Setup checklist: name the authoritative system
Choose when the new CRM becomes the source for current relationship work. Before that point, the old system may remain authoritative; afterward, it should have a clearly limited role. Without this decision, colleagues continue updating whichever version is convenient and the migration never truly ends. Record the cutover time, scope and owner. A small team can keep this brief, but it must be explicit enough for an absent colleague to understand.
Control the final changes
Identify what can change between the initial export and cutover: new contacts, completed tasks, changed opportunities and important notes. Decide how those changes will be captured and reconciled. Do not assume the initial file remains current while the team continues working. If a temporary freeze is necessary, explain which activities pause and how urgent commitments are handled. The customer-facing work still needs an owner even while data movement is underway.
Prepare a bounded fallback
A fallback should specify what happens if an essential workflow fails, not simply say “go back.” Decide which system would receive new work, how changes made after cutover would be preserved and who can authorize the switch. An old export alone is not a complete reversible state. Keep the fallback proportional to the migration and avoid claiming recoverability that has not been demonstrated. Test the communication plan as well as the data.
Confirm that the team has actually moved
After cutover, inspect a few current commitments and ask colleagues where they would update them. Resolve contradictory answers immediately. Keep the old system accessible only as appropriate for the agreed read-only or archival role. Set a review date to retire temporary workarounds. The goal is one understandable source of current work, not permanent parallel data entry. Continue to onboarding and the short parallel-running guide before allowing the migration to drift into an indefinite transition.
Sources used for this page
These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.
- Capsule importing contacts — Merchant documentation · capsulecrm.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-20