How many cutover rehearsals are truly necessary?

A minimum of two full rehearsals are critical. The second should be performed with production volumes and timing conditions. The first rehearsal identifies content errors, while the second uncovers time and sequence issues – which are the primary culprits for failed cutover windows. Organizations with numerous integrations often perform three.

How long should the source system be 'frozen'?

As little as possible, by design. Extended freeze windows generate business resistance and force workarounds outside the system. The standard approach involves a full historical load days before go-live, with only a short delta load during the actual cutover window – typically between four and twelve hours.

What is the correct way to perform reconciliation?

Reconciliation should be performed at four levels: record counts per entity, sum totals for financial and numerical fields, parent-child relationship integrity, and manual sampling of 20-50 pre-selected records, including edge cases. The first three levels are automated; the fourth catches semantic errors.

When do you make a 'No-Go' decision?

Base 'No-Go' decisions on criteria established *before* the cutover window, not on real-time gut feelings. Triggers include exceeding exception thresholds, financial reconciliation failures, missing predefined intermediate deadlines, or the unavailability of a critical decision-maker. Organizations that don't pre-define No-Go criteria almost always push forward regardless.

Is a full rollback truly possible?

Only if meticulously planned. In most cases, a full rollback is only feasible during the initial cutover window, *before* users begin creating new data. Therefore, define a clear 'point of no return' at a specific time. After this point, pivot to a 'fix-forward' strategy with a dedicated hypercare team.

Salesforce Migration Reconciliation & Cutover Plan

The Short Answer

A cutover is an operational exercise, not merely a technical step. Three factors determine its success: an hourly plan with a responsible party named for each step, reconciliation that proves data accuracy (not just arrival), and Go/No-Go criteria written when everyone is calm.

The difference between an organization that experienced a smooth transition and one that endured two weeks of chaos nearly always comes down to the number of dress rehearsals—not the quality of the tools.

Detailed planning for the entire cutover is described in Salesforce Data Migration Guide.

Cutover Window Structure: Three Waves

Wave	When	What's Loaded
Historical	3-10 days before	Closed historical data: closed opportunities, closed Cases, past history
Delta	During the window	Everything that has changed since the first wave
Post-Go-Live	24-72 hours after	Large files, non-critical data, supplementary information

This staged approach is what enables a short cutover window. An organization attempting to load everything in a single night will discover that loading time depends on volume, and volume time cannot be compressed beyond platform limitations.

Sample Timeline - 12-Hour Window

Hour	Action	Responsible
T-2	Confirm Go, check team and decision-maker availability	Project Lead
T0	Freeze source system, disable outbound integrations	IT Ops
T0+1	Extract Delta and verify counts in source	Data Lead
T0+2	Load Delta by dependency order	Migration
T0+6	Automated Reconciliation: counts, sums, relationships	QA
T0+8	Manual sampling and business process owner approval	Business
T0+9	Point of no return: Go / Rollback decision	Steering
T0+10	Activate integrations, open user permissions	IT Ops
T0+11	Smoke Tests for critical processes	QA + Business
T0+12	Go-live announcement to users, transition to hyper-care	Communications

Two principles govern the schedule: every line item has an owner, and every check has a numerical threshold. A line without an owner will not be executed; a check without a threshold will be resolved through debate.

Reconciliation: Four Undeniable Levels

Count - Number of records in source vs. target, for each entity and each date range. Catches partial loads.

Sum - Sums of financial and numerical fields. Catches incorrect conversions, silent truncations, and resets; a correct count alone won't reveal these.

Relationships - Number of children per parent, and number of orphaned records. Catches incorrect load order and broken key mapping.

Manual Sampling - 20 to 50 pre-selected records, including edge cases: a customer with special characters, an opportunity in foreign currency, a merged record. This is the only level that catches a semantic error—data successfully loaded into the wrong place.

The dependency between conversion accuracy and mapping quality is explained in Data Mapping for Migration.

Scenario: The Cutover Halted at Hour Eight

A distribution company planned a ten-hour cutover window over a weekend. The loading proceeded, counts matched precisely, and the team prepared to go live. During manual sampling, it was discovered that for six of 30 reviewed customers, open opportunities were misassigned to the wrong owner—a result of a user mapping table not updated after two departures and a role change.

Counts were correct. Sums were correct. Only the sampling caught it. The team didn't perform a Rollback: they identified that 1,400 records could be corrected with a query, executed a targeted fix within the window, and re-verified.

This decision was possible because the No-Go criterion was predefined as "an error not fixable within two hours," rather than "any error." A well-phrased criterion is what allows a tired team to make the right decision at three in the morning.

A cutover window ends with user go-live, but the risk continues. A rapid-response team is needed, with a single point of contact, a daily integration anomalies report, and quality metrics tracking against a baseline. Issues are classified by business impact, not by who yells loudest.

Ongoing quality measurement after cutover is described in Salesforce Data Quality Metrics.

Common Risks and Preventive Actions

Risk	How it Manifests	Preventive Action
Single window for all volume	Load exceeds time, cutover delayed	Split into three waves
Awakened integration	Duplicate records or conflicting updates	Controlled disconnection and systematic activation
Superficial Reconciliation	Correct counts, incorrect data	Four levels including manual sampling
No No-Go criteria	Proceeding due to momentum	Written thresholds before the window
Outdated user mapping	Incorrect record ownership	Refresh user table the day before

How to Measure Success

Area	What to Measure	Check Frequency
Conversion Accuracy	Count, sum, and relationship discrepancies	With each wave and at cutover
Schedule Adherence	Deviation from hourly plan	At each Rehearsal
Post-Cutover Stability	Integration failures and daily P1 issues	Daily for 14 days
Adoption	Logins and actions vs. Baseline	Weekly for the first month

Support for cutover planning and execution is offered as part of Integrations and Data Services.

Go/No-Go Checklist

☐ Two full Rehearsal runs with production volume
☐ Hourly schedule with an owner for each line item
☐ Agreed-upon Freeze plan with the business
☐ List of integrations to disconnect and activate, in order
☐ Reconciliation script with four levels, as automated as possible
☐ Pre-defined manual sample including edge cases
☐ User and ownership mapping table updated
☐ Written No-Go criteria with numerical thresholds
☐ Rollback point and Fix-Forward plan
☐ Hyper-care team, single point of contact, and daily report

Professional Resources

Salesforce Data 360 — https://www.salesforce.com/data/
Salesforce Data 360 Architecture — https://architect.salesforce.com/docs/architect/fundamentals/guide/data-360-architecture.html
HPI Pro – Integrations and Data — https://hpi.pro/integrations-data

Salesforce Migration Reconciliation & Cutover: Your Go-Live Game Plan