Migrate from Salesforce Service Cloud to Zoho Desk

Salesforce Case maps to Zoho Desk Ticket as the central record. Origin, Status, Priority, Reason, and Record Type migrate from Salesforce to Zoho Ticket fields or custom fields as appropriate. CaseNumber from Salesforce becomes Ticket Number or a custom external ID field. If the source org uses Record Types for different support channels, we map each Record Type to a Zoho Department or Ticket Layout for agent-appropriate views. The IsEscalated flag maps to a custom Priority override field in Zoho.

Salesforce Contact maps directly to Zoho Desk Contact. Email, Name, Phone, Title, Department, and Address fields migrate 1:1. The Contact-to-Account relationship (AccountId) migrates to Zoho Contact's linked Account field. Multi-address Contact records require the primary address mapped to Zoho's Address fields. Salesforce Contact custom fields are recreated as Zoho custom fields before import.

Salesforce Account maps to Zoho Desk Account. AccountName, Phone, Website, Industry, Type, BillingAddress, and AnnualRevenue migrate directly. Parent Account hierarchies in Salesforce map to Zoho Account's hierarchical structure via the Parent Account lookup. We create all Accounts before Contact import so that the Contact-to-Account lookup (AccountExtId) is satisfied at insert time. Note that Zoho Desk's Account is optional for Tickets — Contacts can exist without Account linkage — but we preserve the relationship where it exists in Salesforce.

Salesforce Case Comments (both public IsPublished=true and private IsPublished=false) map to Zoho Ticket Comments. The IsPublished flag translates to a Zoho Comment visibility setting. Rich-text body from Salesforce is sanitized to plain text or HTML depending on the Zoho configuration. Created By and Created Date migrate as Comment metadata. Long comment threads on Cases with hundreds of comments require sequential insert ordering to preserve the conversation timeline.

Salesforce Case History tracks field-level changes (audit trail) and has no direct Zoho Desk equivalent. We export Case History as a JSON document structured per Case, attach it to the migrated Ticket as a file or store it in a custom field, and surface it as a written handoff item. The customer's Zoho Desk admin can use this document to manually recreate audit records in Zoho Activity or as a reference for compliance needs. Case History is frequently one of the largest export objects in high-volume Service Cloud orgs.

Salesforce Case Team Members assign specific Users with defined roles to individual Cases. Zoho Desk has no native case team concept. We convert team assignments to a custom multi-user picklist field on the Zoho Ticket that stores the agent User IDs. Case Team Roles migrate as a separate custom field mapping the role name to a Zoho picklist value. If the team role is informational only, it becomes a Ticket field note.

Salesforce Entitlements define SLA terms (response time, resolution time) and are linked to Contacts and Accounts. Zoho Desk's SLA policies operate at the Department level rather than the individual Contact/Account level and do not have a per-record Entitlement object. We preserve the entitlement name, SlaType, BusinessHours, and terms as custom fields on the migrated Ticket. The customer's admin rebuilds SLA enforcement in Zoho Desk's SLA Policy module post-migration using the migrated entitlement terms as reference data. We deliver a written SLA mapping table as part of the handoff.

Salesforce Case Milestones track SLA Remaining Time, Completion Date, and breach status tied to Entitlement and Milestone Type. Zoho Desk has no Milestone object. We preserve milestone timestamps (FirstResponseDate, FirstResponseTime, ResolutionDate) as custom date fields on the Ticket. The milestone type (First Response vs. Resolution) and remaining time value are stored as separate custom fields for reporting purposes. Breach violations from Salesforce are flagged as custom indicator fields in Zoho.

Salesforce Email Messages are child records of Case, storing message body (plain text and HTML), subject, from/to/cc addresses, and headers. They map to Zoho Desk Ticket Threads of type Email. The thread direction (inbound/outbound) is preserved via the Zoho Thread type field. Attachments on Email Messages are extracted separately, uploaded to Zoho Desk as file attachments, and linked via foreign key. EmailMessage headers migrate as a custom field for compliance or audit needs.

Salesforce Knowledge Articles (with ArticleNumber, Title, UrlName, Summary, Body, and publishing Status) map to Zoho Desk Help Topics or Articles depending on the Zoho version configuration. Article categories map to Zoho Desk categories or topics. Publishing states (Draft, Published, Archived) map directly. Article attachments migrate separately and are linked to the Article record. Zoho Desk's Knowledge Base has a different content model from Salesforce Knowledge; we flag structural differences during scoping.

Salesforce Solutions (reusable knowledge articles attached to Cases) map to Zoho Desk Help Topics if the customer's Zoho configuration uses a ticket-linked KB model. Solution body, attachment links, and status migrate directly. If the destination uses Zoho Wiki instead, Solutions are mapped to Wiki articles and linked back to Tickets via custom fields.

Salesforce Assets represent products purchased by an Account, linked to Cases for product-issue tracking. Zoho Desk has no native Asset object. We map Assets to Zoho Account records with custom fields for product name, serial number, install date, and status, or to a Zoho Inventory module if the customer uses Zoho Inventory. The Asset-to-Case linkage (what product was associated with the ticket) migrates as a custom Ticket field referencing the Account product.

Salesforce Products (name, code, family, description) map to Zoho Desk Products module if the customer uses the products feature for ticket context. Product2 ProductCode maps to the Zoho Product Code field. If the customer also uses Zoho Inventory or Zoho CRM, the Product records are placed in the appropriate module and linked to Tickets via a lookup.

Salesforce Users (agents and admins) map to Zoho Desk Agents by email address. We resolve active Salesforce Users by email match against Zoho Desk agent records. Inactive Salesforce Users who still own historical Cases are mapped to a Zoho Desk agent record flagged as inactive or to a system migration user. Profile and Role information from Salesforce is stored as custom fields on the Zoho Agent record for reference and rebuilt under Zoho Desk roles post-migration.

Salesforce custom fields on standard and custom objects migrate to Zoho Desk custom fields. Zoho Desk limits custom fields to 300 per module. If the source Salesforce object (especially Account or Case) has more than 300 custom fields — common in older orgs with extensive customizations — we prioritize business-critical fields during scoping and flag the remainder for the customer's admin to address post-migration. Custom field type mapping follows the Zoho-supported field type list (text, number, date, picklist, multi-select, checkbox, etc.).