How long does a CRM migration to Salesforce take?

For a small company with one source system and up to a few hundred thousand records, three to six weeks is typical, including mapping, test loads and training. Complex histories, many systems or custom objects take longer.

Which tool should we use to import data?

The Data Import Wizard handles up to 50,000 records per import for common objects and is easy to use. Data Loader handles larger volumes and all objects. For repeated or complex migrations, an ETL tool may be worth it.

Moving to Salesforce from spreadsheets or another CRM: a migration checklist

Moving into Salesforce is a chance to start clean. It is also the moment when many teams lose trust in their new CRM, because records are missing, owners are wrong or history disappeared.

Our team has worked on migrations into Salesforce for global sales teams. The checklist below is what we follow for smaller companies, whether the source is a spreadsheet, HubSpot, Pipedrive or an old CRM.

Phase 1: plan

Define what success looks like. For example: all active customers and open deals migrated, two years of closed deals, activity history for the last 12 months.
Decide what not to migrate. Old leads that never responded, contacts without email addresses, deals closed lost five years ago. Less data means a faster, cleaner migration.
List the source systems and owners. Who knows each data set and can answer questions about it?
Freeze the data model. Agree the Salesforce objects, record types, required fields and picklist values before mapping.

Phase 2: clean and map

Export everything first. Keep a full, untouched backup of the source data.
Remove duplicates in the source. It is much easier than merging later in Salesforce.
Standardise values. Countries, industries, stages and owners in consistent formats.
Write a mapping document. For each source field: the Salesforce object and field, any transformation, and an example.
Map users and owners. Every record needs an owner in Salesforce. Decide where records owned by people who have left will go.
Plan IDs. Create an external ID field on each object to store the old system's ID. It makes relationships and reloads much easier.

Phase 3: test

Load into a sandbox first. Run the full migration at least once in a sandbox.
Load in order. Users, then accounts, contacts, opportunities, opportunity contact roles, products, then activities, notes and files.
Switch off automation during loads where it would send emails or create tasks for historical records. Use a custom setting or permission to bypass Flows for the migration user.
Reconcile. Compare record counts and amount totals between source and Salesforce. Spot-check 20 records per object with a business user.
Test with users. Ask two or three reps to find their accounts and deals and confirm they look right.

Phase 4: go live

Pick a cut-over date and stop using the old system for new records from that point.
Run the final load, using the same scripts and mappings as the test.
Reconcile again and fix gaps the same day.
Re-enable automations and check that new records behave correctly.
Train users on day one, focused on their daily tasks rather than every feature.

Phase 5: after go-live

Keep the old system read-only for a few months in case someone needs history that wasn't migrated.
Watch data quality for the first month: duplicates, missing owners, wrong stages.
Collect feedback in the first two weeks and fix quick wins fast. Early trust is hard to rebuild if it's lost.

Common mistakes to avoid

Mistake	What happens	How to avoid it
Migrating everything	Slow loads, cluttered org	Agree what to leave behind
No external IDs	Broken relationships, painful reloads	Add an external ID field per object
Automation left on	Customers receive emails about old deals	Bypass Flows for the migration user
No reconciliation	Missing data found weeks later	Compare counts and totals after each load
Training on everything	Users overwhelmed	Train on daily tasks first

A well-run migration is mostly preparation. If you'd like a mapping document, test loads and reconciliation done for you, the migration service covers the full process.