Disclosure: Software Sausage is our product. This is a free worksheet and a proposed workflow, not a measured customer result or sponsored ranking.
CRM Trial Checklist: Test Your Workflow Before You Buy
Before comparing CRM feature lists, make each candidate complete the same small job: record an inquiry, assign it, follow up, hand it to delivery, and get the useful data back out. Keep the evidence—not just a star rating.
Download the free CRM trial scorecard. No signup. All sample people and businesses are fictional. The CSV has no macros, formulas, or automatic reminders.
Start with a small, safe trial
Download the scorecard and the linked five-client spreadsheet. These are fictional records, not prospects to contact. Use a separate test workspace with no real client data. Disable automated outreach; do not connect your production inbox, billing, or live workflows.
Use the same records, role assumptions, and tests for each candidate. Make a separate scorecard copy per tool. Record the product, plan, trial date, and tester alongside your evidence. Map fields deliberately: one generic CSV is not a universal one-click importer.
Where supported, create five contacts and five opportunities from the five sample rows, preserving their stable IDs as reference fields. If the tool needs separate company records, create and count those separately. Add a harmless note and dummy attachment to one opportunity.
Run these ten checks
Import and mapping. Five intended contacts and five opportunities exist; IDs, stages, dates and relationships are correct. Record rejected rows rather than silently dropping them.
Owner and next action. Each open opportunity has an accountable owner, a useful next step and a due date. Count incomplete records.
Due-date review. For the sample date 2026-09-19, find the two due open actions. Exclude Won and Closed. Use a date filter rather than assuming today's live dashboard matches the fixture.
Interaction history. Add a harmless note and activity. A second authorized teammate can find the context without being shown which screen to open.
Sales-to-delivery handoff. Move the fictional proposal to Won in your test copy. The delivery owner can locate the agreed scope and next task without copying notes between tools.
Visibility and permissions. With two test accounts, verify the access boundary your business actually needs. If your trial cannot exercise the intended role, mark it UNTESTED.
Duplicates and corrections. Re-import or update one test record using the documented method. Record whether it updates, duplicates, or rejects the row, then return to the five-record baseline.
Report reconciliation. Independently count open opportunities and add their values. The tool's matching report must agree on stage, currency and filters.
Export and reconstruction. Export the records plus available notes and activities. Inspect files outside the CRM and test import into a separate destination or worksheet. Identify anything that cannot be reconstructed.
Plan and operating cost. Identify the plan that supports the tested workflow, any add-ons, the billing term, and who administers it. Record written evidence; a trial feature is not proof it is included in the intended plan.
Do not average away a failure
Every row starts UNTESTED. Change it to PASS only when you complete the scenario and save evidence; use PARTIAL for a documented workaround and FAIL when the requirement is not met. A sales promise remains UNTESTED until checked.
Decide which requirements are mandatory before testing. Our worksheet defaults to mandatory checks for a team scenario; a solo operator may mark shared-role checks optional before starting. A mandatory FAIL blocks the choice; a mandatory PARTIAL or UNTESTED needs resolution or an explicit, owned exception—not an invisible average.
Example only: if the pipeline works but only the administrator can export the required history, that is not a clean PASS for a non-admin export requirement. Record the actual role, limitation, repair work and owner. We have not run this worksheet against vendor trials or published product scores.
An export button is not the same as an exit
HubSpot documents record exports as current property values and associations, with separate routes for contact activities such as notes and calls. Source: HubSpot's record-export documentation, checked 19 September 2026.
Pipedrive documents separate exports for linked activities, notes and files. Its global export also excludes files stored in Google Drive. Source: Pipedrive's export documentation, checked 19 September 2026.
Those are reasons to inspect exported artifacts, not claims that either product is unsuitable. Document automation, reports, roles, integrations and attachments separately; a CSV alone does not show that the working process can be rebuilt.
Sources and limits
Reviewed 19 September 2026. Vendor behavior and plan limits can change; verify them in your own account. The routines and decision rules are our proposed method, not a standard or a product certification.
Use the next step only if you need it
Use the same checklist for managed or self-hosted candidates. For self-hosting, also require an owner for updates, backups and a tested restore. If no candidate passes, simplify the workflow or seek implementation help; do not turn unresolved tests into a recommendation.
Download the five-client fixture and follow-up template. See a sample decision report.
Canonical article: https://softwaresausage.com/blog/crm-trial-checklist
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