Move to HighLevel
Moving your contacts into HighLevel from another CRM
Leaving a CRM means your history has to arrive in GoHighLevel (GHL) intact: every person, every phone number, every field your team relies on, and the record of who agreed to hear from you. Rob Eason, a HighLevel Certified Admin, and his team map every column before anything is uploaded, then load a small batch and read it back first.
What we move
Your contacts, with nothing left behind
The import method comes first, because a one-time move and a feed that keeps running are different jobs.
- The method, chosen first: a one-time CSV upload, a one-time move out of your old CRM, a feed through Zapier, Make or n8n, a direct integration, typed entry, or a named mix
- A column map before any upload: a standard HighLevel field where one fits and a custom field for the rest, so no column is dropped
- Dropdown values matched to each field's options, dates in one format, and country names spelled the way HighLevel accepts them
- Phone numbers in international format, with office and mobile lines kept as separate numbers on one contact
- A rule for matching people: HighLevel merges imported rows into existing contacts by email, then phone, so shared office lines and inboxes are sorted out first, and blanks in the file never overwrite data already there
- Imported contacts tagged as imported and kept out of the opt-in tag, so an old list never lands in the nurture meant for new sign-ups
- Do-not-disturb set before any outreach on do-not-call and litigator matches, and texts only where consent came across
- A smart list for each lead source, so the imported list is worked apart from new leads
- Each contact's time zone checked against their state and area code. On lists we have checked, the time zone field often disagreed with both
How a move runs
From your old export to a list your team can call
A 1:1 with Rob
Thirty minutes on what you're leaving, which systems hold contacts today, and whether you need a one-time move or a feed that keeps running. Bring an export if you have one.
The map, approved
The plan document lists each source column and the HighLevel field it lands in, the custom fields to create, the tag each group gets and the smart lists that follow. You approve it before any record moves.
A small batch first
We import a handful of records, open each one in HighLevel and compare it with the source. Only then does the rest go in.
Phone numbers checked on the way in
A HighLevel contact holds up to 11 phone numbers. We set office and mobile lines when the contact is created: in our testing, sending only the extra number to an existing contact through the API replaced the main number instead.
Feeds tested end to end
For a feed that keeps running, we push a real record through and follow it into HighLevel. On a retirement-planning account, a plus sign in contact email addresses broke the import Zap until we fixed it. On a turf installer's account, a code step now strips the contact's name out of a phone field that arrived with both.
Changes after the move
A new source or field later on gets a verdict first: a fix inside the approved plan, or new scope.
What you bring
What a move needs from you
An export, or a seat to make one
A full export from your old CRM, or a user seat there so we can pull it ourselves, plus which fields your team really uses.
Your own connector accounts
If contacts will keep flowing in through Zapier or Make, you buy that seat and connect your own accounts to it. We build the steps; the connection stays yours to see and revoke.
Where consent came from
Which contacts agreed to texts or emails, and how. Contacts with no texting record come across for email or calls only.
A date to switch the old system off
Once HighLevel holds the list, the old CRM stops sending, so nobody hears from both.
Where it stops
A one-time import is a copy of your data on the day it runs. We don't promise a live two-way sync unless the plan includes one, and we don't text anyone whose consent didn't come across. Connector seats are yours to buy and connect. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
By business
Where this gets set up
Real estate wholesalers
Property lists brought in one deal per house, screened for Do Not Call and litigators, then sorted against your buy box by AI.
See Real estate wholesalersProperty list import, one deal per house
Your property export brought into HighLevel so every house is its own deal, run on a sample before the rest of the list is cleared.
See Property list importGuides
Read first
Import contacts: pick the method first
One-time import or live sync, the ways contacts get into HighLevel, and a CSV import done without losing columns.
Read the guideOffice and mobile numbers on import
How to bring two or more phone numbers in on one contact, and make sure the right one is primary.
Read the guideQuestions
What people ask before moving to HighLevel
Will the import create duplicate contacts?
Our old CRM has fields HighLevel doesn't. What happens to them?
Can you keep the old CRM and HighLevel in sync instead?
Can we text everyone on the imported list?
Can you move data out of HighLevel too?
Is this the same as moving our account to another HighLevel agency?
Who you talk to
Rob Eason
Rob runs HLAI Experts and takes the 1:1 calls himself.
He is a HighLevel Certified Admin with the second-most reviews in HighLevel's Certified Admin Directory worldwide, all of them 5 out of 5.
He won HighLevel's Top New Subaccounts via AI Employee award in its 2025 Summer of AI Awards and taught HighLevel's official masterclass on its AI Employee.
Before HighLevel, he co-owned a 60-employee financial services firm and sold his share.
On the call he looks at your account, not a script.
5/5 across 83 reviews in HighLevel's Certified Admin DirectoryBring your old CRM export to a call with Rob
Thirty minutes with a sample of your export on screen. Rob says which method fits and what has to be cleaned before the upload.