Data cleaning for CRM imports
Dynamics 365
How to clean a CSV before importing into Dynamics 365
To clean a CSV for Dynamics 365: open it in Sift, approve the suggested fixes, dedupe by email, generate a deduped accounts file (Dynamics links contacts to a parent account), pick the built-in Dynamics template in Match & check, and run the readiness check. Sift runs entirely in your browser, so the file is never uploaded.
Why Dynamics 365 imports go wrong
Most failed or messy Dynamics 365 imports come down to a handful of issues:
- Contacts before accounts, a contact's Company Name lookup fails if the account doesn't exist yet.
- Duplicate detection rules, duplicate emails in the file trip Dynamics' own duplicate rules mid-import.
- Option set mismatches, a value that isn't a valid option set entry.
- Format noise, inconsistent phones, countries, dates, casing and whitespace.
Step by step
- Load the CSV into Sift. It profiles every column in your browser.
- Clean: approve trim, casing, fix-emails, normalize-phones and standardize-countries.
- Dedupe by email, keeping the most complete record per person.
- Generate accounts: in Export, build a deduped accounts file and import it first; Sift rewrites each contact's company to the canonical account name.
- Map columns: pick the built-in Dynamics 365 · Contacts template in Match & check.
- Check readiness, export, and import accounts then contacts (Settings → Data management → Imports).
Tip: the Company Name column is a lookup that resolves against your existing accounts, so the accounts file and the contacts file must agree on each company's spelling. Sift guarantees that by rewriting both from the same canonical name.