Created with AI.
Importing looks simple and goes wrong in predictable ways. This guide shows the sequence that produces a usable result the first time.
Remove blank rows, standardize the date format, and check for names that are spelled in different ways. Cleaning up in Excel is ten times faster than cleaning up after import.
Companies in one file, contacts in another. Import handles one table at a time, and a file that mixes them always creates a mess.
What others reference comes first. Companies before contacts, products before sales opportunities. Reversing the order results in unlinked rows.
Import twenty rows and see what happens before you submit ten thousand. An error caught in twenty rows is an adjustment; in ten thousand, it’s a cleanup job.
The system suggests mappings, but the guesses are not always correct. Review each column, especially lookup fields and choice lists.
Rows that failed are placed in a separate file with the reason. There, you will usually find one systematic issue, not a hundred different ones.
Open ten imported customers and check whether relationships, addresses, and ownership were imported correctly. The number of imported rows says nothing about the quality.
Ask a question or share what helped you.
Do you have a question or experience to share?
Be the first to contribute.
