Free Template
Data Cleaning Checklist
Step-by-step process for cleaning entertainment catalog data before distribution or platform onboarding. Covers common issues and fixes.
excelgoogle-sheets
What’s Included
A printable, step-by-step process guide covering:
Phase 1: Discovery
- Export your catalog data to a flat file (CSV/Excel)
- Run a completeness scan — what percentage of fields are filled?
- Identify the top 10 most common data gaps
- Document your current naming conventions
Phase 2: Standardization
- Normalize territory codes to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
- Convert all dates to ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Standardize genre taxonomies
- Normalize title casing and special characters
- Deduplicate entries (exact and fuzzy matching)
Phase 3: Validation
- Cross-reference EIDR/ISAN identifiers
- Verify rights chain completeness
- Check for overlapping exclusive rights
- Validate runtime and technical metadata against actual assets
Phase 4: Documentation
- Record all changes made
- Update your data dictionary
- Set up ongoing quality checks
- Schedule next audit date
How to Use
Print this checklist or keep it open on a second screen. Work through each phase sequentially. Check off items as you complete them. The entire process typically takes 2-4 hours for a catalog of 100 titles.
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