Glossary

The words people use when data moves into a CRM

71 terms, defined as they are actually used. Operelio is the layer between a spreadsheet and your CRM, so these are the ones that come up every day: what they mean, and where they bite.

Working with spreadsheet files

CSV: A plain text file where each line is a row and a delimiter separates the values. Almost every CRM imports it. It carries no formatting, formulas or second sheet, which is why an Excel workbook has to be converted before it goes in.; Convert Excel to CSV How to import a CSV into Google Sheets
XLSX: The Excel workbook format, which holds several sheets, cell formatting and formulas. A CRM import reads none of those, so what reaches the CRM is the values only.; Convert CSV to Excel
Header row: The first row of a file, naming each column. An import matches these names against CRM fields, so a missing, blank or repeated header makes the mapping ambiguous before any value is read.; Clean headers
Delimiter: The character that separates values on a line, usually a comma, sometimes a semicolon or a tab. A value containing the delimiter has to be quoted, and a file that quotes inconsistently is the usual cause of columns sliding out of line.; How to use Text to Columns in Excel
Character encodingalso UTF-8: How text is stored as bytes, which decides whether accented names and symbols survive the trip into a CRM. UTF-8 is the standard. A file saved in a different encoding shows accented names, currency symbols and dashes as unreadable characters once it is imported.
Date format: How a date is written, which decides whether the CRM reads it as the day you meant. 03/04 is the third of April in most of the world and the fourth of March in the United States. Nothing errors, so a wrong date is only noticed when someone follows up a month late.
VLOOKUP: The spreadsheet function that pulls a value out of a second table by matching on a shared column. It is how most people join two exports together, and it is the step that most often silently returns the wrong row when the key is not clean.; How to use VLOOKUP in Excel Match two files on a shared column
Transpose: Turning rows into columns and columns into rows, so a table laid out sideways can be read the normal way.; How to transpose data in Excel Transpose or unpivot a file
Unpivot: Turning a wide table into a long one, so each row holds a single record instead of twelve monthly columns. A CRM import wants one row per record, which is why a report laid out for a human usually has to be unpivoted first.; How to unpivot data in Excel Transpose or unpivot a file

Moving data into a CRM

Field mappingalso Column mapping: Deciding which column in your file fills which field in the CRM. A mapping is the whole set of those decisions for one export and one CRM object. Saving it means the next file from the same source does not have to be mapped again.; Field mapping templates Column mapping guide
CRM import: Loading records from a file into a CRM, by matching the columns in the file to the fields on a CRM object. An import fails, or quietly drops part of the data, when a required field has no column behind it or a value is in a form the CRM will not accept.; The CRM import problem What one CRM import costs
Required field: A CRM field that must hold a value before the record will save. Salesforce leads require a last name and a company. An export with no such column cannot import until the gap is filled, which is why a mapping is worth checking before the file goes in rather than after.; Salesforce field reference
API name: The internal identifier a CRM uses for a field, as opposed to the label shown in its interface. HubSpot shows "First Name" and stores it as firstname. Imports and API calls address the API name, so that is what a mapping has to target.; HubSpot field reference
Picklist: A CRM field that accepts only values from a fixed list. A value outside the list is rejected, which is a common reason a load stops partway through with most of the file already in.
Record type: Which object a row becomes in the CRM: a lead, a contact, a company or a deal. The same export maps differently depending on which one you are creating, because the fields on each object differ.
Custom fieldalso Standard field: A field added to a CRM beyond the ones it ships with, as opposed to a standard field. Its API name is fixed when someone creates it and often does not match the label, so a mapping built against the label alone can miss it.
Lifecycle stage: The CRM field recording how far along a contact is, from subscriber through lead to customer. It is a picklist, so an import carrying a stage name the CRM does not hold is rejected rather than corrected.; HubSpot field reference
CRM migration: Moving records out of one CRM and into another. The move itself is the easy half. What travels is whatever the export happened to contain, and nothing checks it on the way in.; CRM migration: a step-by-step checklist The hidden gap in migrating CRM data
OAuth: Connecting one app to another without handing over a password. You approve a named set of permissions and the app holds a token instead of a credential. You can revoke it from the CRM at any time, and nobody has to share a login.
Upsert: An import that updates a record when a match already exists and creates one when it does not. It is what stops a second import of the same list doubling the data.
Duplicate record: Two or more records that describe the same person or company. Duplicates split a history in two, so activity, owner and deal value are spread across records that each look incomplete.
Deduplicationalso Dedupe: Removing duplicate rows so each person or company appears once. Exact deduplication matches values that are identical after normalization, so Acme Inc and Acme INC are treated as the same row. Similarity matching also catches typos and small differences, which is where most real duplicates sit.; Deduplicate a file How to remove duplicates in Excel How to remove duplicates in Google Sheets How similarity matching works Remove duplicate contacts before import
Fuzzy matching: Treating two values as the same when they differ only in ways that do not change the meaning. Spacing, punctuation, capitalization and common misspellings are the usual differences.; How it finds duplicate contacts, with examples
Golden record: The version of a record a business treats as correct when several systems hold different versions of the same person or company.
Data normalization: Putting values into one consistent form so they compare, group and sort correctly. One phone format, one country name, one capitalization for job titles. Reporting is only as good as the consistency underneath it.; How to remove spaces in Excel How to format phone numbers in Excel
Data validation: Checking a value against a rule before it moves, such as whether an email is well formed or a required field is filled. Validation reports the problem. It does not decide what to do about it, which is a separate choice.; How to measure and improve CRM data quality
Data cleaningalso Data cleansing: Fixing the data you have: duplicates, formats, typos and bad email addresses. Enrichment is a different job: it adds data you do not have, such as job titles or company size, from outside providers.; What cleaning data means Best CRM data cleaning tools
Data hygiene: The ongoing work of keeping records accurate, current and free of duplicates, rather than a single cleanup.; What cleaning data means CRM data cleanup and hygiene: a checklist and best practices How to measure and improve CRM data quality
Lead routing: Deciding which person or team each new lead goes to, in the CRM or, with a trail, before it reaches it.; What is lead routing?Routing leads before the push with a trail
Data automation: Running repeated data jobs, such as moving, cleaning and checking records, without someone doing each step by hand.; Automate lead lists into your CRM
Data enrichment: Adding fields to a record from an outside source, such as company size, industry or headcount.
RevOpsalso Revenue operations: Revenue operations: the people and systems that get leads from marketing to sales to the CRM, cleaned, routed and counted the same way.; Use cases
Webhook: A request one app sends another the moment something happens, so the second app hears about it without asking. Operelio takes leads in through a folder's webhook. On Pro (3 endpoints) and Agency (10) it also sends signed webhooks out when a lead is held or pushed, a run finishes or a trail pauses.; Webhooks

Checking contact data

Email verification: Checking whether an address can actually receive mail, before you send to it or load it into a CRM.; Free email checker Clean an email list before sending
MX record: The DNS record naming the mail server for a domain. A domain with no MX record cannot receive mail at all, so every address on it is undeliverable whatever the mailbox name.; Free email checker
Catch-all domain: A domain that accepts mail to any address, whether or not that mailbox exists. A server check cannot confirm one specific address on a catch-all domain, so the honest verdict is uncertain rather than valid.
Role-based address: An address belonging to a function rather than a named person, such as info@ or sales@. It usually reaches a shared inbox, so it is deliverable but a poor target for anything personal.; Free email checker
Disposable address: A temporary address from a throwaway provider, normally created to get past a signup form.; Free email checker
Hard bounce: A permanent delivery failure, usually because the address does not exist. Repeated hard bounces damage the sending domain's reputation, which is what makes verifying a list before sending worth the step.; Verify a list before sending Clean an email list before sending
Soft bounce: A temporary delivery failure, such as a full mailbox or a server refusing mail for a while.
Data decayalso B2B data decay, Contact data decay: Data decay is contact data going out of date as people change jobs and companies change their details: job changes alone put just under a fifth of B2B contacts out of date each year. The estimate starts from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics: 20.6% of US wage and salary workers had been with their employer a year or less in January 2026. Leaving out people new to work gives just under a fifth.; B2B data decay
Suppression listalso Do Not Contact list, DNC list: A suppression list is a list of people you must never contact, such as those who unsubscribed, addresses that hard bounced and people who marked your email as spam. Screening a file against it before the import keeps those records out of the CRM, rather than relying on everyone downstream remembering.; Do Not Contact lists
GDPR: The European regulation governing how personal data is collected, stored and used. For a contact list it is mainly about having a reason to hold the data, keeping it accurate, and being able to remove someone on request.; Data Processing Agreement

Operelio terms

Trail: A trail watches a folder, and every file or lead that arrives there is cleaned and checked automatically, then pushed to your CRM or held for your approval.; Trails What a trail is
Run: One pass of a trail over one file, from picking the file up to pushing it or holding it for approval. A scheduled check that finds no new files is also a run, so the history shows that the trail looked as well as what it moved.; A trail's runs
Dry run: Running a trail over a real file to see what the cleaning steps do, without pushing anything. A dry run is free. A test run goes further and does everything except the push.; Test a trail
Sandbox: The tab on a trail's canvas where you try it on a real file before it goes live. Both a dry run and a test run happen here, so a trail can be proved against your own data without touching the CRM.; Test a trail
Job: One unit of work: one tool, or a whole workflow, run on one file. Jobs are what a plan's monthly allowance is counted in.
Watched folder: A place in Files where files arrive, which a trail can be pointed at. You can add a file yourself, send one from your library, email one to the folder's own address, or upload one through the API. Emailed PDF and Word tables are read as rows too. Single leads arrive from a website form, Typeform, the folder's webhook or an email with no file.; Watched folders
Single lead: One lead sent to a folder on its own, from a website form, Typeform, the folder's webhook or an email with no file, and run through the trail by itself. Each paid plan includes a number of single leads a month. Past that, each 10 single leads, or part of 10, uses one job.; Trails
Held lead: A single lead a trail stopped before the push, with the reason it stopped. A lead is held, for example, for review when its score says so, or when a field is missing, the owner can't be found or the CRM refuses it. Held leads show under Needs you on Home.; Trails
Routing rule: One line of a trail's routing: a test on a column, the score, the CRM check, the source, the location or a free email, and who gets the leads that match. Rules run in order and the first match wins. A lead no rule matches goes to Otherwise. A rule can send leads to one person, a team in turn, the company's owner in the CRM, the person a column names, review or no owner, or drop them.; Trails
Bridgeant: The agent inside Operelio: it builds lead trails from one sentence, changes them when you ask, cleans lists and checks every trail each morning. The AI comes with Starter and up. On Free it works as the advisor, without the AI: it checks a file and says which tools to run.; Bridgeant
CRM Formatter: Maps your columns to CRM fields, cleans every row, and exports a file or pushes people, companies and deals. Each error names the row, the column and the reason it failed, so the fix is a specific one rather than a re-upload.; CRM Formatter
Data Health Check: A quality score on a file, with every issue listed and fixes you can pick and apply together.; Data Health Check
Company Active Check: Checks whether a company is still reachable, using DNS, mail and reachability, and puts an active score on every row.; Company Active Check
Workflow Builder: Chains up to 8 tools into one pipeline, so one upload produces one finished file. Each step feeds the next instead of being downloaded and re-uploaded between tools.; Workflow Builder
Batch processing: Runs the same tool against up to 50 files in one operation.; Batch processing
Template: A ready-made field mapping from one named export to one CRM object, with 168 built in.; Template library
Saved mapping: A column mapping you keep and load again, for a source you will see more than once. Worth saving for a weekly or monthly export, where the columns are the same every time.; Saved mappings
Workspace: The account that files, jobs and trails belong to. Data is separated by workspace, and on the Agency plan each client workspace is separated from every other.
Verify credit: What a deep email verification spends, one credit per address checked. Starter includes 1,000 a month, Pro 4,000 shared across the workspace, and Agency 12,000 shared.; Verify a list before sending Pricing
AI RevOps agent: An AI that does RevOps work itself: Operelio's agent, Bridgeant, builds the trails that clean, check, score and route leads into your CRM. It runs nothing without your yes, and a change to a trail it built goes live only after a test passes.; Bridgeant
AI operator: Bridgeant's AI mode, which plans and builds trails, cleans lists and runs steps for you once you confirm. It comes with Starter and up, and each answer uses one of your plan's Bridgeant messages.; Bridgeant
Advisor modealso Advisor: Bridgeant without the AI: it checks a file, says which tools to run and in what order, and answers questions, while you run the tools. It is how Bridgeant works on Free, and checking a file uses no jobs.; Bridgeant
Morning check: Bridgeant's daily look over every trail for stops, CRM connections about to lapse, leads left waiting and a bounce rate that rose two weeks running, with a note on the fix. It runs on Starter and up and uses none of your Bridgeant messages.; Bridgeant
Deals for new leads: A trail setting that makes a deal for new leads with the scores you pick, or for each row of a list, in the pipeline and early stage you pick. Someone with an open deal in that pipeline doesn't get a second one.; Trails
Do Not Contact check: Screening a file or lead against your Do Not Contact list by email, phone, website domain or company, before anything reaches the CRM. It runs on your data with no third-party calls and no credits, from Starter and up, in the CRM Formatter, a trail, through the API or from your AI assistant.; Do Not Contact lists
API key: The secret your own code sends with each request to Operelio's API, so the call acts in your workspace. API keys come with Pro and Agency. Reads don't count toward the month's calls; uploads and runs do.; Developers
Read-only API key: An API key that can read your trails, runs, leads and jobs but is refused every write, so a dashboard or script can't change anything. Whether a key is read-only is chosen when it is made and never changes.; Developers
MCPalso Model Context Protocol, MCP server: Model Context Protocol: the standard way an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT uses another app, here Operelio's MCP server. Sign in once and your assistant can run tools, upload files, read trails, runs and leads, check Do Not Contact, pause or resume a trail, push to your CRM and ask Bridgeant. It works on every plan within its limits, and anything that changes something asks you first.; Integrations Developers

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