How To Migrate Your Data Into Salesforce

All businesses experience growing pains, and they come in every variety. Many of them are good problems, like having to migrate existing customer data away from an outgrown customer relationship management (CRM) solution and into Salesforce. Salesforce is the standard for a reason—it’s a powerful CRM platform with robust and adaptable capabilities.

In order to minimize downtime and fully leverage Salesforce for your CRM needs, you’ll need to migrate your data as quickly as possible while still making sure that it’s comprehensive, accurate, and formatted correctly. Collecting data from diverse sources and legacy systems can be complicated, and any error in the process can lead to costly delays.

Keep reading for a complete walkthrough of the five key steps for successful data migration in Salesforce, as well as Salesforce data migration best practices, and a look at common problems and essential strategies you can use for a successful transition and a seamless migration process.

Step 1: Assess Your Data

The best—and only—place to start when migrating data to Salesforce is knowing what you’re working with. First on your Salesforce data migration checklist is a thorough data audit. By determining record structure and identifying critical data fields, you’ll have a full understanding of the current data environment.

Once you’ve got the big picture in place, identify duplicate records as well as unnecessary, redundant, or inaccurate information. All of this irrelevant data should be trimmed before migration so you can be sure you’re working with the full range of data and nothing extraneous.

If old or deprecated data can be archived, take this step now. By reducing the amount of data you have to migrate, you can make the actual migration process quicker and more efficient and Salesforce data verification easier post-migration.

Step 2: Choose the Right Migration Method

The kind of data you’re working with should dictate the best method to migrate Salesforce data. Using the best method not only makes the process faster but also safeguards accuracy and maximum efficiency after the data is migrated.

There are three options, each for different sizes and types of datasets.

Data Import Wizard

If you’re working with smaller, less complex datasets, you’ll want to use the Data Import Wizard. It’s ideal for this scenario, being both fast and simple to use with intuitive and user-friendly instructions. The Data Import Wizard has the added benefit of not requiring any additional applications or support data to be installed.

Data Loader

If your organization has a larger dataset or is working with more complex records that result in larger volume datasets, you’ll want to use the Data Loader. This option is best when it comes to migrating more complex datasets because it can handle multiple records simultaneously.

APIs and Third-Party Tools

If your datasets are intricately detailed, complex, or involve multiple external systems, you may wish to opt for third-party tools or application programming interface (API) solutions. These are typically more suited to handling custom configurations or highly specialized data.

The right approach depends on your data. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution—each method works well and ensures dependable data post-migration. The trick is knowing the pros and cons of each so you can choose the one that’s the best fit for your organization’s needs.

Step 3: Prepare Your Salesforce Environment

Once you’ve prepared your data and chosen the best migration method for your specific use case, it’s time to focus on your Salesforce environment. This step is where you set up any custom fields you’ll need for your datasets, as well as relationships that align correctly with your existing data structure.

A clear data map that’s aligned to work with the Salesforce framework will make it easier to maintain data integrity and reduce the likelihood of any problems after data is migrated.

With your custom fields and relationships in place, you’ll want to rigorously test your setup with sample data in a sandbox environment. This is a critical step for spotting and rectifying any problem areas prior to a full-scale dataset migration.

Step 4: Execute the Migration

This is where most errors occur, such as data mismatches, missing fields, or failed imports. To minimize risks, start with a test migration using only a small portion of your data. Validate the results of this test migration thoroughly to spot any errors or discrepancies you’ll need to go back and address. Once you’re confident everything is as it should be, you can begin migrating your live data into Salesforce.

Use a phased migration approach to minimize any problems, especially if you’re working with a larger dataset. During the data migration, keep a close eye on the process and make note of any errors. Any inconsistencies or misconfiguration needs to be corrected during this step to prevent data integrity issues from coming up post-migration.

For a step-by-step breakdown of how to migrate payment data into Chargent’s objects and fields, check out our Chargent Data Migration Guide.

Step 5: Validate and Clean Up Data

After you’ve completed your migration, you need to make sure your data is accurate. Validate your data efficiently using reports, dashboards, and Salesforce migration tools.

By using data migration tools, Salesforce makes it easy to test your data post-migration. Make corrections or adjustments needed to fix any errors or other discrepancies. Cleaning your data during this process guarantees a smooth transition in CRM activities, so it’s a vital step that shouldn’t be skipped.

Once your data is verified, clean, and ready to use, train your users on the best methods for accessing and managing the data from within Salesforce.

Common Challenges & How to Overcome Them

When it comes to CRM data migration, Salesforce is the obvious choice. Data migration to Salesforce isn’t without its challenges, but if you run into any problems, rest easy—there are solutions. However, before migrating existing payment data, it’s smart to get Chargent configured and tested in the production environment to ensure a smooth transition. Here are some of the most common issues encountered during Salesforce data migration, along with the fix for each.

Data Format Inconsistencies

Prevention is key here. Standardize data formats before migration with a clear and concrete format protocol for all necessary data mapping.

Missing or Incomplete Data

Some records may be missing required fields, causing them to be skipped. Run validation checks before and after migration.

Duplicate Records and Data Integrity Issues

This is one of the more common issues, but it’s easy to remedy. Salesforce provides a Duplicate Management feature that you can use to identify and delete duplicate records. Creating a rigorous deduplication protocol is a best practice when it comes to maintaining data integrity.

Incorrect Field Mapping

If fields are mapped incorrectly, data may end up in the wrong places. Always test with a sample dataset before full migration.

System Downtime and User Adoption Concerns

The time a dataset migration takes depends on your particulars. To minimize disruptions, execute the time-critical portions of your migration during slow or no activity periods at your organization.

Post-migration, comprehensive training is generally all that’s required to bring users up to speed with the many features and advantages of Salesforce.

Optimize Your Salesforce Process

Migrating your data into Salesforce isn’t trivial, but that doesn’t mean it has to be challenging. A structured, thoughtful approach and familiarity with best practices and appropriate methods are all you need.

For more help in optimizing your Salesforce experience, consider Chargent for Salesforce. With its ability to integrate seamlessly within your existing Salesforce environment, Chargent provides an efficient, tested, and trusted solution for handling payments.

To see what Chargent can do for you, try it for free for 30 days and discover how easy and powerful Salesforce can be.

We needed to streamline our Auth.Net connection for our members credit card transactions so that they are viewable and management in SF. Chargent was the perfect application for this to occur. It is very user friendly and is a native SF application, which is also a huge plus.

Kevin K, August 2022

We use Chargent to manage all of our sustaining memberships and for sending out payment requests. Makes it so much easier for people to pay their invoices. It is also such an easy tool to get set up and running!

Bonnie S, April, 2020

We love that Chargent is entirely native to Salesforce and allows for a lot of customizations, such as complete control over email templates, invoices, receipts, etc. It makes it much easier in a heavily regulated field, Financial Services. The support quality alone is enough for me to fully endorse this company.

Financial Services, July, 2020

Excellent for all types of payments. We’ve been running recurring and one time billing through Chargent for at least the last five years. They have frequent updates to keep us compliant and there are virtually never any issues with payments. Even better is their support team.

Nick F, October, 2020

Chargent works really well and can be configured lots of different ways to fit your business needs. I’ve implemented the product on a few different projects with a variety of requirements and the package is very smooth. The Chargent Support team is also one of the best I’ve ever worked with.

William S, December, 2021

Chargent is very useful, and is able to make complicated integrations much more straightforward. In just a few minutes, the setup wizard is able to connect you to a variety of different gateways to test or process live transactions. There’s also good documentation to walk you through the specifics of integrating with a particular gateway. The few complications I’ve run into have been handled by a capable and friendly support team.

James M, July 2022

My client was in search of a Credit Card Chip Reader solution as they were migrating off of old card swipers and their current payment product. In doing research, Chargent Terminal seemed to be a great fit. The whole process of implementation from cradle to grave was seamless and simple. My clients said that Chargent is far more intuitive and has made their lives in processing payments extremely simple.

Arnold C, July, 2020

Chargent is incredible! It makes getting payment so much easier when you can send a link, and the client can click on it and process payment on their own time.

Camille T, January 2023

BEST IN CLASS!! Chargent was a game changer for us. It has allowed a payment automation process for our sales team that we could not live without. The team is quick to respond and eager to help. I could not ask for a better partner.

John D., May, 2022

With Robert’s help my client was able to convert sales to cash and utilize partial payment and recurring payment settings. With Chargent and DBSync integrations, my client is able to integrate QuickBooks Enterprise to record invoices, payments and estimates for progress billing. I highly recommend this integration.

Salesforce Consultant, June, 2019

Chargent has helped streamline our recurring payments. Before we could only automate monthly payments. Now we can automate, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and yearly. We can also automate outreach for declined payments.

Sarah R, September 2022

I’m a SF Admin recently charged with preparing for the June 20′ release. I am extremely grateful for the support team at Chargent. I am very impressed with the thoroughness of monitoring their product with SF and the proactive approach to keeping ahead of the releases. Thank you Chargent!

Andrew K, May, 2020

We are successfully tokenizing credit cards, sending payment links, and processing credit cards for multiple payment gateways and companies. Setup was easy and tech support was very responsive when needed. Chargent was exactly what our company needed to capture payments via Salesforce. Thanks to the flexibility and security features of Chargent, we have been able to reduce our credit card processing fees by close to 2%.

James C, September, 2020

Chargent has simplified our billing needs substantially. We are able to charge hundreds of customers with ease while receiving timely support by the Chargent team whenever it is needed. Very satisfied!

Powell N, November, 2020

Chargent is a great payment processing solution! We’ve been using the app for a little over a year now and our end users love the simple ability to send payment links to clients. As an admin, it’s easy for me to add gateways when we open new locations.

Brea G, August, 2021

I’m a consultant in the Entertainment space and my clients are always looking for a quick/easy way to leverage their existing payment processing provider within Salesforce. I recommend Chargent every single time. The solution is flexible and allows for a great deal of customization.

Charles O, May, 2021

As someone who has a technical background but is relatively new to working in Salesforce, I have been very impressed with the Chargent product for Salesforce. I was first impressed by the very comprehensive guides and online documentation available. Subsequently, in working to update and upgrade our Chargent implementation, our organization has worked with three different support reps over the past year and each one has been super friendly, very helpful, and very technically proficient. A great example of how to do technical support the right way!

David M., January, 2022

We are using Chargent for handling payment processing. On one click of “Send Pay Request” we can send an email and customer can pay easily just with a link. Customer support team is quick in response and ready to help. I like how Chargent stay ahead and helps update Chargent app according to Salesforce new releases.

Deepika N, June, 2020

The Support Team at Chargent was very helpful and diligent in supporting our needs and transition to Chargent. Responses were on time and punctual on a case by case basis and the support team is a pleasure to work with!

John D., March, 2022

The Chargent product has streamlined our process for credit cards. Our customers and sales team find it easy to tokenize our credit card payments. Any questions are answered quickly by the customer support team. Chargent was the right partner for my company.

Maria C, October, 2020

When our incompetent SF implementation partner dropped the ball, Chargent support was able to login to our account, identify the issue, and have it resolved in less than 24 hours so we had virtually no downtime in processing payments. Excellent job!

Jon A, November, 2021

We came across Chargent during our Salesforce implementation. We were having lots of issues with online payments. Chargent solved all our problems in an instance. Highly recommend this product for higher education institutes, especially TargetX CRM users.

Ahmet D, April, 2021

Seamless app for integrating our donations into our Salesforce platform. Excellent and responsive customer service.

Kate G, February 2023

I am very pleased with the support I receive for Chargent. I have implemented it for several clients and I always have questions regarding each use case. The support team is very knowledgeable and helpful!

Salesforce Consultant, March, 2019

I am the Salesforce Admin for our company. We have a very delicate environment and way too much customization. Our business required a solution that is not out of the box Chargent. The support and quick response I have received is above and beyond what is expected.

Kent B, August, 2021

I implemented Chargent for an end customer because of the limitations on the current app that they were using. The Chargent APIs are super simple, the support staff was great and very responsive. We found a great partner in Chargent. The simplicity in setting up multiple gateways and recurring billing configuration options are second to none if you want the go by clicks not code mantra.

Swapnil M, July, 2020

We have received overwhelming support from Robert Ruelas on the Chargent/Accounting Seed integration. Robert stayed with us on our problem until resolved. We don’t find this level of support frequently and would recommend the Chargent App for any organization that handles credit cards when you are using Salesforce and/or Accounting Seed.

Mike M, February, 2020

We needed to streamline our Auth.Net connection for our members credit card transactions so that they are viewable and management in SF. Chargent was the perfect application for this to occur. It is very user friendly and is a native SF application, which is also a huge plus. Highly recommend this application!

Kevin K., August, 2022

We signed up for the add-on package for the Automated Payments and the same day we signed up we had Nick schedule a meeting with us to get started. He was not only helpful for the initial set up, but he would send helpful training videos for the rest of the team. Usually when you sign up for something new it takes a long time to train everyone and get it set up. I am happy to say that was not the case for us.

Tonya B, November 2022

This is a great app that helps simplify receiving payments from most popular payment gateways and recording everything in Salesforce. I’m a consultant and set this up for a client who had a very custom requirement. Chargent support was very helpful in guiding me on the configuration.

Kaivalya K, July, 2020

Great integrated solution for capturing payments — and great support! This solution has made it so much easier for our org to track payments and make sure they are tethered to the original deal, and it makes the capturing of payments so quick and seamless for our customers. Also, the support is great! Quick response times and relentless problem solving on the part of the support team!

Katie K., April, 2022

Chargent’s application has provided us the ability to automate a payment process which normally took a person 15 minutes to process, down to less than a minute with the Chargent integration. Handling payments in the past will no longer haunt us since we are now PCI compliant, we know we can rest our client’s minds by letting them know their data is secure.

Nick S, March, 2020

We have been using devs to handle our connections between FormAssembly, Chargent and Salesforce. I was asked to change our payment methods and was having issues with it being charged to the wrong gateway. Nick and I had a web meeting in which he was able to point out the issue of a different process builder that was changing gateways from the one I thought was. Even though this issue was on our Salesforce end, he was more than willing to help and explain things to me.

Tim P, November 2022

Chargent makes automating our monthly donor payments a snap. Top-notch, extremely responsive service. Thanks!

Amy K, October, 2021

How To Migrate Your Data Into Salesforce

Step 1: Assess Your Data