CRM round-trip test: what does your CRM lose on export?

Answer in brief

Import the 40-record synthetic test file into a CRM trial, export it again, and compare the two files here. The results show rows lost or merged, text cut off, phones reformatted, day and month swapped, leading zeros lost and custom fields missing. The comparison runs in your browser and nothing is sent.

Content reviewed 8 November 2026. How this is assessed.

Tessaly and this reference are run by the same operator. Tessaly is not assessed on this page. Tessaly has no published client list.

How do you run the test?

You need a free trial or a test account in the CRM you are considering, and about half an hour. Do it during the trial, before you pay and before any real customer goes in. Use the test file, not real customer data. Every record in it is made up, with example.com addresses and 555-01xx phone numbers.

Create custom fields for custom_tier and custom_referral_code before you import. Bring record_id in as a field too, because that is how this page lines rows up afterwards. Import the file, then export all contacts with all fields as CSV, and do not open that export in a spreadsheet first, because spreadsheets can change ZIP codes and dates on their own. Then choose both files below.

What the 40 records in the test file cover.

Test case	Rows	What it checks
exact_duplicate	3	The same person three times
near_duplicate	3	The same person with a different email case or a different email
accented_name	4	Accented letters such as é, ø and ł
non_latin_name	4	Japanese, Cyrillic, Arabic and Korean names
long_note_5000	1	A note of exactly 5,000 characters
multi_line_note	3	Notes with line breaks and blank lines
commas_and_quotes	3	Commas and quote marks inside a value
phone_international	3	Country codes in different formats
phone_odd_format	2	Brackets, dots and extensions
zip_leading_zero	3	ZIP codes that start with zero
ambiguous_date	2	Dates such as 03/04/2025 that could be read two ways
iso_date	2	Dates written year first
custom_field	2	Values in custom fields
empty_required	3	Records with no email, no last name or no name at all
long_company	2	Company names over 150 characters

Compare your two files

Use the test file, not real customer data. Your files are read by this page in your browser. Nothing is stored and nothing is sent.

Download the test file (40 synthetic records, CSV)

1. The original test file 2. The file you exported from the CRM

Choose both files to begin.

What does a results table look like?

Illustration only. These numbers were written by hand to show the layout. They are not a result for any product, and this site publishes no product results.

Test case	Rows in file	Rows merged	Characters changed	Text truncated	Day and month swapped	Leading zero lost
exact_duplicate	3	2	0	0	0	0
accented_name	4	0	2	0	0	0
long_note_5000	1	0	0	1 (5,000 to 255 characters)	0	0
zip_leading_zero	3	0	0	0	0	3
ambiguous_date	2	0	0	0	2	0

What does each result mean for your business?

Result	What happened	What to do about it
Rows lost	A record went in and did not come out, and no matching record survived.	Find out why it was rejected. Empty required fields are the usual reason. Look for an import error report.
Rows merged	A record is gone, but another record with the same email, or the same name and company, came through.	Decide if that is what you want. Ask which record's values win when two are merged.
Characters changed	Letters were replaced or removed, such as José becoming Jose, or a value appeared in an empty field.	Save your file as UTF-8 and run it again. If it still happens, ask the provider how it handles names outside basic English letters.
Text truncated	The value was cut off. The row-by-row table gives both lengths.	Note the limit. Long notes need another home if they run past it.
Phone reformatted	The phone text changed. The detail says whether the digits are still the same.	A format change is often harmless. Changed digits are not.
Date changed	The date is different or gone, including dates one day off.	Check the time zone setting, then ask how dates are stored.
Day and month swapped	03/04/2025 meant March 4 in the file and came back as April 3.	Use ISO dates (2025-03-04) in your real import, and check the account's date setting.
Leading zero lost	A ZIP code such as 02134 came back as 2134.	Format the column as text before import. If a spreadsheet opened the file first, the zero may have gone there.
Custom field missing	A value in a custom column did not come back, or the column is gone.	Create the custom field before importing, and check that exports include custom fields.
Line breaks lost	A multi-line note came back as a single line.	Decide if the notes are still readable. Long histories suffer most.

Dates in the test file: last_contact_date is written month first, so 03/04/2025 means March 4, 2025. created_date is ISO. If every date in your export is written day first, the page reads the column that way and only reports dates that are really different.

Sources for this entry

RFC 4180: Common Format and MIME Type for CSV Files: The CSV rules the comparison follows, including quoted fields and line breaks inside quotes.

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Cite this entry

The Best CRM for Small Business. "CRM round-trip test: what does your CRM lose on export?." Content reviewed 8 November 2026. https://thebestcrmforsmallbusiness.com/crm-round-trip-test/