Before you start anything

• Do not just dive in and start cleaning up data at the first file you see.
• Make sure you have all the 'current' data that will be used for importing.
• Review ALL the files for completeness and record counts.
• If there is 5,000 donations, and 90,000 patrons, verify with the client that this is the approximate number of records they are expecting. Perhaps their export process was incomplete and there should be 50,000 donations.
• Double check that you have all the starting information that you need to move forward and all of the initial questions answered. Nothing is worse then moving forward on what you think is best, only to find out later that you assessment was incorrect and you need to start over.
• Do not go into a cleanup and preparation process and start deleting any data or columns that you do not know what they mean. Even if they contain 'junk' data. That 'junk' data may turn out later to be a key index field that could be the primary link to 'this' file, or to 'another' file.
• If they provided 'sample' data, compare the files that they sent in the sample to the 'final' set of files. Did they resent the 'sample' files too. If so, great. If not, where are they and why not?

What to look for

• When you start reviewing all the files the first thing to look for is a 'key link' or a column of data that 'links' this record to any other records. Once you find the 'key link' to each file, the record connections and how the data relates to each other will become clear.