SQL Server Data Import Best Practices

The following link goes to an MSDN article which outlines some of the do's and don'ts surrounding importing of data. Whether its for a Data Warehouse or for import into a transactional applcation, these best practices are lessons learned from the best. Follow Them! They really will help you in the future, even if you don't see it now! Among the oldies but goodies are to never include special characters in your column names, make sure that the staging data types are as close to your destination data types as possible, don't test in production, etc. Most of you know these points, but occasionally, I'll run into a real pragmatist that can't think strategically and I'll need to back myself up with real reasons.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/sql/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsqlpro05/html/sp05f12.asp