Act! to HubSpot migration without losing your notes

What can you get out of Act!, and how?

Data	How it leaves Act!	Watch for
Contacts, companies, groups	File > Export to a .csv, or Tools > Export to Excel from the list view	One record type per export; the CSV route doesn’t work in Act! accessed via the web
History	History List, then Tools > Export to Excel	Only the filtered rows and visible columns come out
Opportunities	Opportunity List, then Tools > Export to Excel	Stages must already exist in your HubSpot pipeline
Notes	The Act! Reader Utility, a read-only connection to the database	Act! says it “does not provide support for this method”
Attachments	Export to another Act! database only	Plan to keep them in a shared folder

1. Export contacts to CSV. In Act! for Windows, go to File > Export. Confirm the file type shows Text Delimited, save as Comma Separated Values (*.csv), then pick Contact Records and All Records. Select Comma (.csv), choose Yes, export field names, check the field map, and click Finish. Repeat for Company Records.

2. Use CSV for phone numbers. Act! says country codes in phone numbers don’t export directly to Excel. The CSV export keeps them.

3. Export history. Click History List in the Navbar. Set the Dates and Types drop-downs to cover everything, click Select Users, choose every user and click OK. Add the columns you need with Tools > Customize > Columns, then click Tools > Export to Excel.

4. Get the notes. Act! says you can’t export notes to Excel; its export table lists notes as exportable only to another Act! database. The Reader Utility gives read-only access to most of the data tables in an Act! Premium database, and Act! attaches a data dictionary of those tables to its Reader Utility documentation article. For help with it, Act! says to contact an IT professional.

5. Keep a reading copy. Create a lookup of all contacts, run the Notes/History report from the Reports menu, and set Send the report output to: PDF File. It won’t import, but it records what each contact had.

Why do notes end up on the wrong contact, or on none?

HubSpot can’t match on a name. It matches on Email, Record ID or a custom unique-value property, so “John Smith, Smith Supply” matches nothing.
Contacts without an email need a plan. HubSpot lists Email as the required column to create a contact.
Company views repeat notes. An Act! company’s Notes tab also shows every note of the contacts linked to it, so exporting from there duplicates rows.
Dates reset. Without an Activity date column, HubSpot sets imported notes to “the date and time of the import.”
Imports are final. HubSpot says existing notes “cannot be updated via import,” so fix the file before you load it.

What order should you load things in?

Users. Add your team in HubSpot first. Notes carry an owner through the Activity assigned to column, filled with each user’s name or email; HubSpot recommends email when two users share a name.
Pipeline. Create your deal pipeline and stages. HubSpot requires a new deal’s Pipeline and Deal stage to match existing options.
Companies. Import Name and Company domain name. HubSpot uses the domain to recognize a company and removes anything after the top-level domain, such as /home.
Contacts. Import contacts and companies together from one file, with Email, names and Company domain name on each row, so each contact links to its company. Put extra addresses in an Additional email addresses column, separated by semicolons. Keep the contact key from your Act! files and map it with Create new property.
Record IDs. In CRM > Contacts, open the All contacts view, click Export, then Customize and choose All properties on records. Record ID comes out as the first column, next to your Act! key.
Notes. Look up each note’s Record ID by its Act! key, then import.
Deals. Import opportunities last, so they can link to contacts and companies that already exist.

Example: one note row, ready to import.

Record ID - Contacts	Note body	Activity date	Activity assigned to
51234	Wants a quote on 40 units before Q2	03/14/2019 10:30	sam@example.com

If your notes came out with only a name and company, build the key from both and settle every repeated name by hand. Rows you can’t place go on a list for a decision: find the email, attach the note to the company, or keep it in the PDF copy.

How do you import the notes into HubSpot?

Click More, then Data Management > Data Integration.
In Import a file, click Import data, then Advanced imports (all objects).
Select Contacts and Notes, click Next, and choose Single file.
In Choose how to import, set contacts to Update existing contacts only and notes to Create new notes only.
Upload the file, then map Record ID - Contacts to the contact Record ID. Map Note body, Activity date and Activity assigned to.
Name the import, select the Consent checkbox, and set Date format and Time zone to match your file.
Click Finish import.

Run a test file of 20 rows first and open those contacts.

Size limits: on HubSpot’s free tools, files can be up to 20MB, with 500,000 rows a day. With Smart CRM or a Starter, Professional or Enterprise subscription, files can be up to 512 MB and 1,048,576 rows each.

How do you check it worked?

Count. The rows in your notes file should equal the notes created, minus the rows on the import’s error list.
Spot-check dates. Open ten contacts, including two that share a name, and confirm their oldest notes show the original Act! date.
Check owners. Notes should show the rep who wrote them, not the person who ran the import.
Check duplicates. Export your contacts and run them through the free duplicate contact finder for HubSpot before your team starts logging new calls.
Stop new entries in Act! once the import starts, so every new note goes to HubSpot.

What are your options?

Option	Good for	Watch for
Do it yourself with Act! exports and HubSpot imports	Contacts and history, with few notes	Notes need the Reader Utility; each import is final
Buy an Act! conversion service	Large databases with years of notes	What it does with notes it can’t match to a contact
Hire a HubSpot freelancer or partner	Pipelines, properties and training alongside the move	Who checks the notes against Act! before sign-off
Bring in an outside team (Cleanups & bulk changes)	Matching notes to the right contacts, then cleaning duplicates	Needs a copy of the Act! database and time with your reps