Salesforce to Airtable migration: CRM + production tracking playbook
A practical Salesforce to Airtable migration plan for CRM and production tracking: object audit, table mapping, status logs, dashboards, and permissions.
ViaCSV: a free AI CSV importer, and when you still need help
ViaCSV is a free, AI-assisted CSV importer for apps like Pipedrive and Attio. Here's what it fixes, what it can't, and what to sort out before you import.
What ViaCSV is
ViaCSV is a free, AI-assisted CSV importer from the team behind Import2. It sits in front of a business app’s built-in importer and takes over the parts that usually go wrong: matching columns to fields, catching bad data before it gets written, and coping with messy formats. It works with apps like Pipedrive, Attio, monday.com and Trello, and there’s no importer fee (as of October 2026, check viacsv.com for current pricing).
Why built-in CSV import breaks
Native importers work when the file is already clean and laid out the way the app expects. Real exports rarely are. The usual problems:
- column names that don’t match the app’s fields, so you guess at the mapping
- required fields that are blank on some rows, which fail the import halfway through
- duplicates the importer happily creates a second time
- dates, phone numbers and picklist values in a format the app rejects
Most people end up fixing the spreadsheet by hand, importing, finding the errors, and trying again.
What ViaCSV does differently
- AI field mapping. Upload the CSV and it proposes a mapping in seconds, so you review it instead of building it.
- Pre-import checks. Missing required fields, duplicates and format problems show up before anything is written to your app.
- Messy-format handling. It’s built for real-world exports, not just files that already match a template.
- Revert. If an import goes wrong you can roll it back instead of cleaning up records one by one.
What an importer can’t fix
A good import tool handles the mechanics of getting one file in. A CRM migration still goes sideways for reasons no importer can see:
- messy CRM history (duplicates, inconsistent fields, missing owners). In one Salesforce-to-Airtable migration we ran, deduplicating 20,000 contacts was the biggest risk in the project
- unclear relationships between objects (companies, contacts, deals, custom objects)
- stages, pipelines and picklists that don’t exist yet in the new CRM
- no agreement on what “done” looks like in the new system
Questions to answer before you import
Answer these first and you’ll avoid most rework:
- Which CRM are you migrating from and to?
- Which objects need to move (companies, contacts, deals, tasks, notes, activities, custom objects)?
- Roughly how many records per object?
- Do you need historical activity (emails, calls, notes), or just the current pipeline?
- Are users, pipelines and custom fields already set up in the destination CRM?
- What does “success” look like (reports, dashboards, stage definitions)?
- Any compliance or privacy rules around the data (PII retention)?
- Who on your side will check the imported data?
Common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)
- Pitfall: importing deals before companies/contacts
- Pitfall: unclear ownership mapping
- Pitfall: picklists and stages not created in the destination system
- Pitfall: “we’ll clean the data later”
Fix: set a strict import order and validate associations.
Fix: ensure destination users exist before import; define owner rules.
Fix: pre-create required fields/pipelines before running the import.
Fix: bake data cleanup into scope or explicitly exclude it.
When the import is part of a bigger move
If your import is one piece of a larger CRM change, Connex can help with:
- deeper data cleanup and transformation
- repeatable onboarding automations
- system integrations (CRM ↔ finance ↔ support ↔ marketing)
- ongoing data movement and governance
If that sounds like your project, we can scope it together.
Get help with your CRM migration
ViaCSV handles the file. The rest of the move is where projects stall: cleaning the data, getting the import order right, setting up fields and pipelines, and building the automations that keep the new CRM current. Book a free discovery call and we’ll scope your migration with you.
Related Posts
Fix Smokeball→Outlook contact dedup and updates
Fix Smokeball Outlook contact sync deduplication with fallback matching (email, then name, then phone) so updates hit existing contacts instead of duplicates.
Airtable + Fillout → Supabase + Next.js migration playbook
Airtable + Fillout to Supabase + Next.js migration playbook: map schema and record IDs to UUIDs, rebuild form logic, retire Zaps, and cut over safely.
