Short answer
On Friday, decide which fields you really need and agree on your pipeline stages. On Saturday morning, clean the spreadsheet: one row per record, no duplicates, one value per cell, consistent dates and country names. On Saturday afternoon, save it as UTF-8 CSV and import companies first, then contacts, then open deals. On Sunday, add next steps to open deals and invite the team. On Monday, make the old spreadsheet read-only.
Friday: decide what goes in
- List the fields you use. Company name, website, country; contact name, email, phone, role; for deals: title, value, stage, next step and its date. Leave out columns nobody has filled in for months.
- Agree on stages. Map the words you use today (“waiting”, “sent”, “maybe”) to a few clear stages – see a simple sales pipeline.
- Decide what not to import. Old leads with no contact in years, and personal data you no longer have a reason to keep. Under the GDPR you should only keep personal data you need for a clear purpose.
Saturday morning: clean the data
- One row per record. Companies in one sheet, contacts in another, deals in a third, linked by the company name or an ID.
- Remove duplicates. Sort by email address and by company name; merge the duplicates you find.
- One value per cell. Split “Anna Smith, anna@…, +44…” into separate columns. Split full names into first and last name if you will address people by first name.
- Consistent formats. Dates as YYYY-MM-DD, countries spelled one way, phone numbers with the country code (+44, +49 …), amounts as plain numbers without currency signs.
- Stages from your list. Replace the old words with the stage names you agreed on Friday.
Saturday afternoon: import
- Save as CSV, UTF-8. In Excel: File → Save As → “CSV UTF-8”. UTF-8 keeps accents and special characters intact.
- Keep a header row with clear column names; most CRMs let you match each column to a field.
- Import in order: companies, then contacts (linked to companies), then open deals.
- Test with ten rows first. Check that names, accents, dates and links look right, then import the rest.
Sunday: make it usable
- Give every open deal a next step with a date. This is the step that turns a list into a working pipeline.
- Add the website enquiry form, so new leads arrive in the CRM instead of the inbox.
- Invite the team and show them three things: where new enquiries appear, how to move a deal, and where today’s tasks are.
Monday: switch over
Make the old spreadsheet read-only and keep it as an archive. From now on, new information goes into the CRM only – two places to update means neither stays right.
How GETCORVIDS helps
GETCORVIDS imports companies, leads and your product catalogue from CSV and exports them whenever you like, with custom fields and tags for anything specific to your business. With the setup, we import your data for you – up to 500 records with one module, 2,000 with a bundle and 5,000 with Complete – and send a written summary of what moved where.
Questions
How long does it take to move from a spreadsheet to a CRM?
For a small business with a few hundred records, a weekend is realistic: a few hours to decide and clean, an hour to import and check, and a few hours to set up next steps and the team.
What is the best file format for importing into a CRM?
CSV saved with UTF-8 encoding and a header row. It keeps accents intact and almost every CRM can read it.
Should I import every old contact?
No. Import the people you are working with or have a clear reason to contact. Leaving out old personal data you no longer need also keeps you on the right side of the GDPR.
Thomas Krajecz builds GETCORVIDS at Digital Supportly. Questions about this guide? Write to hello@getcorvids.com – a person replies within one business day. Follow Thomas on LinkedIn.