Our original move in numbers.
Our own Salesforce migration - Source inventory
- Just over 1.9 million records
- People and companies
- About 138,000 leads, accounts, and contacts
- Deals
- About 7,700, with related products, prices, and contacts
- Activity history
- About 1.7 million emails, calls, and to-dos, dating back to 2008
- Plan used
- Pro · $199/month
- Left behind by choice
- 1,282 old file attachments, stale reports and dashboards, and broken automations
These are rounded source-inventory figures from our own migration. We chose the data to bring across before importing; this is one team’s result, and each customer’s scope and timing can differ.
Our own Salesforce move brought across just over 1.9 million records while the team kept working. That experience became the foundation for the automated Salesforce migration flow built into Zen & Zen today.
For your team, the process starts with a few clicks: connect Salesforce, review the proposed plan, and approve the migration. Zen & Zen handles the copying, field translation, import, and verification in the background. You can follow its progress and review the results in your workspace.
Your part now: a few clicks
1. Connect Salesforce
Open the Salesforce migration flow in your Zen & Zen workspace, connect the migration helper, and sign in to Salesforce. The helper scans your account with read-only access to discover your records, fields, and existing setup.
2. Review and approve
Zen & Zen proposes how your Salesforce records and fields fit into your new workspace. Review what to bring across, check the proposed mappings, and approve the plan. You can run a sample first to see how your data looks.
3. Let the automation do the moving
The helper copies and transfers the selected data. Zen & Zen applies the mappings, imports the records, and checks their values and relationships. The flow shows progress, results, and anything that needs attention. Review the completion report before cancelling Salesforce.
The clicks start and approve the work; the amount of data determines how long it runs. Setup, source access, and any unusual fields or workflows can need attention, and our white-glove support is there to help.
The detailed checks below are the work behind the automation. They explain how we checked our own move and why the product includes those safeguards. Your team uses the guided flow to make the decisions and review the outcome.
Behind the automation: our own move
The moving part of our original migration ran in a single evening. We chose the records to keep and deliberately left some old files and unused setup behind.
What we were moving
Our Salesforce account held a little of everything, accumulated over many years:
- About 138,000 people and companies — leads, accounts, and contacts
- About 7,700 deals, with the products, prices, and contacts attached to each one
- About 1.7 million logged activities — emails, calls, and to-dos going back to 2008
- Dozens of custom fields our team had added over the years
Altogether, just over 1.9 million records. The kind of pile that makes people say a migration takes a quarter. It didn’t.
A read-only inventory
The first thing we did was, technically, nothing — at least nothing Salesforce could feel.
We ran a read-only audit: a careful count of everything in the account without changing a single record. It told us how many of each kind of record we had, which custom fields existed, and which automated rules were still running — 39 workflow rules and 39 email templates, as it turned out.
Two useful things fell out of that count. First, we finally knew exactly what we owned — you’d be surprised how few companies can say that. Second, the audit caught a few automations that could never have fired as written, which meant we could leave them behind guilt-free.
Choosing what to bring across
Not everything in an old CRM deserves a seat on the truck. We chose the records that matter — people, companies, deals, products, and the activity history — and deliberately left some things behind: 1,282 old file attachments, stale reports, and dashboards we could rebuild better anyway.
Copying the data
Here is the part that makes the whole thing stress-free: the export was read-only. Salesforce’s own tools handed us a complete copy of the data as simple spreadsheet files — the kind you could open in Excel. Nothing was deleted, nothing was locked, and the team kept working the whole time.
Every exported file had a record count and a digital fingerprint attached. That gave us a way to track the files and check that they stayed intact through the preparation steps.
Translating fields
A copy is not the same as a move. Each row still had to be translated into the new CRM’s language: old field names mapped to new ones, money and dates cleaned up, addresses tidied — and every record’s original details kept attached for reference.
The translated records were written out as small, reviewable batches instead of one giant blob, so a human could actually look at what was about to be imported before it was imported.
A practice run before the real import
Before anything touched the real system, we ran the entire import into a private practice copy of the new CRM. Only after that rehearsal looked right did we approve the real run — an explicit “yes” required before a single live record was written.
The import then applied the batches one at a time and kept score as it went. If anything had stopped halfway, it would have picked up where it left off. Nothing stopped.
A final catch-up pass
Business doesn’t pause for plumbing. While the move ran, a few records in Salesforce naturally changed — so we finished with one quick catch-up pass that collected anything created or edited since the first snapshot.
The final sweep picked up four records. Four. Then the counts and fingerprints matched on both sides, and that was that.
What we checked before switching
The checks followed the move from inventory to catch-up. This is a summary of the results from our own migration, with customer data left out.
| Stage | Check and result |
|---|---|
| Inventory | Counted the source records, custom fields, 39 workflow rules, and 39 email templates without changing Salesforce. |
| Scope | Chose the records to bring across and excluded 1,282 old file attachments, stale reports and dashboards, and broken automations. |
| Export and preparation | Recorded file counts and digital fingerprints, mapped fields, and prepared reviewable import batches. |
| Rehearsal | Ran the full import in a private practice copy before approving the live run. |
| Live import | Applied the batches one at a time; the run completed without interruption. |
| Catch-up and final check | Collected four records changed since the snapshot. The final counts and fingerprints matched. |
What this migration shows
This case shows how our team prepared, rehearsed, and checked its own move. The counts above are rounded inventory figures, rather than exact final import totals. The one-evening result belongs to this particular move; it is not a promised schedule for every customer.
Your timing depends on the data you select, custom fields, relationships, files, automations, and the checks needed before switching. Agree on what must transfer and what can stay behind before the first import.
- We never wrote to Salesforce. Read-only access meant there was nothing to break at the source.
- We checked the result. Export counts, file fingerprints, the rehearsal, and the final catch-up gave us checks at each stage.
- We rehearsed first. The real import was the second run, not the first.
- No shutdown window. The catch-up pass replaced the usual “everyone stop working” freeze.
Planning your own move to Zen & Zen
See the Salesforce migration page for the automated flow, supported data, requirements, and practical checks before switching.
Start with the guided Salesforce migration flow in your Zen & Zen workspace. Salesforce migrations are supported for most users; our white-glove support can help with setup and questions about the records, fields, and history you want to bring across. Zendesk migration support is also available for most users, and other sources can be discussed.
Our own move used the Pro plan. The plan details below show how that fits the current record limits. Your migration scope, checks, and timing depend on the data and setup you are moving from.
Moving off Salesforce? Talk to us — or take a look at the CRM your records land in and the plans and usage costs.
The honest fine print
A couple of things didn’t come across, on purpose: the ancient file attachments we no longer needed, and the handful of automations the audit showed were broken anyway. A good migration is partly about what you choose to leave behind.
Those were choices for our original move. In the current flow, review the proposed scope and the completion report to see what your migration preserves and what needs further attention.