# Introduction

Costimate is a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software designed to streamline in estimating project costs more accurately, thereby fostering better customer relationships. As a comprehensive CRM solution, Costimate provides an intuitive platform that brings together contact management, interaction tracking, task management, sales forecasting, and many more features under one roof. Its sophisticated analytics capabilities offer insights into customer behaviour and sales performance, enabling data-driven decision-making. One of Costimate's unique selling points is its project cost estimation feature, allowing businesses to manage and track the financial aspects of their project effectively. This feature, combined with robust lead management tools, ensures that businesses can track their leads from acquisition through conversion, all while keeping an eye on project costs and potential profitability. Moreover, Costimate's seamless integration capabilities mean it can work hand in hand with other software tools, creating a unified, streamlined workflow. Whether accessed from a desktop or on the go via its mobile version. Costimate stands ready to enhance your customer relationships and boost your business productivity.

This tutorial aims to simplify your journey with Costimate, ensuring that you can fully harness its potential to streamline your operations and foster stronger customer relationships.

Business could seamlessly integrate Costimate into their daily operations to streamline customer interactions and project planning. They would first consolidate all their customer information within the Costimate system, providing a unifieed platform for quick and easy access to essential client details, history, and preferences. Utilizing Costimate as their main CRM tool, they could schedule meetings, track leads, and monitor sales pipelines effectively. The platform's robust analytics and sales forecasting capabilities would allow them to make data-driven decisions, enhancing their business strategy. Furthermore, the unique project cost estimation feature would be an integral part of their financial planning, helping them to manage budgets more effectively. Business could leverage Costimate's mobile access to stay updated and respond to customer needs promptly, even when on the go, fostering better customer relationships and improving overall business productivity.

Have you found something in the documentation that is confusing or incorrect? Costimate's documentation is very robust, but requests for updates and recommendation are encouraged by users such as yourself! Please consider checking the Github page as well.

Overview Costimate provides a CSV-based migration workflow that allows teams to exit Salesforce with no operational downtime. The process uses your own Salesforce data exports, validates them against Costimate’s schema, and imports them through a controlled, step-driven migration interface. This guide outlines the exact steps. Required Files Prepare the following standard CSV exports from Salesforce: Accounts.csv Customer, vendor, and entity records. Includes account name, type, industry, billing data. Contacts.csv Contacts linked to accounts. Includes names, emails, phone numbers, ownership. Opportunities.csv Pipeline objects. Includes stages, values, close dates, owners, tags. Quotes.csv Commercial quotes attached to opportunities. Includes items, totals, validity periods. Products.csv Product catalog elements. Includes SKUs, descriptions, price lists. Files/Documents.csv Attachments, documents, and uploads exported via Salesforce Data Export. Users.csv User metadata, permission models, and allocation for mapping inside Costimate. Exporting CSV Files from Salesforce Follow this extraction flow: 1. Log into Salesforce. 2. Go to Setup. 3. Search for Data Export. 4. Select Export Now. 5. Choose objects: Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Quotes, Products, Attachments, Users. 6. Ensure output format is CSV (UTF-8). 7. Run the export. 8. Download the ZIP file. 9. Extract the ZIP to access all CSV files. Do not rename columns. Costimate uses original Salesforce headers for automated mapping. Preparing CSV Files Before uploading, pass each file through basic hygiene checks: 1. Remove empty rows. 2. Ensure required columns are present (AccountId, ContactId, OpportunityId, QuoteId, etc). 3. Ensure date fields follow ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD). 4. Ensure numeric values contain no symbols or commas. 5. Validate relationships: contacts must reference valid account IDs, quotes must reference valid opportunity IDs. 6. Custom fields may be preserved. Costimate will surface them in the mapping UI. Uploading into Costimate Inside Costimate: 1. Navigate to Settings > Migrations. 2. Select Salesforce Migration. 3. Upload the CSV files into their corresponding slots: Accounts → Accounts CSV Contacts → Contacts CSV Opportunities → Opportunities CSV Quotes → Quotes CSV Products → Products CSV Documents → Files CSV Users → Users CSV 4. Costimate performs an automated schema validation. 5. Any unmapped or custom Salesforce fields will appear in the Mapping UI. 6. Map fields manually where required. 7. Confirm the mapping and start the import job. Migration Validation Costimate validates incoming data: • Checks broken references (orphan contacts, orphan quotes). • Detects malformed dates. • Flags duplicates. • Flags missing mandatory fields. The system pauses and prompts you to correct the CSV or adjust your mapping. Fix the issues and re-run the import.