Export all company data

How an owner or admin downloads everything the company has in FSMCore as one ZIP file: every record as a spreadsheet file, every stored file and a PDF of every issued document. What is in the ZIP, what is never in it, and how long the download is kept.

What it is for

Your data is yours. Export makes one ZIP file with all of it, so you can keep your own copy, hand it to your accountant, or move to other software.

Open Settings, then Export. The page says: "Download all of your company's data in one ZIP file. Only owners and admins see this page."

The page has three parts:

• the Export all company data button at the top,
• the box What the export contains,
• the list Exports, with every export your company has asked for.

The export is built in the background. You can carry on working, or close FSMCore. You are told when it is ready.

Who can use it

A person who is not an owner or admin cannot open the page and cannot download an export. If they still try to start one, it is refused with: "Only an owner or admin of this company can export its data."

Archived people have no access.

An owner or admin can download any export of the company, also one that another owner or admin started.

The export is open on every plan: on the free trial, on a paid plan, while a payment has failed, on a cancelled plan until its paid period ends, and on a complimentary plan. A locked company can still export for a limited time. See When export is closed.

On the free trial

A company on the free trial gets the full export, the same as a paid company. Nothing is left out because of the trial.

What the export contains

The box What the export contains on the page lists it in short:

• data/: one spreadsheet (CSV) per kind of record, with names beside IDs, plus export.json for other software.
• files/: every stored file (photos, drawings, documents, certificates, signatures), by record.
• documents/: a PDF of every issued invoice, estimate and crew invoice, as it was issued.
• README.txt: what each folder holds and how many records of each kind.

Below the list: "Passwords, two-factor secrets, API tokens and the AI provider key are never included."

The full description of each folder is in What is in the ZIP.

Export all company data

1. Open Settings, then Export.
2. Press Export all company data.
3. A window opens: Export all company data? It explains what is built and who is told.
4. Press Start export.

You see the message Export started: "It is being prepared in the background. This list updates by itself; you do not need to reload."

A new row shows in the Exports list with the status Queued, then Building, then Ready. How long it takes depends on how many records and files your company has. A company with many photos takes longer.

If the export cannot start, you see Export not started with the reason. See Common mistakes.

Who is told

When you start an export, every other owner and admin of the company (not archived people) gets a bell message: "(your name) exported all company data", with the text "Settings > Export shows every export of the company." and the button Open Export.

You do not get this bell message yourself. No email is sent at this point.

When it is ready

When the ZIP is ready, the person who asked for it gets two messages. Nobody else gets them.

A bell message: Your company data export is ready, with the text "Download it from Settings > Export within 7 days." and the button Open Export.

An email with the subject Your company data export is ready:

• "Hi (your name),"
• "The export of all (company name) data you asked for is ready."
• "Sign in and download it from Settings > Export. It can be downloaded for 7 days."
• The button Open Export.

The button opens the Export page, never the file itself. You must sign in as an owner or admin to download. So the email is safe to receive: a person who reads it cannot get the data without your sign-in.

When the email is sent, it is recorded as Company data export ready, with the address it went to. If the email cannot be sent, the person who asked gets the bell message Email notification failed. The export itself is still ready in the list.

No message is sent when an export fails. Look at the list for the status.

Download an export

1. Open Settings, then Export.
2. Find the row with the status Ready.
3. Press Download on that row.

The file is named after your company's web address and the date and time the export finished, for example acme-export-2026-10-02-1430.zip.

Download is only shown on an export that is Ready and has not passed its Expires at date. You can download the same export as many times as you need until then.

Each download is recorded: who downloaded it and when.

The ZIP holds all of your company's data, including prices, people's details and client details. Keep it somewhere safe.

The list

The Exports list is on the page below the box. Its description says: "Each export can be downloaded for 7 days after it is ready."

The newest export is at the top. You can show 10, 25 or 50 rows per page.

The list updates by itself every 5 seconds while an export is Queued or Building. You do not need to reload the page.

When your company has no export yet, the list says No exports yet: "Use "Export all company data" to make the first one."

There is no search, no filter and no bulk action on this list. An export cannot be deleted by hand. See How long it is kept.

Columns

Row actions

Statuses

How long it is kept

A finished export can be downloaded for 7 days. The Expires at column shows the exact date and time.

Once a day, at 03:45 Irish time, FSMCore tidies up:

• A Ready export past its date loses its ZIP file and becomes Expired.
• An export that stopped half-way becomes Failed, so that a new one can be started.

So an export may still show Ready for up to a day after its Expires at time, but Download is already gone from that row.

Deleting the ZIP deletes only that copy. Your records and files in FSMCore are not touched. You can start a new export at any time.

If an export fails

A Failed export shows one of these reasons under its status:

For the first three reasons: press Export all company data again. A failed export does not block a new one.

A stopped export may stay on Building or Queued until the daily tidy-up at 03:45 Irish time marks it Failed. Until then a new export cannot be started.

What is in the ZIP

The ZIP holds only your company's records and files. It has three folders and one text file.

README.txt also names the company, when the export was made and by whom. It counts the files and PDFs in the ZIP. If a stored file was not found or a PDF could not be made, it is listed there under "Problems".

The data folder

One CSV file per kind of record. A CSV file opens in Excel and other spreadsheet programs. The file names are short and in small letters, for example data/price_list.csv. README.txt lists every file name beside its kind of record. The kinds of record, in this order:

People lists every person of the company with their name, email, roles, engagement type and hourly cost, also archived people. It holds no password.

Contacts are the client contacts, with the sites each one is linked to. Site contacts are the people you meet on one site.

Document history holds the recorded changes of your company: who changed what, and when.

How the CSV files are written:

• Each file has a header row.
• A column that points at another record has that record's name beside its ID. For example an invoice row shows the client's ID and the client's name.
• Money is written as an exact number, for example 1234.50, with no currency sign.
• Dates are in your company's date order. Times are on your company's clock.
• Times that a person typed, such as the start and end of an event, are written as typed. Job start and end dates are written as dates.
• Deleted records are included, with the date they were deleted in the column "Deleted at".
• Void documents are included, with their status.
• Yes or no values are written as "Yes" and "No".
• An empty value is written as an empty cell.
• A text that starts with =, + or @ gets a ' in front, so that a spreadsheet shows it and does not run it as a formula.

The file Files has two extra columns: "Path in export" says where each file is in the files/ folder, and "Included" says "Yes" or "No: file not found".

export.json holds the same data in one file for other software: with IDs, the links between records, dates and times in the ISO 8601 format, and the counts. Give this file to a software supplier when you move your data.

The files folder

Every stored file of the company: photos, drawings, documents, certificates, signatures, the logo, crew invoice attachments and files uploaded into AI chats. The same files as in Storage.

The files are sorted by section, the same sections as in Storage, then by the record each file belongs to:

Inside a section there is a folder per record: a job, a site, a client, a person, a chat, or "Crew invoice" with its number. A snag's files are in a folder for the job, then a folder for the snag. A file that belongs to no record is in a folder named Other.

Files keep the names they have in FSMCore. When two files in one folder have the same name, the second gets " (2)" added to its name, for example photo (2).jpg.

The documents folder

A PDF of every issued invoice, estimate and crew invoice, named after its number:

• documents/invoices/
• documents/estimates/
• documents/crew-invoices/

Each PDF is the same as the one Download gives on that document. It is made from the details the document was issued with, so a later change of your company's or the client's details does not change it.

Void documents are included. Drafts are not, and rejected crew invoices are not. The record and lines of a draft or of a rejected crew invoice are still in the data/ folder.

If a PDF could not be made, it is listed in README.txt under "Problems".

What is left out

Never in an export, in any file:

README.txt in the ZIP repeats this list.

When export is closed

A locked company no longer opens Settings. Its owners and admins export from the lock page instead, under Your company data:

1. Sign in. The lock page opens.
2. Under Your company data, press Export all company data. The export starts at once, with no window to confirm. The page says: "Export started. It is being prepared in the background; this page updates by itself."
3. The table below shows the 10 newest exports with Requested, By, Status and a Download link when one is ready. The page updates by itself while an export is on the way.

It is the same export and the same ZIP, kept for 7 days. You can make as many as you need, one at a time. The bell message and the email are sent as usual.

This is open until the date the company's data is deleted. The lock page shows that date. After that date, or once an owner or admin pressed Delete my company data now, making a new export is closed: the button is no longer shown, and the lock page says that no new export can be made. The table of exports stays on the lock page.

An export that is still asked for then, for example from a page left open, is refused:

A ZIP made earlier that is ready can still be downloaded by an owner or admin, from the table on the lock page, until the data is really deleted (the first 04:30 Irish time after the date or the request). After that the company and its ZIP files are gone.

Choosing a plan opens the company again, and with it Settings, then Export. See Locked company.

What happens after

• The export shows in the Exports list at once, for every owner and admin.
• The other owners and admins get the bell message "(name) exported all company data". See Who is told.
• When the ZIP is ready, the person who asked gets a bell message and an email. See When it is ready.
• Asking for an export is recorded: who asked and when. Each download is recorded too: who downloaded and when. These records are part of the "Document history" file of a later export.
• After 7 days the ZIP is deleted and the row shows Expired. See How long it is kept.
• An export changes nothing in your company. No record, file or document is changed or removed.
• The ZIP is not counted in your storage and does not show in Settings, then Storage.
• The AI assistant cannot start or download an export.

Common mistakes

I cannot find Export in the menu. Only owners and admins see it. Ask an owner or admin of your company.

"Export not started": "An export of this company is already being prepared. Wait until it is ready, then start a new one if you need to." Only one export per company can be on the way at a time. Another owner or admin may have started it. Wait until the row in the list is Ready, then download that one or start a new one.

"Export not started": "Only an owner or admin of this company can export its data." Your role was changed. Ask an owner or admin.

The export has been on Building for a very long time. A company with many files takes long. If the export has stopped, it is marked Failed by the daily tidy-up at 03:45 Irish time, and you can start a new one after that. See If an export fails.

The Download button is gone. The export has passed its Expires at date. Press Export all company data to make a new one.

"This export has expired or is not ready. Start a new export in Settings > Export." You opened an old download link, or the export is not finished yet. Open Settings, then Export, and use Download on a Ready row.

"This export file is no longer there. Start a new export in Settings > Export." The ZIP file was already removed. Start a new export.

A download link shows the sign-in page. You were not signed in, for example because you were away for a while. Sign in on the page you were sent to. The download then starts.

A download link answers that I may not open it, or that the page is not found. You must be signed in as an owner or admin of the company, on that company's own web address. A supervisor, crew member or accountant is refused. An export of another company is never found, even when you have its link.

I did not get the email. The email goes only to the person who started the export, to their sign-in email address. The export is in the list either way: open Settings, then Export.

A draft invoice is missing from the documents folder. Drafts get no PDF. Their records are in the data/ folder.