Access Charity CRM to Beacon migration
A move from Access Charity CRM to Beacon needs to start with the actual CRM exports and relationships your charity uses. We help you separate the record types, understand the important links and agree a migration plan around the way staff use the information.
- Current system
- Access Charity CRM
- Migration focus
- Understand source records, linked data and your team’s requirements
- Before final import
- Agree and check a representative test migration
Understand your Access Charity CRM data
Access Charity CRM may contain charity-specific fields, coded values and connected records built around your organisation’s processes. We review the available data with your team and document what each field and relationship is used for before proposing a Beacon mapping.
Map records to how your charity works
Agree how people and organisations connect to donations, memberships, activities and other relevant history. Keep a clear distinction between this commercial CRM product and a Microsoft Access database; an Access CRM export may still need a separate technical assessment.
- Confirm which Access Charity CRM data and history can be exported
- Document lookup values, identifiers and links between records
- Test representative records and agreed relationships before final import
Partnerships people recommend.
This Beacon partner review describes the client’s experience with MakeITaplan. The previous CRM named on this page was confirmed separately and is not attributed to the review.
A seamless migration!
“Gemma (MakeItAPlan) made our move from Access CRM to Beacon CRM so much easier than we expected! She was knowledgeable, responsive, and made the transition smooth with minimal disruption. Gemma took the time to direct us as a team on how the data migration would work, so we can handle it ourselves in the future. Highly recommended!”
MakeITaplan: the antidote to CRM trauma
“Working with Gemma and Noah on our Beacon implementation was a wonderful experience. After a difficult time with our previous CRM, we were nervous, but they guided us thoroughly, led the data migration and built training into it, so we were learning from day one. They were friendly, responsive to our endless questions (sorry!), and considered the needs of our fundraising, finance and programmes teams. Our team now uses Beacon frequently and confidently. I could not recommend them more highly!”
Test, review and agree the move
We can plan sample imports and review the results with the people who understand the source information. Together, we agree which records, links and key totals to check, resolve mapping questions and confirm what is in scope before any final import.
Plan for cutover and confident Beacon users
A migration also needs clear responsibilities, a decision log and an agreed point for the final source export. We can coordinate the work with your team, plan appropriate training and handover, and discuss follow-on support for new starters or changing requirements.
Related questions, answered
Can you migrate our existing data?
Yes.
We can help extract, clean, restructure, map and import data from existing systems and spreadsheets, depending on the agreed project scope.
Migration is not simply about putting old columns into new fields. We will also consider relationships, duplicates, data quality and whether the existing structure makes sense in the new CRM.
Will all of our old data be moved into Beacon?
Not necessarily. It is useful to decide which records and history the charity needs for its work, reporting and obligations. We help document those decisions and map the agreed data; your team approves what should be retained and migrated.
How can we check whether migrated data is accurate?
Agree validation checks before the final import. Review representative records and relationships, compare relevant counts or totals with the source, record issues and repeat the checks after corrections.
Can you help clean data before migration?
Yes. We can help identify duplicates, inconsistent values, missing information and other data-quality issues, then agree which corrections are in scope and who will make them.