Switch from folk

Outgrow folk without losing your network

Tonic Desk imports your folk contacts, companies, and deals from CSV exports. Groups become segments, LinkedIn enrichment data stays attached as custom fields, and your email history comes across as activity entries on each contact.

Most teams finish in under 15 minutes

What transfers

Contact records with name, email, phone, and job title
Company records with domain, industry, and location
Deals with value, stage, and expected close date
LinkedIn enrichment fields preserved as custom fields (headline, location, company size)
Notes imported as Activity entries on each contact
Owner assignments resolved by email address
Custom fields you have created on contacts, companies, or deals
Tags imported as Tonic Desk tags

Step by step

1. Export your folk groups as CSV

Open folk and go to Contacts. Each Group has its own export option — click the ... menu on each Group you want to bring over and choose Export as CSV. If you want to bring across every contact in one go, export the All contacts view instead, then plan to rebuild groups as segments in Tonic Desk afterwards.

2. Export your Companies

Switch to the Companies view in the left sidebar. Open the ... menu and select Export as CSV. The file includes company name, domain, industry, location, and any custom fields you have set up on the company object. LinkedIn enrichment fields (size, founding year, description) export as standard columns.

3. Export your Deals

Navigate to the Deals view. Click the ... menu and choose Export as CSV. The CSV contains deal name, value, stage, expected close date, owner, and the contacts and company each deal is linked to.

4. Export your notes

folk stores notes attached to each contact rather than in a separate timeline. To bring them across, open the Contacts export options and check Include notes before generating the CSV. Each contact's notes appear in a dedicated column that Tonic Desk reads and converts into Activity entries on import.

5. Upload to Tonic Desk and rebuild groups

In Tonic Desk, open Settings > Import. Upload Companies first, then Contacts (with the notes column included), then Deals. Once import finishes, rebuild each folk Group as a Tonic Desk segment using the same filter logic — most groups translate cleanly because they were filter-based to begin with.

Field mapping reference

Source Field	Tonic Desk Field	Notes
Full name	first_name + last_name	Split on the first space
Emails	email	Primary email extracted; others stored as custom fields
Phone	phone	Direct match
Job title	job_title	Direct match
Company	company	Auto-linked to existing company record
LinkedIn URL	linkedin_url	Preserved as a custom field with clickable link
LinkedIn headline	li_headline	Custom field, populated when enrichment was active
LinkedIn location	li_location	Custom field, populated when enrichment was active
Notes	notes	Imported as Activity entries on the contact
Deal value	amount	Numeric value preserved with currency
Owner	owner	Resolved by matching the owner's email

What doesn't transfer (and workarounds)

Groups (smart views) — folk Groups are filter-based views, not stored records. Workaround: note each Group's filter criteria before export and rebuild them as Tonic Desk segments. Most translate one-to-one because the filter model is similar.
Email history (live sync) — The live email sync connection itself does not transfer. Workaround: connect your email inbox to Tonic Desk after import. Historical emails backfill onto contacts automatically. For folk-specific email history stored before the disconnect, the notes export includes a summary.
LinkedIn enrichment connector — The live enrichment service stays with folk. Workaround: the enriched values themselves come across in the CSV as custom fields. For ongoing enrichment, connect Tonic Desk's enrichment integration of choice.
Templates — folk's email and message templates do not export. Workaround: copy each template's subject and body into Tonic Desk's template library. Usually a 10-minute job.
folk's AI fields — Auto-generated AI summaries are session-specific. Workaround: if a summary is important, copy it into a standard text field on the contact before exporting so it travels with the record.

Tips for a smooth switch

Decide whether to export per-Group or as a single All Contacts file. Per-Group exports make recreating segments easier; a single export is faster but you will rebuild segments from scratch.
Include the notes column in your contact export. It is opt-in in folk's export dialog, and forgetting it is the most common reason teams have to redo the import.
folk stores full names as a single field. Tonic Desk splits on the first space — for names with multiple parts or prefixes, you may want to spot-check a sample after import.
If you rely on LinkedIn enrichment for prospecting, configure Tonic Desk's enrichment integration before you import. That way newly imported contacts can be re-enriched in one batch rather than one at a time.
For workspaces with overlapping Groups (same contact in multiple Groups), you do not need to dedupe before export. Tonic Desk recognizes the same contact across files and merges them on import.

How do folk Groups map to Tonic Desk?

folk Groups are filter-based views — they do not store records themselves. Tonic Desk uses segments, which work the same way: a saved filter that returns matching contacts dynamically. Rebuild each Group as a segment using the same filter criteria after import. Most teams find this takes about 20 minutes for a workspace with 10 to 15 active Groups.

Will my LinkedIn enrichment data come across?

Yes. The enriched values themselves (headline, location, company size, founding year, description) export as standard CSV columns and land in Tonic Desk as custom fields. The live enrichment connector stays with folk, but the data already attached to your records travels with them.

What happens to my email history?

folk's notes export includes a summary of recorded emails on each contact, which Tonic Desk imports as Activity entries. For the full live timeline, connect your inbox to Tonic Desk after import. Historical emails backfill onto the matching contacts automatically once the sync is active.

Can I keep contacts in multiple Groups during the migration?

Yes. If you export per-Group, the same contact appears in multiple CSVs. Tonic Desk recognizes duplicate records on import and merges them into a single contact while preserving each Group association as a tag. You do not need to dedupe ahead of time.