Short answer: you can export contacts and companies out of Act! in about two minutes using the export in the File menu. You cannot export notes, history or saved emails that way, because they are separate records rather than fields on a contact, and the export list does not offer them. Getting those out takes tooling that reads the database directly. Everything below explains what that involves and what it costs.
Almost every business that calls us about Act! made the decision to leave a long time ago. They are not weighing up features. They got a renewal invoice, or the Outlook link broke again, or a new manager arrived with a different system in mind. Then they went looking for how to move the data, discovered that the notes and history would not come, and stopped.
That is the whole reason so many Australian businesses are still running a contact manager that first shipped in 1987. Not loyalty. A stuck export.
SECTION 01Why the built-in export leaves your notes behind
Act! stores your business across separate tables. Contacts are one thing. The notes typed against a contact are another. The logged calls, sent emails and field changes that make up history are another again. Each one is a standalone record that points back at a contact, rather than a field sitting on the contact itself.
The export inside Act! was built to move field data. You pick contacts, companies or groups, choose which fields to include, and it writes them to Excel, a delimited text file, or another Act! database. Notes and history are not in the list of things you can pick, so they do not come. There is no toggle to turn on, and no version where this is different.
The dangerous version of this is not being told no. It is running the export, seeing 20,000 rows land in a spreadsheet, assuming the job is done, and importing that into the new CRM. Six months later a client disputes what was agreed on a call in 2014 and there is nothing to look at. By then the old database is usually gone.
This is also why so many people report being told outright that it cannot be done. From inside the product, it genuinely cannot. Extraction happens from a copy of the database rather than through the application, which is a different job requiring different tools.
SECTION 02What actually comes out, table by table
Before you accept a migration quote from anyone, ask them to tell you which of these rows they are moving. Watch how quickly the price changes.
| What you have | Built-in export | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts Names, phones, addresses, standard fields |
Comes out | File menu, two minutes |
| Companies and groups Parent records and their field data |
Comes out | File menu, exported separately |
| Custom fields The fields someone added in 2011 and never documented |
Comes out | Manual mapping into the new schema |
| Opportunities Deals, products, stages, values, close dates |
Not offered | Extraction tooling |
| Activities Calls, meetings and to-dos, scheduled and cleared |
Not offered | Extraction tooling |
| Notes Every note typed against a contact since day one |
Left behind | Extraction tooling, then remapping |
| History Logged calls, emails and changes, with author and date |
Left behind | Extraction tooling, then remapping |
| Saved emails and documents Files sitting beside the database, linked to records |
Left behind | File matching, sometimes cloud storage |
There is a second trap waiting on the other side, and it catches people who did everything else right. Some CRMs give you a single long notes field per contact. Pour twenty years of dated entries into that and you get an unsearchable block of text that nobody ever reads again. Technically the data migrated. Practically you lost it. Check that the destination can hold separate, dated, attributed records before you commit to it.
SECTION 03The saved email problem nobody warns you about
Attachments and saved emails do not live inside the Act! database. They sit in a supplemental files folder next to it, and the database holds a pointer. That design is fine until someone moves the server, copies the database files across, and leaves the folder behind. Every linked document then opens to nothing.
It also means attachments are a separate migration problem with a separate cost. A business that has been saving client correspondence into Act! for two decades will commonly have between fifty and one hundred thousand files. Each one needs matching back to the contact it belongs to, and many destination CRMs cap attachment size or total storage, which forces a decision about what goes into the CRM and what goes into structured cloud storage with a link on the record.
How many files are in the supplemental folder, and how large is it? If the answer to that question is not in your migration quote, attachments are almost certainly not in scope, whatever the proposal says about moving "all your data".
SECTION 04Why people finally leave Act!
Read enough public reviews and support threads and the same triggers repeat. It is rarely one missing feature. It is accumulation, usually two or three of these at once, until somebody decides they have had enough.
SECTION 05Where Act! users land, and how to choose
The honest shortlist for Australian trades, services and professional firms is short. We do not resell any of these, so treat the following as what we would tell a friend.
SECTION 06How a migration actually runs
The single most important thing to understand: extraction is done from a backup copy of the database. Your team keeps working in Act! the entire time. There is no month of dual entry and no freeze on the pipeline while consultants work.
SECTION 07What it costs in Australia
Self-service migration tools start in the low hundreds and handle contacts well. They are a reasonable choice if contacts are genuinely all you need. Once notes, history and attachments are in scope you are into done-for-you territory.
| Scope | Typical range (AUD) | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Database audit only | $400 to $900 | Anyone deciding whether to move at all |
| Contacts and companies | $1,000 to $3,000 | Small databases where history does not matter |
| Full migration with notes and history | $3,000 to $8,000 | Most Australian small businesses |
| Full migration plus attachments and custom tables | $8,000 to $12,000+ | 20,000+ contacts with twenty years of files |
Three things move the number: how many records exist, how many custom fields need mapping, and whether attachments and email history are included. Get the audit done first so the quote is priced against reality rather than a guess, and insist on a fixed price once the scope is known.
SECTION 08When you should stay on Act! instead
Migration is not automatically the right answer. If the database is stable, the team knows it, and the only real complaint is that it looks dated, moving costs money and buys frustration. Three situations where staying is the better call:
SECTION 09Frequently asked questions
Can you export notes and history from Act! CRM?
Yes, but not with the export built into Act!. That export handles contact, company and group field data only. Notes and history are separate records linked to each contact, and the export list does not offer them. Extracting them requires tooling that reads the database directly, and the output should preserve dates, authors and chronology so a contact record reads the same way in the new system as it did in Act!
What happens to emails and documents saved against contacts?
They sit in a supplemental files folder beside the database, not inside it. Each file has to be matched back to its contact record. Where the destination CRM caps attachment sizes, the files are better placed in structured cloud storage with the link written onto the contact so nothing is more than a click away.
How much does it cost to migrate off Act! CRM in Australia?
Most small business migrations land between $3,000 and $12,000. Contacts only sits at the bottom of the range, and twenty years of notes, saved emails, custom fields and opportunities sits at the top. Record volume, custom field count and attachment scope are the three drivers.
Is Act! CRM being discontinued?
Act! Premium Desktop is still sold and still updated, so there is no shutdown deadline to plan around. Act! Pro ended sales in June 2020 at version 22 and stopped receiving critical updates in July 2024. The practical risk with older versions is not the software stopping, it is the Outlook, Google and Microsoft 365 integrations breaking as those platforms move on without it.
We are on a very old version. Is it too late?
No. Old versions are the most common starting point. Extraction works from a copy of the database, so the age of the installation matters far less than people expect. Being several versions behind usually strengthens the case for moving rather than weakening it.
Which CRM should we move to?
Pipedrive, HubSpot or Zoho covers most Australian small businesses, with a custom build where the workflow is genuinely unusual. The deciding factor is rarely features. It is whether the destination can hold many separate dated notes and hundreds of history entries per contact and still let you search them.
How long does it take, and do we stop working?
Two to eight weeks depending on size, and no, you do not stop. Extraction runs against a backup copy, so the live database stays in use. Staff keep working in Act! right up to the freeze on cutover Friday, and the final few days of changes are loaded over the weekend.
Do we lose the old database?
You should not. Keep a full backup of the Act! database in a readable state, plus the complete extracted data as clean spreadsheets. If a question comes up in three years about what was agreed on a call in 2013, you can still go and look.
Not sure what is actually in your Act! database?
Send us the version you are running and roughly how many contacts you have. We will tell you what the audit would cover, what can realistically be extracted, and what moving would cost. Albury Wodonga based, working with businesses across Australia.