Export CRM data to CSV, JSON, or Excel — with column selection, filters, and background processing
Navigate to the export page from the Admin menu.
Every record type that can be exported.
The entity grid is grouped into categories so you can find the record type quickly: Companies, People, Opportunities, Activities, Tasks, Projects, Tickets, Quotes, Invoices, Products, Campaigns, Campaign Emails, Surveys, Survey Responses, Tags, Workflows, Contact Groups, Territories, Goals, and Knowledge Base Articles. Tiles show the entity name and a short description; the currently selected tile is highlighted with a ring.
Choose the output format.
.xlsx file. Preserves multi-line cells and Unicode without escaping.Choose which fields end up in the file.
Click Columns to expand the picker. Columns are grouped by purpose (e.g., Identity, Contact, Lifecycle, Custom). Each group has its own All / None toggle, and the global Select all / Deselect alllinks act on every group at once. The counter pill (e.g., “12 of 28”) shows how many columns are currently selected; you cannot start an export with zero columns. Custom fields configured for the selected entity are automatically appended to the file regardless of which columns you tick in this picker.
Narrow down the records in the export.
Click Filters to expand the filter form. The fields shown depend on the entity:
The active filter count is shown on the filter header and Clear all resets every filter for the current entity at once.
The 5,000-row threshold and how delivery works.
The right-hand panel tracking every export you have started.
The Export History panel on the right of the page lists your 50 most-recent exports. Each item shows:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Entity | The exported record type, with the format badge (CSV, JSON, XLSX). |
| Row count | Total rows in the file once processing completed. |
| File size | Final file size, formatted in B / KB / MB / GB. |
| Relative time | How long ago the export was started (e.g., 2m ago, 3h ago, 4d ago). |
| Status | Pending / Processing / Ready / Failed / Expired. Processing has an animated dot. Failed surfaces the error message inline. |
| Expiry countdown | For Ready exports, shows "Expires in Nh" or "Expires in Nd". Files older than the retention window are auto-cleaned by a nightly cron. |
| Download / Retry button | Ready exports get a download button (opens a signed URL in a new tab). Failed exports get a retry button that re-runs the same entity, format, filters, and columns. |
The on-disk shape of a CSV export.
CSV files are UTF-8 with a leading Byte Order Mark (BOM) so Excel renders Unicode characters correctly. The first row is column headers matching your column-picker selection plus every custom field for the entity. Cells with commas, quotes, or newlines are double-quoted and inner quotes are escaped per RFC 4180. Multi-select tag / option fields are joined with commas inside a single quoted cell.
Every export is recorded for compliance.
Each export start emits a Data Export security event with the entity type, format, applied filters, selected columns, the requesting user, and their IP / user agent. Volume or velocity anomalies upgrade the event to Suspicious Export. Both types are visible on the Security Dashboard under the Data Access category alongside GDPR Data Erasure events. The retention of these audit rows is governed by the Data Retention policy for security_events (SOC 2 minimum 365 days).