Migrating into or between CRM platforms is where most operational damage occurs. The damage is rarely catastrophic — it is a thousand small breaks: a tag that did not map, a calendar that lost its buffer, a DNS record that stopped authenticating. This checklist is the preflight we run before any cutover. Run it before you move anything.
Phase 1 — Inventory (Before You Touch Anything)
01. Export and verify all contact and company records. Confirm the export includes custom field values, not just names and emails. A contact without its custom field data is a stranger in the new system.
02. Map every tag to its destination equivalent. Identify duplicates (booked-call vs call-booked) and decide which survives. Tag chaos is the single most common migration failure.
03. Translate active pipeline stages. Each deal must land in the correct stage in the new system, not a generic 'imported' bucket.
04. Reconcile custom field schemas. Field types must match (a dropdown cannot become free text without data loss). Document every field's source and destination.
Phase 2 — History and Communication
05. Preserve note and activity history. Notes attached to contacts must migrate with their parent record, not as orphaned text.
06. Migrate calendar and availability rules. Buffers, blackout dates, and team round-robin logic must be recreated, not just the calendar itself.
07. Rebuild appointment reminder sequences. A migrated calendar without its reminder workflow is a calendar that increases no-shows.
08. Transfer email templates and assets. Confirm merge fields still resolve in the new system — field names often differ between platforms.
Phase 3 — Telephony and Deliverability
09. Port SMS numbers and complete A2P 10DLC registration. Number porting can take 2–4 weeks; start it early. Unregistered numbers will not deliver.
10. Audit every webhook and integration endpoint. List them, test them, and confirm they will reconnect to the new system. A silent webhook failure is an invisible data loss.
11. Verify DNS records: DKIM, SPF, and DMARC on the sending domain. Re-verify after cutover — DNS propagation can break authentication temporarily.
12. Build the domain routing and redirect map. Every old URL must resolve to its new equivalent or a relevant page. A 404 on a live enquiry page is an emergency.
Phase 4 — Forms and Automation
13. Recreate forms and surveys with identical field mapping. A form that captures a field but does not map it to the contact record is a form that loses data silently.
14. Build the automation trigger dependency graph. Document which workflows depend on which triggers, tags, and custom fields. Migrate in dependency order.
15. Carry over suppression and exclusion lists. A contact who opted out and then receives a message is a compliance problem, not a marketing problem.
16. Rebuild user permissions and team roles. Confirm each team member lands in the correct role with the correct access scope.
Phase 5 — Integrations and QA
17. Reconnect Stripe and payment integrations. Test a live transaction in staging before going live. A broken payment link discovered after launch is costly.
18. Re-enable review request workflows. These are often forgotten and quietly stop generating reviews for weeks.
19. Run a full staging QA pass. Submit test enquiries through every form, book through every calendar, and trigger every workflow. Do this before cutover, not after.
20. Scan for broken links and 404s post-cutover. Use a crawler on the live domain within 24 hours of the flip.
Phase 6 — Cutover and Warranty
21. Run an end-to-end inbound test enquiry through the live system. A real form submission, a real booking, a real notification. Confirm it reaches the right person.
22. Conduct the team handover and recorded walkthrough. Your staff must know how the new system works before the old one is decommissioned.
23. Execute the legacy account decommission checklist. Export a final backup, cancel the subscription, and document where the archived data lives.
24. Open the 14-day post-migration warranty window. Monitor for silent failures, missed notifications, and deliverability drops during this period.
Migration damage is cumulative, not catastrophic. A 24-step preflight catches the thousand small breaks before they become a broken intake process.