Import
- Supported formats: CSV, XLS, XLSX.
- Supported operations: Insert new records only, update existing records only, or insert + update (upsert).
- Field mapping: Map source columns to CRM fields; set default values for missing data.
- Deduplication on import: Specify a matching field (e.g., Email) to detect and handle duplicates during import (merge or skip).
- Import for multiple pipelines: Pipeline is a mandatory field when importing Deals; specify pipeline or use a default.
- Shift data import (March 2026): When importing users, map shift-related fields (current shift, next shift, shift effective from) with auto-mapping support (Zoho March 2026 update video).
- Import Timeline (Q2 2026 roadmap): Track updates made via module import and Bulk Write API in the record's activity timeline (Zoho Vertical Studio 2026 roadmap).
- Upsert for migrated datasets (2025): When migrating data, administrators can upsert missing records into migrated datasets, choosing whether to overwrite existing data or preserve original data with original timestamps (Zoho CRM 2025 highlights).
Export
- Records in any module can be exported to CSV.
- The Bulk Write API (V8) supports asynchronous bulk export of large record sets.
- Audit log exports in CSV format (up to 3 years or 1 million entries).
Data Migration
For full migrations (from Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, or other CRMs), Zoho CRM supports structured data migration that preserves relational integrity (associated contacts, deals, notes, activities) (Requesting Data Backup: Restoring lost data).
Zoho DataPrep is the recommended tool for complex migration scenarios: clean data from 70+ sources, apply 250+ transformations, validate against CRM schema, and export via the Zoho CRM connector (Zoho DataPrep for CRM).