Checking data export before contract signature

Before signing a CRM contract, specify what data you must retrieve, who can export it, in which format and by when. Ask for a sample from the proposed edition and compare it with your required record set.

An export feature alone does not prove that all records, files and relationships needed for an exit will be usable.

Define the data you need back

List the customer, contact and opportunity records needed to continue work elsewhere. Include owners, custom fields, activities, notes, attachments and external references where your team uses them. Decide whether field definitions, choice values, audit history or configuration are also required. Have the vendor mark each item available, separately exported, limited or unavailable.

Ask how record IDs and association identifiers are preserved. Names in separate files may be insufficient to rebuild relationships. Specify a small known sample: an account, two contacts, a deal, an activity, an attachment and a custom value.

Identify each supplier's export route

HubSpot: Its record export contains current property values and associations. The export depends on the view chosen; to export all records of that object, open the All records view. Export permissions are required.

Contact activities use separate routes. An authorised user needs Export permission. Ask how the proposed account will retrieve activities, files and every other required item.

Pipedrive: Its export-by-data-type route covers item types such as deals, people, organisations, activities, notes and files, but a global administrator must use that route. Other permitted users can export visible data through available views.

Activities, notes and files are separate item types in that route; files can be exported based on the date they were added, with linked records included. Specify who will collect those files and reconcile links.

Zoho CRM: A module export differs from a complete backup. Zoho describes a complete backup as the route for module data, attachments and configuration, while module exports have format, record and daily limits.

A user with an administrative profile requests a backup. Zoho says IMAP-configured emails are unsupported in that backup. Clarify email and attachment treatment for the proposed account.

Agree the exit window

Ask whether export is available throughout the term, what assistance costs and when access ends. HubSpot's current published product-specific terms recommend retrieving customer data before the end of the subscription term. Those terms say that, for the HubSpot Smart CRM and Free Services, HubSpot will not provide access to customer data after the subscription term is terminated or expires.

That clause sits in section 1, 'HubSpot Smart CRM and Free Services'. Check the applicable signed agreement and schedule export early enough to inspect and correct it.

Record the authorised requester, scope, format, delivery route, assistance, charges and timing in the purchase record. If a usable sample cannot be supplied before signature, leave the export requirement unresolved.

Inspect the proposed sample

With approved sample data, compare rows, IDs, relationships, custom values and files with expected records. Check whether an authorised administrator can repeat the route and whether the receiving system can interpret the files. Record missing content and the vendor's written remedy before accepting the answer.