Migrate from ClickUp
Tasks come across. Everything around them does not.
Spodus recognises a ClickUp task export and maps names, statuses, priorities, dates and the list each task belongs to. Docs, time estimates, custom task types and the assignee column need decisions from you.
What this move actually is.
Four facts that decide most of the work, before any column is mapped.
- The file
- One task export, taken from the list or view you want to move. CSV or Excel; Spodus reads both. Export per list rather than for the whole Space, because the List name is what becomes the project here.
- The preset
- Spodus ships a ClickUp preset built from real ClickUp exports published in public repositories. It pre-fills the mapping and translates ClickUp's stock statuses and its numeric priority scale.
- The target
- Tasks. The List name lands in the task's Project field, which points at Client projects, so turn that object on in Settings first if your workspace does not already have it.
- The direction
- One way, once. There is no sync, so pick a date, finish the sprint or the week in ClickUp, and export on the far side of it.
Column by column.
What each ClickUp column becomes, and what the importer deliberately leaves alone.
| ClickUp column | Lands in | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Task export, into Tasks | ||
| Task Name | Title | The primary field, and what duplicates are checked on |
| Status | Status | to do, open and incomplete become Todo; review becomes In review; complete and closed become Done |
| Priority | Priority | ClickUp exports 1 to 4, not words. 1 is Urgent and 4 is Low. Check ten rows in the preview |
| Due Date Text, then Due Date | Due date | Both columns bind and the readable one wins, because the other holds epoch milliseconds |
| Start Date Text, then Start Date | Start date | Same pair, same rule |
| List Name | Project | A link, resolved by name, to a Client project |
| Assignees | Left unmapped on purpose. Recent exports wrap the list in square brackets, which would split into broken names | |
| Task Content | The description. Spodus tasks have no description field for it to land in | |
| Folder, Space, Tags, Time Estimated | No task field holds them. A task's estimate lives in the Time module and is typed there, not imported | |
Two things to check rather than trust. ClickUp statuses are set per Space and can be renamed, so the translation table only covers the stock ones and anything you renamed arrives as typed and is counted in the preview. And the priority mapping is flagged as unverified in the Spodus source, because a scale read upside down would silently import every urgent task as low with a filled-in field to show for it. Look at ten rows on the preview before you import ten thousand.
What does not come across.
A spreadsheet holds text. Everything below is either not in the export or has no field here to land in.
Descriptions and comments
Task Content is the description, and Spodus tasks have no description field, so it has nowhere to go. Comments and the activity feed do not export in a form another product can read.
Assignees, unless you tidy the column
The preset leaves this column alone because a recent ClickUp export writes the list wrapped in brackets, and splitting that produces names matching nobody. Strip the brackets in the sheet and map the column by hand, and it works fine.
Time tracked and estimates
Spodus tracks time itself, with a timer, a weekly timesheet against tasks, and an estimate, an hourly rate and a billable flag on each one. None of that is a field on the task record and there is no import for time entries, so a Time Estimated or time tracked column has nowhere to land and the hours start again here.
Docs, Whiteboards and Goals
None of these is part of a task export. Spodus has its own Goals, and nothing carries across into them; a ClickUp Doc has no counterpart here at all.
Subtasks, dependencies and checklists
Nothing in the import fills a parent relationship, so a subtask arrives as its own task. Dependencies and checklist items are dropped with their columns.
Custom fields and custom task types
A custom field is a column you can map, but only once the matching field exists in Spodus. Custom task types have no equivalent, so a task type becomes either a select field you create or something you leave behind.
How to do it.
In this order. Steps two and three are the ones people skip and then repeat.
Export one list, not the Space
The List name is what becomes the project on each task here, so exporting list by list gives you a clean grouping for free. Exporting a whole Space in one file gives you one column with everything in it and a tidy-up job in the spreadsheet.
Turn on Client projects and create the projects
The task's Project field points at Client projects. If that object is off in your workspace, turn it on in Settings. Creating the project records first is optional, because links resolve by name whenever the record arrives, but doing it first means the preview reports nothing unresolved.
Fix the assignee column in the sheet
If your export wraps assignees in square brackets, strip them. Then map the column to Assignee by hand. Spodus matches each name against your roster, and anyone who is not in your workspace yet is kept as typed and counted, which is a useful list of people you still need to invite.
Upload and check the two flagged mappings
The Map step should announce a ClickUp export. Look hard at Priority, where 1 is Urgent, and at any status you renamed in ClickUp, which will not translate. Both are visible on the preview rows before anything is written.
Import, then spot-check twenty tasks
Open the twenty most recent and confirm the dates are the ones you expect and the priorities are the right way up. If they are not, delete them, fix the mapping, and go again. Deleted records sit in Trash for thirty days.
Rebuild views and automations
Spodus has table, board, calendar and timeline views on tasks, and its own automations. Nothing about a ClickUp view or automation imports, so this is where you decide which of them you actually used.
How long it realistically takes.
Measured in the phases the work actually falls into, including the ones that are not importing.
- Exporting a list
- 2 to 5 minutes. One file per list.
- Tidying the assignee column
- 10 minutes. Only if your export brackets the list.
- Each list, upload to imported
- 10 to 15 minutes. The preset does most of the mapping.
- Checking priority and statuses
- 10 minutes. Do it once per export shape, not once per file.
- Rebuilding views and automations
- 2 to 4 hours. Once, not per list.
- Descriptions, comments, docs
- Not included. None of them has a destination here.
A handful of lists is a morning. A large ClickUp workspace is two or three days, and most of that is not the importing: it is deciding what a task description was doing that a Spodus task now has to do differently, and which of the columns you built over three years still earn their place.
True of any import into Spodus.
The same four rules apply whichever tool you are leaving.
- It is a file, not a connection
- Spodus reads .csv and .xlsx. Not .xls, which no spreadsheet parser here can open, and not JSON. There is no public API and nothing keeps two systems in step, so what you get is a copy of your data as it stood the moment you exported it.
- One file per object
- You import into an object, not into the workspace. Open Contacts and import contacts; open Deals and import deals. A vendor that keeps people, companies and deals in three exports needs three passes.
- Links are stored as names
- A deal points at an account by name, and the link resolves the moment a record with that name exists. So importing accounts before deals is a convenience rather than a rule, and a link that lands unresolved starts working when the missing record arrives.
- Nothing is written until you press Import
- The preview counts duplicates against the records already in your workspace, counts the cells it could not read, and counts the rows pointing at something that does not exist yet. All three are on screen before the write.
Do not migrate off ClickUp if:
- Your billing runs off tracked hours. Spodus tracks time and totals billable hours and amounts for the week, but nothing carries an hour onto an invoice line, no history comes across in the import, and there is no utilisation or profitability reporting. You would be re-keying the billing month.
- Task descriptions carry the work. Spodus tasks have no description field, so a workflow where the brief lives in the task body needs a different shape here, usually a client project or a document beside the task rather than inside it.
- You rely on dependencies, sprints or custom task types. None of the three has a counterpart, and nothing on a Spodus timeline blocks anything else.
- Docs and Whiteboards are load-bearing. They are not part of a task export and there is nothing here that replaces them.
There is no migration service and no engineer here who will do this for you. It is your export, your mapping and your afternoon.
Questions, answered.
Why does my due date show a long number?
Is the priority mapping reliable?
Can I bring task descriptions?
Does time tracking come across?
Coming from something else?
The same page, for the other tools people leave behind.
