Monday CRM to Attio: a step-by-step migration guide

Short answer: To migrate from monday CRM to Attio: decide which monday boards are objects in Attio and which are just views; export each board as CSV; rebuild the data model in Attio (People, Companies, Deals, plus any real custom objects); import in dependency order; rebuild automations in Attio Workflows or middleware; recreate dashboards as views. The CSV move takes a day. The data model rebuild is where the value is.

Why teams move from monday CRM to Attio

monday CRM is a CRM layer built on top of monday.com's Work OS. That history shows up in how the tool feels. Everything is a board. Every record is a row in a board. Every relationship is a connect-board column.

That model works when the team needs sales and project work in the same place and the data structure is shallow.

It stops working when:

• The same person, company, or deal lives in three different boards because that was easier than modeling the relationship.
• Custom logic that should be one object is spread across boards because boards are the only structure monday gives you.
• Reporting depends on connect-board columns that nobody can keep clean.
• The team wants the CRM to behave like a relational system, not a spreadsheet with formulas.

If your team is happy with boards as the primary unit of work, monday is probably still the right tool. If the points above sound familiar, Attio starts to make sense. The deeper comparison lives in the monday vs Attio post.

This guide covers the migration itself.

Rebuild the data model before you export

This is the step that decides whether the migration is clean or messy.

A monday CRM account that has been used for a year or two usually has between five and twenty boards, each with its own columns, its own automations, and its own people who edit it. Some of those boards are real objects. Most are views, snapshots, or workspaces that should not exist as separate objects in a proper CRM.

Before any data moves, answer three questions:

1. Which boards are real objects? Contacts, Companies, and Deals almost always are. A board called "Q4 outbound" is a view, not an object. A board called "Renewals 2026" is a view, not an object.
2. Which columns matter? For each board you decided is an object, which columns are used in views, reports, or daily work? Everything else is a candidate for deletion.
3. Which connections matter? monday's connect-board columns become real relationships in Attio. Decide which of those connections need to come across as actual links between records, and which were just labels.

Do this on a whiteboard before you touch monday. The exercise usually cuts the board count from fifteen to four or five.

Step 1: Export the data from monday CRM

monday lets you export any board to Excel or CSV from the board menu. For each board that survived the data model exercise, export it as a CSV.

Two constraints to know:

• monday's import on the way in is capped at 50 columns, 8,000 rows, and 10 MB per file. The export is not capped the same way, but if you plan to bounce data back through monday for any reason, those limits matter.
• Connect-board columns export as text, not as relationships. The values are the names of linked records, not their IDs. Keep the monday item ID on every row so you can rebuild relationships later.

Export each surviving board as a separate CSV: Contacts, Companies, Deals, and any custom object you decided to keep. Activities, notes, and files come over in a second pass.

Step 2: Prepare the Attio workspace

Build the object structure in Attio first, before any import.

Attio's standard objects, People, Companies, and Deals, map cleanly to monday's Contacts, Accounts, and Deals boards. Custom objects in monday become custom objects in Attio. The mapping is one to one, but only after the data model exercise above.

For pipelines, Attio uses statuses on the Deals object. Recreate monday's deal stages as statuses, in the same order, with the same names. Reporting continuity stays intact.

Set up the fields and relationships you decided to keep. Leave the ones you decided to drop behind.

Step 3: Clean the CSVs

This is the part that saves the most time later.

Before import, run a cleanup pass on each CSV:

• Remove duplicate records. monday exports often include the same person or company on multiple boards. Pick one source of truth per record.
• Standardize enumerated fields. Pick one spelling for each status, industry, source, and owner.
• Normalize phone numbers and dates to a single format.
• Resolve connect-board columns. Replace the linked record name with the corresponding Attio record's external ID. This is what lets the relationship come across.
• Delete columns nobody uses. If it was not on your list from the data model exercise, it does not go in.

An hour on cleanup saves a day of fixes after import.

Step 4: Import into Attio

Attio supports CSV imports directly in the UI. For each object:

1. Upload the CSV.
2. Map each column to the matching Attio field.
3. Use the monday item ID as an external identifier so records can be relinked later.
4. Run the import and spot-check 10 to 20 records.

Import in dependency order: Companies first, then People linked to Companies, then Deals linked to both. Activities, notes, and custom objects go last, after everything they depend on already exists.

For larger datasets, or when multiple custom objects need to be related in bulk, Attio's API handles the job cleanly. Use it whenever you are moving more than a few thousand records or several related objects.

Step 5: Rebuild automations

monday automations do not translate to Attio one to one. monday's "When status changes to X, do Y" recipes are tied to board columns. Attio's automations are tied to object attributes and statuses. The shape is different.

Do not try to port them. Rebuild from scratch based on what the team actually needs now.

Common ones to rebuild first:

• New lead assignment by owner or territory.
• Stage-change triggers that create tasks or send messages.
• Deal-won notifications into Slack or email.
• Activity creation from calendar or email sync.

Most teams finish this step with fewer, cleaner automations than they had in monday. That is usually a sign the old automation list had accumulated dead recipes that nobody removed.

Step 6: Rebuild dashboards as views

monday CRM dashboards do not migrate. Attio handles reporting through views, filtered lists, and dashboards.

For each monday dashboard widget that someone actually opens, recreate it as an Attio view or dashboard widget. Most teams find that a big share of their old widgets were never opened. Those stay behind.

Step 7: Cutover

Run both systems in parallel for a week. The team works in Attio. monday stays read-only as a reference.

At the end of the week, archive the monday CRM workspace. Keep read access for 30 to 60 days in case something needs to be checked. Cancel the seats after that, not before.

Traps to avoid

• Treating every board as an object. Most monday boards are views or workspaces, not objects. If every board becomes a custom object in Attio, you end up with the same mess in a more expensive tool.
• Porting connect-board columns as text. They need to be resolved into real relationships during the clean step, or every link is lost.
• Migrating every automation. Same rule as the field rule. Rebuild from scratch.
• Skipping the data model step. This is the single biggest cause of a painful migration.
• Cancelling monday too early. Keep read access for a month or two. It is cheap insurance.
• Losing monday item IDs in the export. If a reimport is needed, those IDs are the only reliable way to reconcile records.

How long does a monday CRM to Attio migration take?

For a typical small or mid-size team, under 30 users, a few real custom objects, moderate data volume, budget 1 to 3 weeks end to end. The data movement itself takes a few days. Most of the time is the data model rebuild and the automation rework.

Larger accounts, or teams with heavy customization and dozens of boards, can push to 4 to 6 weeks. The board count is the best rough proxy for how long the migration takes.

Want help with the migration?

If you want a second pair of eyes on your migration plan, or you want it done for you, book a call.

If you are still evaluating the move, try Attio with a 10% discount and start the data model exercise on your own. Even if the migration does not happen, the exercise is worth doing.

Free audit of your Attio workspace

If you want a second pair of eyes on your Attio setup, I run a free 48-hour audit. You add me to your workspace as an Attio expert, no extra seat and no billing. I send back a one-page written teardown ranked by impact, the three highest-leverage fixes with the exact setting change, and a 5-minute Loom walking through the top fix. No call, no pitch. 5 slots a week.

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