How to move your client book out of spreadsheets without losing a policy
A practical plan for getting every client, contact and in-force policy into one system in an afternoon, and checking nothing fell through.
Most broker firms don't have one client list. They have one per account officer, a renewal sheet the principal keeps, and a folder of HMO schedules nobody has opened since last year. Moving to a single system is less about the software and more about agreeing, once, what a clean record looks like.
1. Pull every list into one file
Ask each officer for their sheet and combine them. Don't clean anything yet. You want one row per policy, with the client's details repeated on each row. A client with motor and fire cover is two rows. A client with no policy yet is one row with the policy columns left empty.
2. Agree the columns that matter
You only need a handful of columns to start. Everything else can be added later from the client record.
| Column | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Client name | The one thing every row must have. Rows for the same client are merged by name. |
| Line of business | Motor, fire, health, group life and so on. Drives the renewal pipeline and reports. |
| Insurer or HMO | Who the cover sits with, for placement and commission. |
| Policy number | How duplicates are spotted, and what the carrier will ask you for. |
| End date | The renewal date. Without it, the policy can’t be put in the pipeline. |
| Premium | For the book-of-business report and, later, commission. |
3. Fix the things that break imports
- Dates: pick one format and stick to it. 01/03/2026 (day first) and 2026-03-01 both work. "March 2026" does not.
- Names: "Acme Ltd" and "Acme Limited" will become two clients. Decide which you use.
- Amounts: plain numbers are safest. Commas and ₦ signs are fine; words like "TBA" are not.
- Insurer names: spell each insurer the same way on every row.
4. Import, then read the error report
In the workspace, go to Clients, then Import from spreadsheet. You'll see your column headings and our guess at which field each one holds; correct anything we got wrong. Rows that can't be read are listed with their row number and the reason, and everything else goes in. Fix those rows in your file and import just them again: policies already in are recognised by their number and skipped.
5. Assign clients to officers
Imported clients start unassigned (or assigned to whoever imported them). Give each one an account officer so renewal reminders go to the right person, and decide whether any officer should see the whole firm.
Action plan
Your import plan
- 01
Collect every sheet
One file, one row per policy, client details repeated.
- 02
Clean four things
Dates, client names, amounts and insurer names.
- 03
Import and fix errors
Use the row numbers in the report; re-import only the fixed rows.
- 04
Reconcile totals
Match policy count and premium against your old sheet, then assign officers.
