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Data Migration Mastery: Course Outline

A practical, step-by-step Salesforce data migration training program designed to teach consultants and admins how to execute a migration from start to finish with more confidence, accuracy, and efficiency.

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Salesforce Data Migration: Course Outline

Introduction

Welcome to the course!

This course contains modules (big ideas) and lessons (detailed tutorials within the module). 

I make the assumption that you have a baseline administrative understanding of Salesforce, and that if you are being tasked with migrating and transforming data that you also have the permissions (typically System Administrative profile) necessary to complete them.

There are many tools available for migrating data into Salesforce, but we focus on using Data Loader because there is no cost to use it and it has full migration functionality. 

The best way to ensure that you retain what you learn is by practicing. Creating a test environment ensures you have a place to try out your new skills. 

MODULE 1

Data Loader: Install, Login, Actions & Settings

Learn how to install Data Loader on a Mac or a PC. Also included are answers to common installation troubleshooting questions.

Mastering Salesforce Data Migration starts with secure access—learn how OAuth simplifies login while Password Authentication and security tokens give you full control across production and sandbox environments. You’ll also learn to troubleshoot common Data Loader login issues and switch environments smoothly. By the end, you’ll ensure secure, error-free data migrations every time.

In Salesforce Data Migration, login issues can slow everything down—so you’ll learn how to quickly troubleshoot OAuth errors, password authentication problems, and common Data Loader failures. Discover how to fix “Destination URL Not Reset” and “Fail to Send Request” errors, manage My Domain settings, and keep your environment connections clean.

In Salesforce Data Migration, mastering Data Loader actions is key—learn when to use Insert, Update, Upsert, and Delete to manage records with precision. You’ll understand how to safely handle data with soft vs hard deletes and when to use Export vs Export All for complete visibility.

In Salesforce Data Migration, mastering key Data Loader settings like batch size, Bulk API 2.0, and assignment rules helps you control speed, efficiency, and data accuracy. You’ll learn how to optimize API usage, handle large data loads, and safely manage updates with settings like “Insert Null Values” and “Start At Row.” By the end, you’ll confidently fine-tune your data loads for faster, smarter, and more reliable migrations.

In Salesforce Data Migration, deeper Data Loader settings help you handle complex data with precision—from external IDs and encoding to time zones and proxies. You’ll learn how to adapt settings for different scenarios to avoid errors and protect data integrity. By the end, you’ll confidently manage advanced configurations for smoother, more flexible migrations.

MODULE 2

Pre Data Load Salesforce Settings

Audit Fields are Created By, Created Date/Time, Last Modified By, and Last Modified Date/Time, and can only be set at insert. Learn how to assign yourself the appropriate permissions to access these fields.

What do you do when you have to mass updated records that are owned by inactive users? There’s a setting for that! Learn how to provision it. 

Learn where the Salesforce settings live that enable you to set values in encrypted fields. *This is not related to Shield, only Salesforce out-of-the-box encrypted fields.

Did you know that just because you’re a System Administrator and you can see all fields for each object in Setup, that you can’t access them in Data Loader if your profile doesn’t have the necessary Field Level Security settings? Learn how to change this and the names of the fields that come out-of-the-box hidden from admins. 

Yes, I’m going to be your worst nightmare when it comes to telling you to test your work. With that in mind, we can ease the burden of logging in as non-admin users to test visibility by disabling this “Force relogin after Login-As-User” setting.

In Salesforce Data Migration, validation rules can interrupt data imports, so you’ll learn how to bypass them safely using permission-based access. This ensures a smoother migration process while maintaining overall data quality and control.

In Salesforce Data Migration, automation like flows can trigger errors, delays, or unwanted actions—so you’ll learn how to bypass or control them effectively. By the end, you’ll manage automation with precision using custom permissions, ensuring smoother and disruption-free data loads.

MODULE 3

Salesforce Records IDs, Field Names and Labels

It’s critical to understand how Salesforce differentiates between 15 and 18 digit IDs, and what you can do to ensure you have the right IDs when you need them.

External IDs can be a significant timesaver when you want to upsert files or search for a legacy ID.

When we create our data maps in preparation of loading records into Salesforce, it’s important to understand the difference between a field’s label and API name, and when to use each one.

In Salesforce Data Migration, record types let you customize business processes, picklist values, and page layouts for different user groups. You’ll learn how to locate and map Record Type IDs in Data Loader to ensure data loads correctly with the right settings. By the end, you’ll confidently manage record types for accurate and tailored Salesforce data.

MODULE 4

Data Migration Project Kickoff

Leading a data migration project prep call is all about preparation, communication, and alignment, making sure client expectations match the signed SOW and your team knows their roles. You’ll learn to gather key info, identify stakeholders, outline timelines, and set a clear communication plan. By the end, you’ll confidently run prep calls that set up smooth, risk-aware, and well-organized migrations.

Leading a data migration kickoff call sets the project in motion by aligning stakeholders, reviewing the migration plan, and defining roles, timelines, and success criteria. It’s all about clear communication, educating the client on processes, and using tools like field-by-field mapping and a RACI chart to ensure accountability and a smooth go-live.

As ol’ Ben Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” You’ll never feel worse than if you load data into an environment that has existing data and you neglected to run (and download) a data backup. This should always be the first item in your migration plan. This lesson teaches you both what to do and what pitfalls to be aware of!

If you’re one of those people who has 647 items on your desktop… welcome to Folder Bootcamp. Learn how to name and nest your folders so you can start (and complete) every project uber organized.

Working with non-Salesforce database backups means understanding how data is structured in relational and non-relational systems, using SQL to extract and transform it, and always requesting full backups to ensure a smooth migration. Proper documentation, schema review, and accurate time estimation are key to keeping data migrations on track and within budget.

MODULE 5

Data Transformation in Excel

Learn how to format date, date/time and time fields in Excel. Also included are answers to common formatting problems.

Create .sdl (sdl – Salesforce Data Loader) maps when your Excel file’s header names don’t match the Salesforce field names they’re being mapped to. While this method saves time and prevents errors, you will learn how to create headers that you can actually refer back to and make sense of.

We start getting into Excel 101 where you’ll learn how Data Loader only accept .csv files, but csv isn’t particularly friendly to data analysis. For each csv in the data that we want to analyze and map, we create a copy in workbook format. It’s faster for sorting, filtering, and saving.

Learn how to format date, date/time and time fields in Excel. Also included are answers to common formatting problems.

Learn how to format picklist, multi-select picklist and checkbox fields in Excel. Also included are answers to common formatting problems. 

Yes, I’m going to be your worst nightmare when it comes to telling you to test your work. With that in mind, we can ease the burden of logging in as non-admin users to test visibility by disabling this “Force relogin after Login-As-User” setting.

Learn how to format phone and email fields in Excel. Also included are answers to common formatting problems.

Learn how to format text, text area, long text area, and rich text fields in Excel. Also included are answers to common formatting problems.

MODULE 6

Data Loading by Object

This lesson includes a comprehensive tutorial of data migration best practices applicable to nearly all objects, including, but not limited to, the following:

Creating legacy Id fields, handling Salesforce functionality that causes data loads to fail such as active duplicate rules, flows and validation rules. Learn the efficient way to map to record type ids and lookup field ids. And much more.

Learn how to migrate data into Accounts, Contacts and Person Accounts.

This lesson covers how to prepare, load, and validate users in Salesforce. You learn to organize user data, map profiles and roles, handle picklist values and unique usernames, manage the “Is Active” field, and use Data Loader to insert records. Key points include ensuring data accuracy, avoiding license errors, and keeping success files for validation. Following best practices ensures a smooth user setup and prevents common migration issues.

This lesson teaches how to prepare, map, and import account data into Salesforce. Key topics include data cleansing, using API names for accurate field mapping, handling record types, mapping user and parent account IDs, and configuring Data Loader settings. Emphasis is placed on formatting data correctly, verifying success files, and understanding default field behaviors to ensure a smooth and error-free account migration.

You’ll learn how to prepare and import Contacts into Salesforce, including linking them to Accounts, handling orphaned contacts, using legacy IDs, formatting date fields, and bypassing duplicate rules and validations. The lesson highlights API field names for accurate mapping, the importance of clean data, and verifying imports in Salesforce. Best practices cover placeholder accounts for unlinked contacts, ensuring required fields are filled, and reactivating automation after the load.

You’ll learn that Person Accounts are a hybrid of Account and Contact objects in Salesforce, designed for B2C scenarios. The lesson covers enabling Person Accounts, setting record types, deactivating automation/validation rules, using legacy IDs, following field naming conventions (Person prefix for standard fields, __pc suffix for custom Contact fields), loading via Data Loader, extracting Contact IDs with VLOOKUP, and verifying data in Salesforce for accuracy.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to prepare and load campaign data in Salesforce, ensure campaigns are loaded before opportunities to set the Primary Campaign Source, enable the Marketing User permission for Data Loader access, use API field names for accurate mapping, and validate your data while handling parent campaign hierarchies.

You’ll learn how to prepare and import leads into Salesforce, including B2B vs. B2C data models, using Data Loader, and setting lead ownership through assignment rules, legacy IDs, or queue IDs. The lesson covers lead conversion into accounts, contacts, opportunities, or person accounts, field mapping, and validating successful imports. Best practices include clean data preparation, proper Data Loader configuration, and verifying imported leads to ensure accuracy.

You’ll learn how to manage and import campaign members in Salesforce, including the unique Campaign Member Status picklist for each campaign. The lesson covers creating consistent status values, linking members to leads, contacts, or person accounts, and handling data migration scenarios using VLOOKUP and Data Loader.

You’ll learn how to load and manage Campaign Members in Salesforce, including Leads, Contacts, and Accounts. The focus is on preparing clean data, mapping fields in Data Loader, handling Legacy IDs, and ensuring accurate Campaign Member Status. The lesson also covers error handling, verifying loaded data, and using the “Accounts as Campaign Members” feature to track campaign participation effectively.

You’ll learn the basics of Salesforce products, price books, and price book entries, how prices can vary by book or currency, and the key steps to prepare and load them correctly.

This lesson dives into Opportunities in Salesforce, showing how to track potential sales deals, link them to accounts, and manage stages using proper sales processes and record types. You’ll learn the importance of consistent naming, validation rules, and price books, plus how to load opportunity records using Data Loader and ensure they’re accurate.

This lesson covers Opportunity Products—the line items within sales deals—and how they link to opportunities through a price book. You’ll learn the importance of matching currencies, calculating total prices, and managing data loads using external IDs. It also highlights how opportunity products affect opportunity amounts, expected revenue, and read-only fields.

This lesson covers migrating leads with converted lead information in Salesforce. You’ll learn how Salesforce links a converted lead to an account, contact, and opportunity, the required fields for migration, and the correct loading order to maintain data integrity. It also shows how to rebuild reports and dashboards using this converted data.

This lesson covers preparing and importing Cases into Salesforce. It emphasizes disabling notifications before import, handling key fields like Account ID, Owner ID, and Case Number, and managing lookup fields using Salesforce or legacy IDs. It explains date/time formatting for Created/Closed Dates, using assignment rules to auto-assign cases, and verifying success after the load.

This lesson covers Cases with Entitlements and Milestones in Salesforce, showing how to manage customer support steps and track service levels. You’ll learn how to insert and update entitlements, link them to cases, and handle milestones using Data Loader, including mapping legacy IDs and ensuring proper date formatting. It emphasizes maintaining SLA compliance and accurate support records during data migration.

This lesson teaches how to manage Case Team Roles and Members in Salesforce, defining access levels (Private, Read-Only, Read-Write) and linking members to cases. You’ll learn how to insert roles and members using Data Loader, handle legacy IDs, and ensure proper permissions for effective case management.

This lesson covers Tasks and Task Relations in Salesforce, including how to manage tasks, link them to multiple records using polymorphic fields (WhoId/WhatId), and enable shared activities. You’ll learn how to insert tasks and task relationships with Data Loader, handle legacy IDs, and troubleshoot common errors.

This lesson covers Events and Event Relations in Salesforce, teaching how to schedule and track events, relate them to records using Who ID/What ID, and manage multiple attendees with Event Relations. You’ll learn how to prepare, insert, and troubleshoot event data with Data Loader, including handling all-day and private events.

This lesson covers Recurring Events (Event Series) in Salesforce Lightning, showing how to handle recurring patterns using Recurrence2 fields and “R rules.” You’ll learn how to prepare, transform, and migrate event series data using Excel and Data Loader, identify the correct series starter event, and prevent duplicate series during migration.

This lesson explains Recurring and Repeating Tasks in Salesforce, showing how to manage tasks that repeat based on completion or a calendar schedule. You’ll learn how to identify main tasks, understand recurrence fields, and prepare recurring task data for migration with Data Loader, ensuring future tasks are recreated correctly without duplicates.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to bring emails into Salesforce and connect them to the right contacts, leads, and records. You’ll explore how to handle attachments, manage relationships, and make sure your emails show up correctly in activity histories—all while keeping your data clean and organized. It’s all about mastering the process of loading email communications efficiently and accurately.

In this lesson, you’ll get hands-on with bringing files into Salesforce and connecting them to the right records. You’ll learn how to prep your files, create mapping sheets, and use Data Loader to insert both the files themselves and the links that tie them to accounts, opportunities, or other records. It’s all about mastering file migration and ensuring your documents show up exactly where they need to in Salesforce.

WARNING! This course is designed for busy Salesforce Admins and Consultants. Since finding time to learn can feel impossible, I made sure there’s no fluff so you get fast and furious ROI.

However, this means I had to cut out my fun stories and (mildly) inappropriate jokes. To the heathens like myself, I’m sorry if you find this content to lack color and excitement. Trust me – version 1 was WAYYYY more fun.

Take the first two modules for free.

 

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