A practical spreadsheet-to-CRM checklist

Start with a small group of active customers

If you move every spreadsheet at once, you cannot tell whether the new process works. Start with active customers, their contacts and the deals your team works on now. Keep a copy of the original files and do not change that copy.

Choose one person to run the move and one salesperson to check the result. Agree what success means. For example, a rep can find a customer, read the deal and record the next step without opening the old workbook.

• Choose a pilot team and a cut-off date.
• Keep active sales work apart from old reference files.
• List the records that must move and the records that can stay in an archive.

Clean the fields people use every day

A CRM cannot tell that “Northstar Ltd” and “North Star” are the same customer. Agree one way to write customer names. Then check possible copies with someone who knows the accounts. Do not merge two records only because the names look alike.

Put the customer company, the contact person and the deal in separate columns. Replace colour codes with a named stage. Write every currency and every date in one clear format.

• Use one spelling for each customer, and a fixed reference where you have one.
• Put phone numbers, email addresses and notes in separate columns.
• Give each deal an owner, a stage and a next step.
• Keep each amount next to its currency. Do not add up amounts in different currencies.
• Fill in missing contact details before the import.

Write down your process before the import

Write down what each sales stage means. “Proposal” should mean an event the team can see, such as a sent quote. It should not mean how confident one person feels. Decide who owns each record and what that owner can see.

Download the import template from your Rekozo workspace. Read the Column guide and Examples sheets first. Use the lists in the template where they appear, because they match your company setup. Check which record types and custom fields the import accepts before you promise a full move.

Check the first import before you move more

Import a small sample first, such as customers and products. Add a few active deals by hand and check their owners, stages and next steps. The quote history import is for closed deals, not for open deals. Check the result as an admin and as an ordinary salesperson.

Compare the number of rows in the sheet with the number of records in Rekozo. Read the rows that did not import. Check owners, currencies, dates and links between records. Keep a list of what you fixed, so a second import does not create copies.

• Follow one customer from the company to the contact to the deal.
• Check one row that imports and one row that should fail.
• Agree how the team records changes made during the move.
• Train the pilot team on their next real task, not on every screen.
• Keep the original files until the team accepts the result.

Make daily use part of the move

Agree where each update goes. If reps still keep a private spreadsheet, the team soon has two versions of the pipeline. Give each person a short daily routine. Check the work that is due, update the deal and write the next step.

For a Rekozo demo, bring a sample workbook, not confidential customer data. Use the sample to check the customer record, the pipeline and the quote. Agree what will move, and with which import, before you move everything.