Migrate from OneDesk to Zoho Desk

OneDesk Tickets map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets. Subject, description, status, priority, assignee (resolved by email), and customer reference migrate 1:1. The internal/external conversation flag on OneDesk messages maps to Zoho Desk's thread direction (Customer Reply vs Agent Reply). We set the Department field on Zoho Desk Tickets based on the OneDesk Project membership or a custom Project field when no department mapping exists.

OneDesk Tasks migrate to Zoho Desk Tasks. Both share the same Item schema with a type discriminator in OneDesk. Task status, due date, assignee, and description migrate directly. Zoho Desk Tasks do not have a native Project link; we create a custom picklist field project_name__c on Task and populate it from the parent OneDesk Project name to preserve the grouping relationship for reporting.

OneDesk Projects are container objects with no direct Zoho Desk equivalent. We migrate Projects as Zoho Desk Tags on the associated Tickets, and we populate a custom project_name__c field on Tasks linked to the same Project. The Tag approach preserves grouping for list views and dashboards without requiring a custom object. If the customer requires a full Project module, Zoho Creator is the recommended build-out (out of scope for standard migration).

OneDesk Users (billable agents) map to Zoho Desk Agents. We resolve by email match and map the OneDesk role (Admin, Agent) to a Zoho Desk role (Support Admin, Support Agent). Billing-critical: OneDesk Users are the only billable seat count, while Zoho Desk agents are billable per tier. We flag any OneDesk User account that is inactive or has no assigned Items for exclusion to avoid over-provisioning Zoho Desk seats.

OneDesk Customers (external contacts) map to Zoho Desk Contacts. Name, email, phone, company, and address fields migrate directly. Custom properties on Customer records require field-level mapping because OneDesk's shared field model means a Customer may have fields that exist on Tickets in the same tenant. We extract the full custom field schema during scoping and map Customer-specific fields to Zoho Desk Contact fields or a shared custom field group.

OneDesk Company records (attached to Customers) map to Zoho Desk Accounts. Account Name, Website, Industry, and Phone migrate. If OneDesk Company records are associated with multiple Customers, the Account-Contact relationship is preserved with a primary Contact designated during migration.

OneDesk's shared custom field schema means a single field may appear on both Tickets and Tasks. We extract the complete active custom field list during scoping, then assign each field to the appropriate Zoho Desk module during field creation. Fields that apply to both Tickets and Tasks in Zoho Desk require duplication into both module field sets. Multi-select picklist, date, numeric, and text field types map directly; the Zoho Desk admin creates the custom fields in the destination before migration begins.

OneDesk conversation messages on Tickets and Tasks migrate to Zoho Desk Threads. Author, timestamp, message body, and direction (internal/external) preserve. We map the author email to the migrated Agent or Contact record. Thread ordering is preserved by processing messages in chronological sequence during import. Large conversation histories (over 50 messages per ticket) are chunked to stay within Zoho Desk API batch limits.

OneDesk KB Articles export with title, body content, category assignment, and publish status. Articles map to Zoho Desk Articles under the corresponding Section. We map OneDesk categories to Zoho Desk Sections and Sub-sections using the category hierarchy. Publish status (Draft/Published/Archived) maps to Zoho Desk's Article status field. Article attachments migrate as linked file records.

OneDesk time entries linked to Tickets and Tasks migrate to Zoho Desk Time Entries. Hours, date, agent reference (resolved by email), and description migrate. Zoho Desk's automatic time tracking is a Standard-tier add-on ($5/agent/month); we confirm the customer's Zoho Desk edition includes this feature before mapping. If the destination lacks the time tracking add-on, we preserve time data in a custom number field on the Ticket for manual entry reference.

File attachments on Tickets and Tasks are downloaded from OneDesk storage and uploaded to Zoho Desk as Ticket Attachments. Original filenames and file types preserve. Attachments exceeding 25 MB are flagged because Zoho Desk has a 25 MB per-attachment limit. We chunk large attachment sets using Zoho Desk's batch upload API with rate-limit handling.

OneDesk workflow automations trigger on Item state changes, assignments, or SLA conditions and may reference specific Item or User IDs. We export every automation definition including trigger type, conditions, and actions. Post-migration, all Item IDs change, breaking any automation that references a migrated record. We deliver a written automation inventory listing every OneDesk automation, its trigger conditions, and the equivalent Zoho Desk Blueprint or workflow action. The customer rebuilds automations in Zoho Desk's workflow builder; we do not rewrite automation ID references automatically.