When you export Affinity, you get a CSV with contacts and notes, but the relationship graph—the web of who knows whom, which contact reports to whom, which decision-makers sit on which accounts—collapses into a flat list. The deal pipeline is there, but the context that made it valuable is not. If you're moving to Orin, you don't have to accept that loss. This 60-day playbook walks you through a structured rebuild that recovers your relationship data, preserves deal history, and gets you live on a system with proper contact hierarchies and company structures. Why Affinity Exports Break Relationship Data Affinity stores relationships as a graph: one company record, nested contacts with defined roles, interaction history tied to specific people, and deals linked to decision-makers and influencers. When you export, the system flattens this into a contacts table with a company name field. You lose: Contact hierarchy: Who reports to whom. The founder, the CFO, the procurement lead—all become equal rows. Role definitions: Affinity tracks decision-maker, influencer, and other relationship types. The export drops these into a single 'Title' field. Interaction threading: Notes and activity tied to specific people are often linked to the company, not the individual. Deal ownership clarity: Multi-stakeholder deals become ambiguous about who the primary contact is. The deals themselves stay intact, but without the graph context, you lose the ability to ask questions like 'Who should we loop in when this account needs a renewal conversation?' or 'Has anyone on this team worked with our competitor?' Week 1: Export and Audit (Days 1–7) Step 1: Export Your Data from Affinity In Affinity, export your contacts list, deals, and company records. You'll need: Contacts (with company name, title, email, phone, and any custom fields) Companies (with industry, employee count, revenue estimates, and custom fields) Deals (with stage, value, close date, and associated contacts) Interaction history (optional but recommended; export as a separate file for reference) Store these in a staging folder with clear filenames: affinity_contacts_2024.csv , affinity_companies_2024.csv , affinity_deals_2024.csv . Step 2: Audit the Export Open the contacts file and check: Duplicate contacts: Search for duplicate emails or full-name matches. Use a spreadsheet's remove-duplicates function or manual inspection for variants ('John Smith' vs. 'J. Smith'). Empty critical fields: Count rows with missing email, company name, or title. Flag these for manual cleanup. Company name consistency: Look for case variations, abbreviations, and legal vs. trading names (e.g., 'Acme Inc.' vs. 'acme' vs. 'Acme Corporation'). Deal orphans: Check if deals reference contacts or companies that aren't in the export. Export a deals-to-contacts mapping and cross-check. Create an audit log: a simple sheet with columns for 'Issue', 'Count', 'Severity', and 'Resolution Plan'. This becomes your QA checklist for weeks 2–6. Week 2: Clean Company Names and Build a Company Master (Days 8–14) Company names are the foundation of a rebuilt graph. If you import 12 variants of 'Microsoft' and 3 of 'Amazon,' your contacts will be scattered across dozens of ghost companies instead of consolidated under one record. Deduplication Process List all unique company names from the contacts file. Use a pivot table or manual sorting to count contacts per company. Identify likely duplicates. Look for case differences, abbreviations ('Corp' vs. 'Corporation'), and legal names vs. trading names. Flag for review. Create a company master list. Decide on the canonical name for each company. Use the most common variant in your export, or adopt a standard (legal name, all caps, title case—pick one and apply it consistently). Map old → new names. Create a lookup table: Affinity Company Name | Canonical Name | Notes . Update the contacts export. Replace all company name fields with canonical names. This is the most time-intensive part of the migration, but it's not optional. A clean company foundation prevents months of mismatched records down the line. Week 3: Rebuild Contact Roles and Relationships (Days 15–21) With company names standardized, you can now rebuild who reports to whom and what role each person plays. Extract Role Data Review your Affinity contacts export and the interaction history. Look for patterns: Job titles that indicate hierarchy (VP, Director, Manager, Individual Contributor). Notes or interaction logs that mention relationships ('Reported to Maria Gonzalez', 'Supports procurement team'). Deal notes that name primary decision-makers or influencers for specific opportunities. Create a new column in your contacts file: Primary Role (e.g., Founder, CFO, Procurement Lead, End User). This is not the job title—it's the strategic role they play in deals. Map Reporting Lines (Where Possible) In Orin's CRM , contacts live inside company records with defined roles. If your Affinity notes mention