Turn the sales sheet everyone edits into a pipeline everyone trusts.
Most small businesses track sales in a spreadsheet first, and it works until it does not. Two people edit the same row, follow-up dates get missed, and nobody can say what is really in the pipeline. Moving into a CRM fixes that, and Bigin is one of the simplest places to move to. This guide covers when to switch, how to prepare your data, the import order Bigin requires and what to do in the first week. It is part of our Zoho Bigin guide.
Clean the spreadsheet first, split it into companies, contacts and deals, then import into Bigin in that order using XLS, XLSX or CSV files with column headings in the first row. Use auto mapping, check each field type, and test with a few rows before importing everything.
| Task | In a spreadsheet | In Bigin |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline view | A filtered list | A board of deals by stage |
| Follow-ups | Manual date checks | Tasks and automatic reminders |
| Conversation history | In individual inboxes | Logged against the contact and deal |
| Team access | Shared file, easy to overwrite | Users with their own records and permissions |
| Reporting | Manual formulas | Built-in dashboards |
For a wider comparison of spreadsheets and a full CRM, see Zoho CRM vs spreadsheets. If your spreadsheets run operations instead of sales, replacing spreadsheets with Zoho Creator may fit better.
For a single, reasonably tidy sheet of a few hundred rows, cleaning, splitting and importing usually fits into one working day. Messy data takes longer: several sheets with different column names, free-text status fields or years of duplicates can take a few days to clean properly. The cleaning is where the time goes. The import itself takes minutes once the files are right.
Moving to a CRM is a good moment to drop data nobody will use. Keep an archived copy of the original spreadsheet, then leave out:
Remove duplicate rows and merge partial duplicates by hand.
Split full names into first and last name columns.
Use one format for phone numbers, dates and currency.
Fill or remove rows missing the minimum details you need, such as a name and a way to contact the person.
Standardize the stage column so every deal uses one of your agreed stage names.
Bigin stores data in linked modules, so one wide spreadsheet becomes several files. A typical split:
| Spreadsheet column | Bigin module | Bigin field |
|---|---|---|
| Company name, website, address | Companies | Company Name, Website, Address |
| Contact name, email, phone, job title | Contacts | First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Title |
| Deal or opportunity, value, stage, close date | Pipelines | Deal Name, Amount, Stage, Closing Date |
| Product or service sold | Products | Product Name, Unit Price |
Keep a shared reference column in each file, such as the company name in the contacts file and the contact name in the deals file, so Bigin can link the records.
Say your spreadsheet has one row per opportunity with these columns: Company, Website, Contact, Email, Phone, Deal, Value, Stage, Next Step Date. Before importing, split it like this:
| File | Columns it keeps | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| companies.csv | Company, Website | One row per company, duplicates removed |
| contacts.csv | First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Company | Company must match the name in companies.csv exactly |
| deals.csv | Deal, Value, Stage, Next Step Date, Contact Email, Company | Stage values must match your Bigin stage names |
The Next Step Date column is a common casualty. Bigin works with tasks for follow-ups, so after importing deals, create a task for each open deal with its next step date, or import tasks separately linked to each deal.
Bigin links child records to parent records that already exist, so the order matters. Import companies first, then contacts linked to those companies, then pipeline deals linked to both. If you import deals first, there are no companies or contacts for them to attach to.
Sign in as an administrator, or a user with import permission.
Bigin accepts XLS, XLSX and CSV, plus VCF for contacts.
Confirm the first row contains column headings, not data.
Use auto mapping, then review each field and fix any that mapped wrongly.
Choose the field Bigin should use to find matching records, such as email for contacts.
Import a test file of ten rows first, check the records, then import the full file.
Zoho's Bigin import guide lists the current file and row limits. If a test goes wrong, the import history in Bigin's data administration settings shows each import so you can find and fix the records it created.
Create your pipeline and its stages in Bigin before you import deals, so every imported deal lands in a real stage. Use the stage names your team already says out loud, and keep the list short. If your spreadsheet used ten different status labels, map them down to five or six stages first.
| Old spreadsheet status | Bigin stage |
|---|---|
| New, Contacted, Left voicemail | New inquiry |
| Call booked, Met | Discovery call |
| Quote sent, Waiting | Proposal sent |
| Haggling, Revising quote | Negotiation |
| Signed, Paid / Dead, No response | Won / Lost |
Yes. Bigin imports XLS, XLSX and CSV files, and VCF files for contacts. The first row should contain column headings, and each column should match the type of the Bigin field it maps to.
Import companies first, then contacts, then pipeline deals. Bigin links child records to parents that already exist, so importing in this order keeps deals connected to the right contacts and companies.
Clean duplicates in the spreadsheet first, choose a matching field such as email during import, and run a small test import before the full file.
Usually when more than one person updates the sheet, follow-ups start slipping or nobody can see the full pipeline without manual work. Those are signs the spreadsheet is costing more time than it saves.
Not if you keep an archived copy of the original file and test the import first. Data can only go missing when columns are left unmapped or contain the wrong type of value, which a ten-row test import will reveal.
A careful first import sets the tone for how much your team trusts the CRM.