How to Migrate from Spreadsheets to Scout

Why migration matters

Every acquisition team starts with spreadsheets. They work until they don't — which usually happens when your owner list crosses 500 records, you have multiple people making calls, or you realize you've been tracking the same owner in three different tabs.

The migration from spreadsheets to a CRM isn't just about moving data. It's about establishing a single source of truth for your acquisition workflow. After migration, every owner, every deal, every call note lives in one place where your entire team can see it.

Prepare your data before import

Don't clean your spreadsheets to perfection before importing. Scout handles messy data better than you'd expect. But do these three things:

First, consolidate your sheets. If you have owner data in one file, deal tracking in another, and call notes in a third, keep them separate — Scout imports them as different data types and links them automatically. Just make sure each file has a consistent identifier (owner name or property description) that Scout can match on.

Second, check your column headers. Scout's mapper works best when your headers are descriptive: 'Owner Name' not 'Col_A', 'County' not 'Loc'. Rename anything ambiguous.

Third, remove any summary rows, pivot tables, or formulas. Scout imports raw data rows. If your spreadsheet has a SUM row at the bottom or merged cells at the top, delete them before upload.

The import process

Upload your file (CSV or Excel). Scout reads the headers and presents a column mapping interface. On the left, your column names. On the right, Scout's fields. Drag to match, or use the auto-suggest — Scout recognizes common header names like 'NMA', 'County', 'Operator', and 'Phone'.

After mapping, Scout shows a preview of the first 10 rows as they'll appear in the system. This is your chance to catch errors: wrong columns mapped, data in unexpected formats, missing fields. Fix any issues in the mapper, not in your spreadsheet.

Click import. Scout processes the file in the background — you can keep working while it runs. For a typical 2,000-row owner file, import takes under a minute.

Importing deals and call logs

After your owners are in, import your deal data. Scout maps deals to existing owners by matching on owner name and property description. Deals that match get linked automatically. Deals that don't match get flagged for manual review — usually because of a spelling difference or a missing middle initial.

Call logs import the same way. Each row needs at minimum: owner name, date, and a note. Scout links calls to owners and deals, building a complete contact history that your team can reference before picking up the phone.

After migration

The first week after migration is about trust. Your team needs to trust that everything is in Scout before they stop checking the old spreadsheets. Do a spot check: pick 10 random owners from your old spreadsheet and verify their data in Scout. Check that deals are in the right pipeline stage. Confirm call notes transferred.

Once you've verified, delete the bookmark to the old spreadsheet. Not archive — delete. If there's an easy path back to the old way, people will take it. The whole point of migration is that the spreadsheet no longer exists as a system of record.