Journal
Preparing the CRM export before we start
We do not need your whole CRM. We need a table of outcomes in the window, with a time, a value if you use value, a campaign or source field as it stood at the time (not as it was later overwritten), and an identifier that can be joined to media exports without exposing anything we should not see.
Overwritten source fields are the usual wound. A well-meaning colleague ‘tidies’ the source to the last email before export. The attribution review then becomes a study of tidying. Ask whoever pulls the file whether the field is original. If they do not know, we will spend the first week finding out.
Staff orders, test checkouts, and agency placement purchases should be flagged. If they cannot be flagged, tell us the approximate contamination. A footnote is cheaper than a wrong map.
Membership organisations often have a start date that is not the payment date. Pick one and write it on the brief. Campaign reporting that mixes both will argue with itself in the readout.
Send a sample of twenty rows with column headers before the full extract. We will tell you if the join is plausible. That sample has saved more calendars than any kick-off workshop.