Best Practices for Getting the Most Out of TexAu

These best practices help you get the most out of TexAu. Follow them to work smarter, save money, and maintain clean data.

Data Quality: Start Right

Bad input data leads to bad enrichment results. Here is how to keep your data clean.

Clean Your Data Before Importing

Before you upload anything to TexAu, take 30 minutes to clean it.

1. Remove duplicates:

   • Use Excel or Google Sheets' "Remove Duplicates" feature
   • Do not pay to enrich the same company twice
   • Saves 10 to 20% in credits immediately

2. Remove incomplete rows:

   • Delete rows where critical fields are blank (company name, email, domain)
   • An enrichment cannot succeed if you are missing the input data
   • Look for obviously wrong data (emails without @, phone numbers with letters, etc.)

3. Standardize formatting:

   • Phone numbers: All 10 digits, same format (123-456-7890)
   • Emails: All lowercase, no extra spaces ([email protected])
   • Company names: No extra symbols or misspellings

4. Validate URLs:

   • Make sure website URLs actually start with https:// or http://
   • Remove trailing slashes (example.com/ to example.com)
   • Test a few manually. Do they load in a browser?

5. Segment by quality tier:

   • Grade your data: A (high confidence), B (medium), C (low/incomplete)
   • Enrich A's first to build momentum
   • Try different providers on B and C data

Tip: Export a "before" version as backup before any cleanup. That way, if you accidentally delete something important, you can restore it.

Use Semantic Data Types Correctly

TexAu has 30+ semantic data types (Email, Company Name, Phone, etc.), and using the right ones is crucial.

Why this matters: Different data types are enriched by different providers. If you label a column wrong, TexAu does not know how to enrich it.

How to apply them:

1. When uploading, TexAu auto-detects types. Review them:

   • Email addresses: "Email"
   • Company names: "Company Name"
   • Domains/websites: "Company Domain"
   • Phone numbers: "Phone"

2. Edit if needed:

   • Click a column, then change type
   • Make sure it matches the data inside
   • Do not label a column "Email" if it contains company names

Common mistakes to avoid:

• Labeling a "Competitor List" column as "Company Name" (confuses enrichment)
• Putting multiple data types in one column (email AND phone in "Contact Info")
• Create separate columns for each data type instead

Validate Inputs Regularly

Set up a quick validation process:

1. Before enriching a batch, spot-check 20 to 30 rows
2. Look for patterns in bad data (missing domains, typos, etc.)
3. Fix the most common issues
4. Then enrich

Use a simple formula to flag suspicious data:

• IF(Email = "" OR Email NOT CONTAINS "@", "REVIEW", "OK")
• IF(Company_Name = "", "MISSING", "OK")

This highlights rows to review before enrichment.

Enrichment Strategy: Be Intentional

Start with Small Batches

Do not enrich your entire 100k row table on day one. Here is why:

1. Learn what works: Test with 100 to 1,000 rows first
2. Catch data quality issues early: If 50% of results are empty, you need better input data
3. Optimize costs: Small batches let you refine strategy before spending big

Your first enrichment should be:

• A subset of your best, cleanest data
• One enrichment type (just email, not email + phone + company)
• One data provider (not your full waterfall yet)

Review results:

• Success rate: Aim for 70 to 85% on first try
• Cost per successful enrichment: Track this to optimize later
• Data quality: Does the enriched data look right?

Once you are comfortable, expand to larger batches and more complex enrichments.

Use Waterfall for Critical Data

Waterfall enrichment tries multiple providers in order, maximizing your chance of finding data while minimizing costs.

Set up your waterfall smartly:

1. Order by accuracy, then cost:

   • Try the most accurate provider first
   • Then cheaper but slightly less accurate
   • Then backup providers for edge cases

2. Example waterfall for email enrichment:

   • Provider 1: BetterEnrich (very accurate, premium)
   • Provider 2: Apollo (good accuracy, mid-tier)
   • Provider 3: FullEnrich (broad coverage)
   • Results: If BetterEnrich finds it, done. If not, try Apollo. If that fails, FullEnrich is your backup.

3. Set limits:

   • Use "Stop on First Success" if you just need any result
   • Use "Max Providers to Try" to control costs (for example, try max 3 providers)
   • This prevents burning credits on low-value attempts

Prioritize by ROI

Not all enrichments are equally valuable. Prioritize:

1. High-touch accounts first: Enrich your biggest customers or hottest leads before your long tail
2. Critical fields first: Email and company are more valuable than industry or company size
3. Revenue-generating departments first: Sales gets enrichment before marketing
4. Test on small segments: Before enriching all 50k records, test on 1,000

Ask yourself: "If this enrichment succeeds, what happens next?" If the answer is "nothing," maybe skip it.

Formulas: Master the Basics

Formulas let you create new columns by combining and transforming existing data. Here is how to use them effectively.

Start Simple, Build Up

Do not jump into complex nested formulas. Build progressively:

1. Day 1: Master basic functions

   • CONCAT(First_Name, " ", Last_Name) creates a full name
   • UPPER(Company_Name) makes text uppercase
   • LEN(Email) gets email length

2. Day 2: Add conditionals

   • IF(Revenue > 1000000, "Enterprise", "Mid-Market")

3. Day 3: Combine multiple functions

   • IF(AND(Revenue > 1000000, Industry = "Tech"), "HVT", "Standard")

Each step should take a few minutes to learn and test.

Test with Sample Data

Before running a formula on your entire table:

1. Create a test row (copy an existing row, change one detail)
2. Run the formula on just that row
3. Review the result. Does it match what you expect?
4. Fix any issues
5. Then apply to your full table

This catches 90% of formula mistakes before they affect thousands of rows.

Use COALESCE for Waterfall Results

When you enrich a column with multiple providers, each provider creates its own column. Use COALESCE() to pick the first non-empty result:

Example: You enriched email with three providers:

• BetterEnrich_Email (from BetterEnrich)
• Apollo_Email (from Apollo)
• FullEnrich_Email (from FullEnrich)

Create a new column called Final_Email:

COALESCE(BetterEnrich_Email, Apollo_Email, FullEnrich_Email, "Not Found")

This uses the BetterEnrich result if available, falls back to Apollo if not, then FullEnrich, and finally shows "Not Found" if all three are empty.

Use IF for Conditional Logic

IF() statements let you categorize or flag data:

IF(Email = "" OR Email NOT CONTAINS "@", "INVALID", "VALID")

IF(AND(Revenue > 500000, Company_Age > 5), "QUALIFIED", "UNQUALIFIED")

IF(OR(Industry = "Tech", Industry = "Finance"), "HOT", "WARM")

Use these to:

• Flag data quality issues
• Segment leads by criteria
• Create scoring models
• Clean up data automatically

Team Organization: Scale Across People

As your team grows, good organization prevents chaos.

Set Up Role-Based Access

Assign roles strategically:

• Admin: Only 1 to 2 people (usually ops manager + founder)

  • Can manage team, change settings, delete tables
  • They control costs and security

• Editor: Your working team (sales ops, marketing ops, analysts)

  • Can create and run enrichments
  • Cannot delete tables or manage team
  • Prevents accidental disasters

• Viewer: Stakeholders who just need results (sales managers, directors)

  • Can see data and reports
  • Cannot edit or run enrichments
  • Keeps them informed without risk of changes

Tip: Viewers do not count toward team seat limits, so share reports widely without extra cost.

Use Naming Conventions

Establish rules for naming tables, columns, and formulas:

Table names:

• Good: "2024-Q1-Leads-Sales" (date, purpose, owner)
• Bad: "New Data" (too vague)

Column names:

• Good: "BetterEnrich_Email", "Apollo_Phone", "Manual_Company_Website"
• Bad: "email1", "email2", "email3" (which provider is which?)

Formula columns:

• Good: "Final_Email", "Lead_Score", "Outreach_Ready"
• Bad: "Formula1", "Formula2"

When a team member inherits your table, they should understand it in 2 minutes, not 2 hours.

Organize by Project or Campaign

Structure your workspace logically:

• Folder 1: "Sales Prospecting Q1 2024"

  • Table: "Clean Leads - Ready for Enrichment"
  • Table: "Enriched Results"
  • Table: "Follow-up Prospects"

• Folder 2: "Customer Success - Expansion Opp"

  • Table: "Existing Customers"
  • Table: "Enriched with Firmographics"

This makes it easy to find what you need and archive old campaigns.

Cost Optimization: Spend Smart

Use Stop on First Success

If you just need any result (you do not care which provider), enable "Stop on First Success":

• Enrichment stops after the first provider finds data
• Prevents wasting credits on unnecessary fallback providers
• Use when any email is better than none

Compared to "Try All Providers" (when you want the best result):

• Keeps trying until all providers are exhausted
• Use when you need the most accurate data

Savings: 20 to 40% on credits by choosing the right mode.

Limit Max Providers to Try

Instead of trying all 5 providers in your waterfall, limit it to 2 or 3:

• Most data is found by the first 2 providers
• The 4th and 5th attempts rarely find new data
• Limiting prevents wasting credits on edge cases

Example: Set Max Providers to Try = 2. Try BetterEnrich, then Apollo. If both fail, move to the next row. Saves 40 to 50% vs. trying all 5.

Schedule Enrichments During Off-Peak Hours

TexAu runs faster when fewer people are using the system:

• Schedule large enrichments for evenings or weekends
• Your job completes faster
• Leaves daytime resources for real-time work

How to schedule:

1. Go to your table, then Schedules
2. Create a schedule for 2am or 3am
3. TexAu automatically enriches new rows at that time

Use Standard AI Models for Simple Tasks

When you use AI columns for processing:

• GPT-4: Best accuracy, costs most, slower (use for complex analysis)
• Claude: Great middle ground, good speed and quality
• Gemini: Fast and cheap, good for simple tasks

Smart allocation:

• Use Gemini for simple text classification ("Is this a tech company?")
• Use Claude for summarization and medium complexity
• Use GPT-4 only when you need the absolute best

You could save 30 to 50% by choosing the right model tier.

Automation: Set It and Forget It

Set Up Scheduled Jobs for Recurring Enrichments

If you regularly import new leads or customer data:

1. Go to your table, then Schedules
2. Create a schedule (daily, weekly, or custom)
3. TexAu automatically enriches new rows on that schedule
4. You only pay for new rows, not re-enrichment

Example: Sales team imports 500 new leads every Monday. Set a schedule for Monday 3am. TexAu enriches all new leads before the team arrives. No manual work needed.

Use Webhooks to Push Data to Your Tools

Instead of manually exporting and importing data, use webhooks:

1. Enrich a lead in TexAu
2. Webhook automatically sends it to Salesforce
3. Sales team sees it instantly in their CRM

Setup:

• Go to your table, then Webhooks
• Add destination (Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Zapier, Make, etc.)
• Map which columns to send
• Save

Now enrichment leads to automatic sync. One less manual step.

Combine Formulas and AI Columns for Smart Workflows

Use both together for effective automation:

1. Formula: Clean and categorize data

   • IF(Revenue = "", "UNKNOWN", Revenue) fills blanks
   • IF(Industry = "Software", "TECH", "OTHER") categorizes

2. AI Column: Use AI to analyze

   • Use an AI model to extract keywords from descriptions
   • Use an AI model to summarize company info
   • Use an AI model to classify company type

3. Result: Fully enriched, cleaned, categorized data ready for action

Security: Protect Your Data

Use OAuth Over API Keys

When connecting integrations:

• OAuth (Sign in with Google/Microsoft): Safer, easier to revoke
• API Key: More control but riskier if exposed

Use OAuth whenever possible. It is more secure and requires less maintenance.

Review Audit Logs Regularly

Your audit log shows who did what and when:

1. Go to Settings, then Audit Logs
2. Review weekly or monthly
3. Look for:
   • Unexpected data exports
   • Changes to team members
   • Large enrichments you did not authorize

Catch issues early before they become problems.

Remove Inactive Team Members

Every person with access to your workspace is a potential security risk:

1. Go to Settings, then Team
2. Remove anyone who does not actively use TexAu
3. When people leave your company, remove them immediately

Do not let inactive accounts pile up.

Use Strong Passwords

• Good: 16+ characters, mix of types
• Bad: password123 or texau2024

Use a password manager (1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden) to generate and store strong passwords.

Summary: Your Action Plan

This week:

• [ ] Export your data and back it up
• [ ] Clean duplicates and obvious bad data
• [ ] Assign semantic data types correctly to one table
• [ ] Test a small enrichment (100 to 500 rows)

Next week:

• [ ] Create a naming convention for your team
• [ ] Set up role-based access for your team
• [ ] Create your first waterfall enrichment strategy
• [ ] Set up a scheduled job for recurring data

This month:

• [ ] Build 2 to 3 formulas to automate data transformation
• [ ] Set up a webhook to sync data to your CRM
• [ ] Audit your spending and optimize cost per enrichment
• [ ] Document your processes for your team

You do not need to do everything at once. Start with data quality, then automation, then optimization. Small improvements compound into big wins.

Questions? Reach out to support. We are happy to help you optimize your setup.