CRM hygiene weekly routine: what to check every Friday

A CRM is like a kitchen. Leave it untended for a few weeks and you'll find stale data, duplicates piling up, and nobody wants to use it anymore.

But CRM hygiene doesn't have to be a multi-hour weekly chore. Here's the 30-minute routine I recommend to every client, broken down into specific checks you can do every Friday before the weekend.

Why Friday?

Two reasons: First, it's when most sales activity winds down, giving you a natural break to review the week. Second, fixing issues on Friday means your team starts Monday with clean data instead of working around problems all week.

Set a recurring calendar block: "CRM Hygiene Check" every Friday, 30 minutes.

Week 1: Pipeline hygiene (first Friday of month)

Time: 30 minutes

Check 1: Stale deals (10 minutes)

Pull up all open deals with no activity in the last 14 days.

In Pipedrive:

• Filter: Status = Open
• Sort by: Last Activity Date
• Review deals with no activity for 14+ days

In Attio:

• Create view: Open deals
• Filter: Last activity > 14 days ago
• Review each deal

For each stale deal, ask:

• Is this still a real opportunity?
• Should it be closed lost?
• Does the rep need to follow up?
• Should it be pushed to a future quarter?

Action: Either update the deal, create a follow-up task, or close it out.

Check 2: Deals without next steps (10 minutes)

Find deals that are open but have no upcoming tasks or activities scheduled.

Check for:

• Deals in active stages with no tasks
• Deals that moved stages but nobody scheduled next action
• Deals sitting in "Proposal Sent" or "Negotiation" with no follow-up

Action: Create next-step tasks or reach out to deal owner to clarify status.

Check 3: Stage-specific sanity checks (10 minutes)

Review deals in critical stages for common issues:

"Proposal Sent" deals:

• Has it been > 7 days since proposal sent?
• Is follow-up task scheduled?
• Is proposal still relevant or should it be closed?

"Negotiation" deals:

• Are we waiting on customer or on us?
• Is there a clear path to close?
• Should we loop in management?

"Closed Won" deals:

• Has onboarding been initiated?
• Has handoff to customer success happened?
• Should this be archived from active pipeline view?

Week 2: Contact data quality (second Friday)

Time: 30 minutes

Check 1: Duplicate contacts (15 minutes)

Run your CRM's duplicate detection report.

In Pipedrive:

• Go to Contacts
• Click "Duplicates" tab
• Review suggested duplicates

In Attio:

• Run duplicate detection
• Review suggested merges

For each duplicate pair:

• Verify they're actually the same person/company
• Merge if confirmed duplicate
• Mark as "Not duplicate" if they're distinct

Pro tip: Focus on duplicates with recent activity. Historical duplicates with no recent activity are lower priority.

Check 2: Incomplete contact data (10 minutes)

Find contacts that are missing critical information.

Check for missing:

• Email addresses (can't email them)
• Company association (can't segment)
• Job title (can't personalize)
• Phone number (if you do outbound calling)

Filter for:

• Contacts added in last 30 days with missing fields
• Active contacts (recently contacted) with gaps

Action: Either enrich the data, assign research task to rep, or delete if the contact is no longer relevant.

Check 3: Bounced emails (5 minutes)

Review contacts marked as bounced or unsubscribed.

Update:

• Mark bounced emails in CRM
• Remove from active sequences
• Flag contact for alternate outreach method

If multiple bounces from one company: Might indicate company email system changes or company no longer exists.

Week 3: Activity tracking (third Friday)

Time: 30 minutes

Check 1: Missing activity logs (10 minutes)

Find reps who aren't logging activities consistently.

Check for:

• Reps with open deals but no logged activities this week
• Days with zero logged emails, calls, or meetings
• Deals that moved stages without activity logged

Red flags:

• Rep moved 5 deals forward this week but logged zero activities
• Rep had meetings (you saw them on calendar) but didn't log in CRM

Action: Remind rep to log activities. If pattern continues, investigate if there's a workflow issue or training gap.

Check 2: Automated activity validation (10 minutes)

If you have email/calendar sync, verify it's working correctly.

Check:

• Are sent emails appearing in CRM?
• Are meetings syncing properly?
• Are activities linking to correct contacts/deals?

Common issues:

• Email sync stopped working (needs re-authentication)
• Activities logging to wrong records
• Duplicate activities appearing

Action: Fix sync issues immediately. Poor activity tracking makes pipeline data useless.

Check 3: Task completion rates (10 minutes)

Review overdue and completed tasks.

Check:

• How many tasks were created this week?
• How many were completed?
• How many are overdue?
• Who has the most overdue tasks?

Healthy ratios:

• 70%+ of tasks completed within due date
• < 10 overdue tasks per rep
• Task creation roughly matches task completion

If ratios are off:

• Too many overdue tasks → Reps are over-committed or tasks aren't relevant
• Too few tasks → Team isn't planning next steps
• Tasks created but never completed → Tasks aren't actionable

Week 4: Data integrity (fourth Friday)

Time: 30 minutes

Check 1: Custom field usage (10 minutes)

Review your custom fields to see if they're being used.

Check each custom field:

• What % of records have it filled in?
• Is it being used for filtering or reporting?
• Is the data quality good?

Action items:

• Fields with < 20% usage → Consider deleting or making optional
• Fields with inconsistent values → Add dropdown options or validation
• Fields no longer needed → Archive or delete

Check 2: Required field compliance (10 minutes)

If you have required fields, verify they're not being worked around.

Common workarounds:

• Entering "N/A" or "Unknown" to skip field
• Using placeholder values just to save record
• Leaving fields technically filled but with useless data

Fix:

• Make fields truly optional if they're not critical
• Improve field descriptions so team knows what to enter
• Add validation to prevent placeholder values

Check 3: Pipeline metrics accuracy (10 minutes)

Spot-check your pipeline reporting for sanity.

Questions to ask:

• Does total pipeline value make sense?
• Are win rates by stage reasonable?
• Is average deal size consistent with reality?
• Are velocity metrics trending as expected?

Red flags:

• Sudden spike or drop that doesn't match business reality
• Metrics that contradict what sales team is reporting
• Deal values that look incorrect ($1,000,000 deal you don't remember)

Action: Investigate anomalies. Often reveals data entry errors or automation issues.

Monthly deep clean (last Friday of month)

Time: 60 minutes

Once a month, expand your Friday routine with deeper checks.

Monthly check 1: Lost deal reasons (15 minutes)

Pull all deals lost this month and review loss reasons.

Analyze:

• What are the top 3-5 loss reasons?
• Are reasons specific enough to be actionable?
• Do loss reasons match what sales team is saying?

Share findings:

• If 40% lost to "price" → pricing or value communication problem
• If 30% lost to "no budget" → qualification issue
• If 25% lost to "timing" → following up too soon or lead quality issue

Monthly check 2: Data export and backup (15 minutes)

Export your CRM data for backup and analysis.

Export:

• All contacts
• All companies
• All deals (open and closed)

Store in:

• Google Drive backup folder
• With clear naming: "CRM-Backup-2024-02-28"

Why: CRMs can have bugs, integrations can mess up data, and you want a recovery point.

Monthly check 3: Automation review (15 minutes)

Review all active automations to verify they're working correctly.

Check each automation:

• Did it run this month?
• Are there error logs?
• Is it producing expected results?

Common issues:

• Automation running but not doing what it should
• Error rate suddenly increased
• Automation no longer needed but still running

Monthly check 4: Integration health (15 minutes)

Verify all your integrations are functioning.

Check:

• Email sync still working?
• Calendar sync current?
• Third-party enrichment tools connected?
• Webhook integrations receiving data?

Test:

• Send test email and verify it logs
• Create test calendar event and verify it syncs
• Trigger test webhook and confirm it processes

What to do if you skip a week

Life happens. You miss a Friday check. Now what?

If you missed one week: Just do this week's check. Don't try to catch up.

If you missed a month: Do Week 4 (data integrity) check first to catch any major issues, then resume normal schedule.

If you missed several months: Your CRM probably has significant data issues. Do a full audit before resuming weekly checks.

Customizing the routine for your CRM

This routine assumes a sales-focused CRM. Adjust based on your use case:

Support/Success team:

• Replace "deals" with "tickets" or "accounts"
• Check response time metrics instead of pipeline
• Review overdue support tasks

Marketing team:

• Replace "pipeline" with "campaign performance"
• Check contact list segmentation
• Review form submission data quality

Operations team:

• Focus on integration health
• Check automation execution logs
• Review data consistency across systems

Measuring improvement

Track these metrics monthly to know if your hygiene routine is working:

Data quality metrics:

• % of contacts with complete information
• Number of duplicates in system
• % of deals with activity in last 14 days

Usage metrics:

• % of team logging activities daily
• Task completion rate
• Time spent searching for records

Business metrics:

• Pipeline accuracy (forecast vs actual)
• Report confidence level
• Sales team satisfaction with CRM

If these metrics improve over 3-6 months, your routine is working.

Final thoughts

CRM hygiene isn't glamorous work. But 30 minutes every Friday prevents hours of frustration and data cleanup later.

The key is consistency. A small amount of regular maintenance beats heroic cleanup efforts every quarter.

Set the recurring calendar block, follow the checklist, and your CRM will stay clean and useful instead of becoming a data dumping ground nobody trusts.

Start this Friday. Your future self will thank you.