Moving from a spreadsheet or another CRM? AB Sales imports and exports leads as a CSV file (a plain spreadsheet format that Excel and Google Sheets open directly). Everything lives in one dialog: open your workspace → Leads → Import / Export.
Start from the Template tab. It downloads a CSV with the exact column headers and a sample row. Only Name is required — every other column is optional, and columns are matched by header name, so you can delete the ones you don't use.
What the file contains
| Column | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name required | Company or lead name. |
| ContactName, Email, Phone, Website, Industry, Notes | The lead's own details. |
| Source | Website, Referral, Event, Cold Call, Social Media, Other. |
| Status | New, InformationFilled, Contacted, Qualified, Disqualified (default New). Exports may also show Converted — those rows import as New. |
| Labels | Label names separated by |, e.g. Hot|Enterprise. On import, names are matched to your workspace's labels — missing ones are created automatically. |
| AutomationOptOut | true/false — true excludes the lead from Agent automation. Handy for importing a do-not-contact list. |
| CompanyInsight | The AI research summary; round-trips on export/import. |
| Phase, CreatedAt | export only Ignored on import — a lead's funnel stage advances by adding contacts and opportunities, not by typing it in. |
Importing
- Prepare the file. Fill the template (or export from your old tool and rename the headers to match).
- Upload it. Import / Export → Import tab → choose the CSV (max 5 MB).
- Review the preview. Every row is shown before anything is saved. Rows with problems are flagged — a missing name, a duplicate inside the file, or a lead that already exists in the workspace (matched by email, or by name when there's no email). Untick anything you don't want.
- Click Import. Only the selected, error-free rows are created.
After the import, new leads start in the funnel as plain leads — enrich them with Research with AI or let the Agent fill the gaps automatically.
Exporting
The Export tab downloads every non-archived lead with all columns above — a complete, human-readable backup. Labels export as names (not internal IDs), so the file can be imported into a different workspace and the labels are recreated there.
Safe for spreadsheets. Exports guard against formula injection (cells starting with
=, +, -, @ are prefixed so Excel/Sheets won't execute them), and the import strips the prefix again — so files round-trip cleanly.