From Excel to CRM, a 7-step migration guide for trade teams

Why Excel + WhatsApp can\'t scale

Over 80% of trade SMBs still run on Excel files, WhatsApp groups, and a handful of side tools (email + Drive + sometimes accounting software). This setup works for 1-2 years in a small team, then hits a wall.

Typical symptoms:

• Customer relationships live in a person, not the company. When the key person leaves, you spend 3 weeks asking customers "where were we?"
• Payment terms and collection are scattered. Which order is paid, which is overdue, month-end pivot table chase.
• Leads slip. A "can you send me a quote?" WhatsApp message becomes "we don\'t need it anymore" two weeks later.
• No sanctions screening. You find out when the bank rejects.
• Panic before declarations. VAT refund prep = 4-6 hours of manual data collection at month-end, high formula-error risk.
• Onboarding is hell. New hires spend 2-4 weeks figuring out "which file holds what".

A 7-step migration plan

1. Map the data (1-2 days)

List every column across your Excel files. Map them to standard headers: customer (name, email, phone, country, terms), lead (source, stage, owner), order (customer, date, lines, Incoterm, terms, status), shipment (order, mode, document slots). This step clarifies what actually moves.

2. Clean the data (1-2 days)

Empty rows, duplicate customers, malformed emails, missing payment terms. Expect 20-30% of the data to be drop-worthy, that\'s normal. Starting clean returns hours later when you don\'t have to chase wrong reports.

3. Create the Sighthem workspace (30 minutes)

Sign up at crm.sighthem.com → create the workspace → invite team members. A 14-day PRO trial starts with no card needed.

4. Import customers and leads via CSV (1 day)

Save the cleaned Excel as CSV and upload via Sighthem\'s import screen. Start with a small 10-50 row batch to verify mapping, then upload the rest. Onboarding support for this step is available when needed.

5. Manually move open orders and shipments (3-5 days)

Open (not closed) orders and shipments are recreated manually in Sighthem. For closed history you can use CSV, but most teams prefer to keep closed history in an Excel archive.

6. Run in parallel (1-2 weeks)

New leads open in Sighthem; ongoing work closes in Excel. The team learns the new flow during this window. A weekly 30-minute review meeting is enough to align, "what goes where" becomes a shared standard.

7. Archive Excel (1 day)

Move Excel files into an "archive" folder, drop them from shared drives. Accessible if needed, but daily work is now in Sighthem.

What to move, what to leave

Move:

• Active customer list + contacts + payment-term preferences
• Open leads + owner + last-touch date
• Open orders + line items + payment status
• Open shipments + document references
• Open L/Cs + lifecycle stage

Leave in Excel:

• Closed deals from 3+ years ago (archive)
• Complex financial models (cash flow, hedge scenarios)
• Ad-hoc analysis sheets (Sighthem exports every table to CSV/Excel anyway)

What changes in the first 30 days

• Lead follow-up tightens. Pending messages stop slipping, the system reminds.
• Customer handoff gets easy. Last touch + open task + payment status visible at a glance.
• Month-end reporting drops from 4 hours to 15 minutes. The VAT refund page auto-aggregates.
• Sanctions risk caught early. Adding a customer triggers OFAC + EU + UN screening.
• Pipeline becomes visible. "What are we expecting this quarter?", 2 minutes to answer.

Common pitfalls

• Trying to move all history. Don\'t migrate 5 years of closed deals; archive them, only move open work.
• Skipping data cleanup. Start dirty, end up with dirty reports, team loses trust in the system.
• Leaving the team out. Run a 1-hour shared demo at the start so everyone begins on the same page.
• Skipping the parallel period. "Excel closes tomorrow" creates panic; 1-2 weeks in parallel is the saver.

Frequently Asked Questions