CRM requirements checklist for a small team

Download the CRM requirements checklist

Your colleague is away. A client asks whether a proposal includes the follow-up workshop. Can you find the agreed scope, identify the right contact, and record the next action without searching someone else's inbox? That is a useful starting point for a CRM requirements checklist.

Download the editable CRM requirements checklist (CSV). It contains 18 suggested requirements, filled test inputs, and pass conditions. No email address or account is required. Open it in a spreadsheet application, make one copy per candidate, and replace the example priorities and owners with your own. If it opens in one column, import it as UTF-8 text with a comma delimiter.

The vendor, paid plan, observed result, evidence, and workaround fields are deliberately empty. Every test starts at Not tested. The file has no automatic scoring or formulas. Keep the requirement IDs unchanged across copies so you can compare the same task.

This guide helps a small service business prepare for product demos and trials. It includes a fictional three-person consultancy, not observed product test results. Product examples come from official documentation checked on September 10, 2026. The checklist and acceptance criteria are our editorial design. They help you decide what to verify before buying; they are not a full migration procedure.

Map the work your team needs to complete

Ask the person who follows up with leads, the person who covers their work, and the person who maintains the system to describe one recent breakdown. Record the trigger, information needed, action, owner, and what completion looks like. If one person fills several roles, still separate those responsibilities.

For our fictional example, Alder Consulting has three colleagues: Sam owns client relationships, Priya covers consulting work, and Alex handles operations and CRM administration. Sam is away for a day. Priya needs to continue Larch Studio's open proposal, while a separate Elm Works opportunity remains outside her assigned access.

Use this small fixture in each candidate. Add a sample note and a harmless file to Larch's open opportunity. Use invented contact details and inboxes your team controls; a trial should not send messages to real clients.

The fixture has two companies, three contacts, and three opportunities. Two opportunities are open and one is won. Those counts give you a way to check an import, a list, or an export without relying on an attractive dashboard.

Decide where each job ends. Alder already has a document tool and a delivery task board. A retrievable proposal link and a complete delivery handoff may be sufficient. Generating every proposal inside the CRM is a separate preference. The CRM guide for consultants explores consulting record design and product approaches in more detail.

Turn a feature request into a testable requirement

Write one outcome per row. Include the starting data, who will try it, and the result that would satisfy the business. Broad labels such as "easy to use" and "has integrations" need more detail before a vendor can demonstrate them.

Agree any time limit before testing. For example, Alder could ask Priya to find and update the next action within two minutes after a short introduction. That would be Alder's proposed acceptance threshold, not an industry benchmark or a result we measured.

Distinguish functional requirements from operating constraints. "Find the next client action" describes what the system must do. "Priya can complete it using her usual device and keyboard" describes how it must work for her. "Alex can maintain it within the agreed weekly admin allowance" describes the cost of keeping it useful. All three can affect a buying decision.

Image placeholder

Separate essential requirements from preferences

Use Must when the first working version cannot meet an agreed business need without it. Use Preference for a benefit with an acceptable alternative. Use Later for work you can defer. These priorities belong to your team; a feature is not essential just because it appears in this template.

The CSV starts with Alder's illustrative priorities. R01 to R16 are Must except R09, which is a Preference. R17 is also a Preference; R18 is Later. Alder can temporarily handle the proposed integration manually, but that would not suit a business whose sales process depends on continuous automated updates.

Some operating requirements can be met through a documented process rather than an extra CRM feature. Record the person responsible, the work involved, and what happens when they are unavailable. Do not quietly mark a partly met requirement as passed because someone promises to handle the gap later.

Add requirements specific to your work. A service desk may need case queues; a field team may need offline access; a subscription business may need renewal records. Marketing teams should define how permission and suppression information moves between systems. Record any required hosting, retention, deletion, or audit conditions as separate questions for the vendor. A general product description cannot establish that it meets your particular obligations.

Check the paid plan behind the feature

Put the product, intended paid plan, seat type where relevant, required add-ons, and check date next to the test result. A successful demo using a different configuration leaves an open question.

Pipedrive provides a concrete example. Its trial registration includes premium features such as LeadBooster, Smart Docs, and Projects. Its current plan table lists these as paid add-ons on Lite and Growth and included on Premium and Ultimate. Confirm the package you would actually buy before treating trial access as included functionality. Trial registration, plan features.

Stage controls also need a precise test. Pipedrive's required-fields documentation says the control does not stop deal progression through imports, bulk edits, API updates, automations, or third-party integrations. The detailed article uses the older Professional plan name; the current plan matrix places Required fields on Premium and Ultimate. Required-field exceptions, current plan matrix.

For R04, leave the proposal reference empty and try moving the opportunity to Proposal sent through each route Alder will use. If the requirement is to prevent that transition, a warning report does not satisfy it. If the business can accept detecting and correcting missing information before a defined deadline, write that different requirement explicitly and test the correction process.

For capacity, write two scenarios: your current seats and usage, and one plausible expansion. Include the fields, records, storage, automated actions, integration usage, and reports that matter to your setup. Ask what stops working, incurs a charge, or requires a new plan when a limit is reached. A tiny trial can verify configuration; it cannot establish performance at your future workload.

Use the software cost checklist to turn the confirmed configuration into a cost comparison. Keep setup work, recurring charges, and annual cash commitment visible. This requirements guide does not provide vendor price quotes.

Test permissions, updates, and usable exports

Try the ordinary user's account

Run the Larch and Elm visibility checks as Priya, then repeat the necessary administration checks as Alex. Seeing the correct result while signed in as an administrator does not demonstrate that a restricted user can work correctly.

Pipedrive distinguishes permission sets, which govern actions, from visibility groups, which govern records a user can see. Deal admins retain full deal and lead visibility, while global admins retain visibility of people, organizations, and products regardless of group settings. Do not design the test around hiding records from those administrators. Visibility documentation.

Test access through search, direct record links, lists, and the export actions the role can use. Also check linked notes, files, and email context. For R11, use a disposable trial user to rehearse reassignment and access removal. Confirm that another person can continue the work without sharing the departing user's login.

Update one record before importing a larger sample

For R03, import the small fictional fixture, record the identifier used to match one contact, and then update that contact. Check both the changed field and the company relationship. The number of contacts should remain three.

HubSpot documents unique identifiers for updating, deduplicating, and associating imported records. When Record ID is mapped, it takes precedence over other mapped unique identifiers. This is why "CSV import supported" is less useful than a verified matching rule for your data. Import tool documentation.

Keep this trial focused on buying requirements. A production move also needs a complete field map, cleanup, validation, and a rollback decision. If replacing an existing system is your main problem, the HubSpot alternatives guide helps you identify which capabilities and information a replacement needs to preserve.

Open the export outside the CRM

For R10, inspect the output rather than accepting a completed export notification. Find the two companies, three contacts, and three opportunities. Reconstruct which records belong together. Locate the note and open the sample file through the documented retrieval route. Record anything that needs a separate export or another tool.

Pipedrive limits exports to records visible to the exporting user; exporting by data type requires global admin access. Activities, notes, and linked files need separate exports, and Google Drive files are excluded from the global export. Pipedrive export documentation.

HubSpot record exports contain current property values and associations. Its default export includes the properties and associations in the selected view. Contact activities have separate documented export routes. These distinctions matter when a file must preserve more than the visible contact columns. HubSpot export documentation.

An export is not automatically a complete backup, a tested restore, or a ready-to-import replacement database. Write down what you need to retain and verify that each part has a usable retrieval method.

Run the same trial and record what happened

Agree the must-haves before watching vendor demonstrations. Give each candidate the same fixture, roles, required tasks, and intended subscription scope. Keep outbound automations disabled until their triggers and recipients are understood, and use test accounts for email and integrations.

1. Set up the fixture. Record the product, plan, add-ons, date, roles, and starting record counts. Keep the vendor's plan confirmation with the checklist.
2. Rehearse the absent colleague. Have Priya continue Larch Diagnostic, record a next action, and attempt to reach the restricted Elm record. Log both successful work and access that should be refused.
3. Exercise an exception. Try the incomplete stage transition, update a contact, and introduce an integration failure if that integration is in scope. Check the visible result and the recovery owner.
4. Reconcile and retrieve. Alex checks the two open opportunities, retrieves the sample records and separate history items, and rehearses the agreed handoff.
5. Have the task owner review the evidence. Save the actual result beside the pass condition, including any missing step, workaround, and paid-plan dependency.

Restore the starting fixture before checks that rely on its counts, stages, or owners. R07 changes a sale to won and R11 reassigns work; running R08 afterward without restoring Diagnostic and Workshop as open under Sam would change the expected result. Run staff deactivation last, using a disposable test account.

Use one status vocabulary in every candidate copy:

For a feature claim, a vendor document can establish availability or a limit. An observed workflow needs a trial record. Contract and hosting requirements may need written vendor confirmation. Choose evidence that answers the actual question instead of treating one screenshot as proof of everything.

Choose a CRM with a decision you can explain

First resolve the Must rows. An untested or partly met essential requirement is an open decision, not a pass. If a workaround changes the requirement, approve the revised condition with its owner and test it again. Keep that change visible across every candidate's checklist.

Compare the remaining candidates on the differences that matter: daily effort, paid configuration, maintenance ownership, and the preferences your team values. Avoid a total score that lets several attractive extras outweigh a failed permission boundary or an unusable export.

Write a short purchase record: "We chose [candidate and plan] because [essential tasks and evidence]. We accepted [remaining trade-off], owned by [person]. We will review the decision when [named usage or business change] occurs." If no candidate satisfies the requirements at an acceptable cost, reduce the first implementation's scope or keep the current system while you investigate the unresolved need.

Before ending the trial, preserve the completed checklist and permitted evidence outside the test account. You should be able to show a colleague what was required, what was demonstrated, what will cost extra, and who will keep the setup working.