Quick answer: A CRM data migration checklist starts with an audit of the system you are leaving, not the import. Audit seven areas: record inventory, data quality, fields and picklists, associations, workflows and integrations, history, and consent and ownership. Each finding becomes a migrate, archive or delete decision, and the audit becomes your baseline for checking the result.
A migration moves whatever you give it: duplicates, empty fields, retired picklist values and forgotten automations included. That is why clean data matters more than which platform you choose. This checklist covers what to audit before anything moves, whichever CRM you are moving to.
Why the Audit Matters More Than the Migration
The import takes days. Knowing what you have, what state it is in and what it is connected to takes weeks, and decides whether the project lands. Skip the audit and you cannot prove the migration worked, problems surface after go-live, and the new CRM inherits reporting nobody trusts.
Data that looks clean but isn't is cheapest to fix in the old system. Across 150+ CRM implementations, the migrations that overrun are the ones that started with the import.
The 7 Areas to Audit Before a CRM Migration
Audit these seven areas: record inventory, data quality, fields and picklists, associations, workflows and integrations, history, and consent and ownership. Give each a named owner and score it using The CRM Data Quality Framework.
1. Record Inventory and Volumes
Count every object: contacts, companies, deals, tickets, custom objects, activities and files, plus how many were active in the last 24 months. These counts size the project and become your reconciliation baseline. They also stop a failed load from becoming a duplicated database, as in this Insightly to HubSpot migration.
2. Data Quality
Agree matching rules before merging duplicates (email for contacts, domain for companies, a rule for edge cases), then find what keeps creating them. Normalise phone, country, date and currency formats in the source or export files.
"Every few months someone tells me they're switching CRMs because the data is a mess and we need a fresh start. I get it, but here's the thing - migration doesn't clean anything," says Stefan Loncar, CEO of Loncom Consulting.
If the clean-up is bigger than your team can absorb, run it as its own data cleaning workstream.
Want a clear view of your CRM data before the move?
Explore HubSpot CRM Dashboards3. Fields, Properties and Picklists
Sort every custom field into keep, merge, transform or retire. Unmapped fields fail quietly: in one Pipedrive to HubSpot migration we handled, every record arrived and 40 custom fields did not.
Map every picklist value in use, including retired ones, or the import will reject them. Define lifecycle and deal stages first, or records will get stuck in the wrong lifecycle stage. If data has been forced into the wrong object, consider whether you need a custom object.
4. Associations and Relationships
- Orphans: fix, archive or migrate as-is.
- Source IDs: carry them across so links can be rebuilt and re-runs update instead of duplicate.
- Load order: companies, then contacts, then deals.
The same matching logic keeps a live sync clean, as shown in this Sanity and HubSpot two-way sync.
5. Workflows, Reports and Integrations
None of these migrate automatically. List every workflow, sequence, report, form and integration with what it reads and writes, then rebuild it in the new CRM and switch it off in the old one so nothing runs twice. Automations are usually the biggest rebuild.
Integrations need the most care: if they are not repointed at cutover, they keep writing to the old system. That cutover is a core part of our integrations work.
6. History That Doesn't Survive the Move
In HubSpot, activities imported without an Activity date default to the import date, according to HubSpot's guide to formatting import files. Email history is often a separate migration job too.
7. Consent, Ownership and Access
Under UK GDPR, consent must be a clear opt-in (see the ICO's guidance on consent), so contacts with no recorded basis must not become marketable in the new CRM. Unsubscribes rarely map one to one, which is a key risk in a Mailchimp to HubSpot migration.
Map every owner to an active user, reassign leavers' records, and set permissions and user roles before the data lands.
Migrate, Archive or Delete
Every finding ends in one decision, signed off by the owner of that object.
If nobody can name a process, report or obligation that depends on it, it does not belong in the new CRM on day one.
Planning a CRM migration and want the audit done properly?
Book a Free ConsultationFAQ
What should a CRM data migration checklist include?
An audit of record inventory, data quality, fields and picklists, associations, workflows and integrations, history, and consent and ownership, plus a migrate, archive or delete decision for each finding.
How long does a pre-migration data audit take?
Usually longer than the import itself: weeks rather than days, depending on data volume, custom fields and integrations.
Should you clean CRM data before or after migration?
Before. Cleaning the source or export files is faster and safer than cleaning a live CRM where bad records already trigger automations and reports.
What data should not be migrated to a new CRM?
Test records, duplicates, hard bounces, unused fields and anything with no operational, legal or analytical purpose. Data kept only for audit is usually better archived.
How do you check that a CRM migration was successful?
Reconcile record counts against the baseline, spot-check associations and activity dates, compare key reports in both systems and verify consent status.
How does Loncom Consulting handle CRM data migrations?
Loncom audits and cleans the source first, carries source IDs across, validates a test migration before the final load and reconciles the result against the baseline, drawing on 150+ CRM implementations.
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