields; we extend Contact with custom fields where needed before import. Email deduplication uses the standard Salesforce duplicate rule on Email field.

OneDesk Users are billable agent accounts. We extract every User referenced on Tickets, Tasks, or time entries and match by email against the Salesforce destination org's User table. This step is migration-blocking because OwnerId references on Case require a valid Salesforce User. Users without a matching Salesforce User go to a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision. Permission sets and admin flags from OneDesk map to Salesforce Profiles and Permission Sets, though manual review is required because permission models differ substantially.

OneDesk custom fields are shared across all Item types, which is structurally different from Salesforce where fields are added per object. We extract the complete active custom field schema during scoping (field name, type, picklist values, conditional visibility rules) and map each to a Salesforce custom field on the appropriate object (Case, Task, or Contact). Multi-select picklists in OneDesk map to Salesforce multi-select picklists with comma-separated values. Any picklist values that do not exist in the destination Salesforce org are flagged for the admin to create before import.

Conversation messages on OneDesk Tickets include author, timestamp, message body, and an internal/external flag. External messages migrate to Salesforce EmailMessage records linked to the Case via ParentId. Internal notes migrate to CaseComment records. Author references are resolved to the migrated Salesforce User or Contact ID. We preserve chronological ordering by setting the EmailMessage CreatedDate to the original OneDesk timestamp. Attachments within conversation threads migrate as ContentDocument records linked to the parent EmailMessage or CaseComment.

OneDesk KB Articles export with title, body content, category assignments, and publish status. We map articles to Salesforce Knowledge using the Article Type configured in the destination org, and map OneDesk category assignments to Salesforce Data Category Groups and Categories. Published status migrates to the article's Workflow State. Draft and archived articles migrate with their original status so the customer's admin can review before publishing.

File attachments on Items are downloaded from OneDesk storage, stored temporarily in the migration workspace, and uploaded to Salesforce as ContentVersion records linked to the parent Case via ContentDocumentLink. We preserve original filenames and MIME types. Large attachment sets are chunked to stay within API batch limits, and we validate file integrity (MD5 checksum) before confirming upload success.

OneDesk time entries attach to Items with hours, User, date, and optional description. Salesforce has no native billable time entry object at base Service Cloud tier. We assess during scoping whether to map time entries to custom fields on Case (total hours, billable hours, last time entry date) or to a custom Time_Entry__c object with a lookup to Case. Billable hours from OneDesk migrate to a custom Currency or Number field on the destination object.

OneDesk workflow automations are exported as a written inventory document. Each automation is documented with its trigger type, conditions, actions, and any record ID references that will break after migration. We do not migrate automation logic as code because OneDesk automations and Salesforce Flow are structurally incompatible. The inventory document includes a recommended Flow equivalent for each automation and is handed off to the customer's Salesforce admin or implementation partner for rebuild post-migration.

OneDesk Professional Services invoicing exports with line items, amounts, status, and customer reference. Salesforce does not have a standard Invoice object. Invoices migrate to a custom Invoice__c object that we provision in the destination org before import, with line items as a related Invoice_Line_Item__c custom object. Currency and tax fields map to equivalent custom fields on the custom object. This is a non-standard migration object and is scoped separately.