CRM and mailing-list imports
Prepare contact lists for CRM and email-tool imports
Contact lists from events, forms and old systems have duplicate emails in different capitals, stray spaces, full names in one column and inconsistent dates. Clean them before the import creates duplicates.
Before
| Full name | Signed up | |
|---|---|---|
| Maria de la Cruz | Maria@Example.com | Jan 5, 2026 |
| maria de la cruz | maria@example.com | 01/05/2026 |
| Tom Price | tom@example.org | 2026-01-07 |
After
| First name | Last name | Signed up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maria | de la Cruz | Maria@Example.com | 2026-01-05 |
| Tom | Price | tom@example.org | 2026-01-07 |
Importing a messy list into a CRM or email tool is hard to undo: duplicates become separate contacts, a name in the wrong column becomes the greeting in your next campaign, and a date the importer cannot read is silently dropped. Cleaning the file first is faster than cleaning the CRM afterwards.
What GridRinse fixes
- Duplicate contacts: remove duplicates by the Email column, ignoring capital letters and surrounding spaces, keeping the first or the newest row.
- Names: split a full-name column on the first space into first and last name (extra words stay in the last name), or merge columns the other way.
- Spacing: trims leading, trailing and repeated spaces and invisible characters copied from web forms.
- Dates: one format the importer accepts, with day/month ambiguity flagged for you to decide.
- Headers: rename and reorder columns to match the import template, drop the ones you do not import.
Personal data stays on your computer
Contact lists are personal data. GridRinse processes them in your browser and never uploads them, so cleaning a list does not add another company that holds your contacts.
Do it once, then one click every month
Build the steps on this month’s file, check the preview, and save them as a workflow. Next time, load the new export and apply the workflow: the same steps, in the same order, every time. The free plan keeps workflows in your browser and lets you export them as JSON; Pro ($9/month) saves up to 50 workflows to your account so they follow you between computers, and raises the limits to 50 MB files, 500,000 rows and 20 files per batch.
Questions
- Does it validate that email addresses exist?
- No. It removes duplicates and fixes formatting; it does not contact mail servers. That keeps your list on your computer.
- Which duplicate is kept?
- You choose: the first or the last occurrence of each key. Every removed row is listed in the Removed rows tab before you download.
- Can my team use the same steps?
- Yes. Export a workflow as JSON and share it, or on Business save shared workflows for up to 5 team members.
Try it on this month’s export
The cleaner is free in your browser, no sign-up. When the steps are right, save them as a workflow; Pro keeps them in your account for $9/month, cancel any time.
Other uses: Bookkeeping and bank exports · Shopify and e-commerce exports