What must still be understandable after the move?
Illustrative scenario: a studio exports contacts, then discovers it cannot identify which proposal the client’s latest reply concerned. Names and addresses survived, but teammates must reconstruct every project’s status.
This guide delivers an export-verification plan, not an automatic migration. First identify the work the new environment must support: answering an active inquiry, following up on a proposal, or handing accepted work to delivery. Those jobs determine the required data.
Take an inventory before exporting
Download the portability checklist. It covers contacts, companies, deals, tasks, notes, messages, files, and relationships. Record the required scope, export route, authorized person, and verification destination for each.
An active project needs at least its identifier, client relationship, status, responsible person, and next action. An important proposal also needs the specific version and acceptance evidence. Moving all historical contents may be unnecessary, but retention choices should be deliberate and follow organizational policy.
One export may not include everything
Pipedrive describes different export routes and permission limits. HubSpot distinguishes record-property exports from related content. An Export button does not establish that every attachment, message, and relationship is included.
For this verification route, use Pipedrive. Create a limited deal-list view containing harmless test records. Include deal identifiers, names, statuses, and contact relationships. Find the export option in the list menu and save CSV/XLSX into restricted internal storage. If it is unavailable, check permissions with your administrator rather than assuming a paid upgrade is necessary.
Check required activities and files separately against current documentation. Record any unavailable export explicitly. None of these steps requires deleting data or closing the existing account.
Check five relationships, not just row counts
Choose five different test deals: one with multiple contacts, one with a note, one with an attachment, one with an open task, and one closed deal. Find each in the export by identifier. Compare status, relationships, and next action with the original.
Then import these harmless examples into a separate test environment of the destination tool. Matching row counts do not show that the task belongs to the right client. If a relationship cannot be represented, resolve the mapping or choose another route before ending the old service.
When you can decide to switch
Recommend a move only after the team can find its active work in the destination, has agreed how to handle missing history, and knows how changes during migration will be captured. Set the cutover date, final check, and rollback procedure. Close the old account only under a separately approved retention and recovery plan.
Export documentation reviewed October 1, 2026. The checklist is our proposed method, not evidence of a completed migration or a complete export from any particular account.