CRM Contact Import Mapping: A Worked Spreadsheet Example

A small fictional input dataset

• Row 1: Name = “Harbor Studio”; Person = “Ari Lane”; Email = “ari@example.com”; Source = “Website”.
• Row 2: Name = “Jules Chen”; Person = blank; Email = blank; Source = “Referral”.
• Row 3: Name = “Meadow Office”; Person = “Sam Reed”; Email = “sam@example.com / accounts@example.com”; Source = “Event”.

These are fictional records using example.com addresses. Row 1’s Name is an organisation, while row 2’s is a person. Mapping both directly into “Contact name” would silently lose that distinction.

Copy the mapping dictionary

• Person name: source column or reviewed combination; preserve spelling; do not infer a legal name.
• Organisation: separate company identity from the person’s name.
• Email: one validated contact method per supported field; decide how additional addresses are represented.
• Source: retain the known origin, with agreed category mapping.
• Source reference: retain the original row identifier for reconciliation.

Also record target field, transformation rule, blank handling and reviewer. Confirm the actual import format before generating a final file.

Resolve the three rows

Row 1 maps Ari to the person and Harbor Studio to the organisation. Row 2 goes into the review log: “No known contact method; confirm whether the target process accepts this record.” Do not invent an email.

Row 3 requires a decision about the second address. Do not concatenate two addresses into a field that expects one. Keep a review entry with source row, problem, owner and resolution. A rejected row must remain accounted for.

Reconcile the test before a real import

Compare source rows, accepted records, held rows and rejected records. Inspect names and relationships, not only a successful-import count. Confirm whether retries create duplicates and how you can reverse a mistaken import.

This is vendor-neutral data preparation. It does not claim Client Craft provides a specific import screen, field name or automatic transformation. Use your chosen system’s current instructions and permissions before importing real data.