How to Export Data from 7shifts (2026): Step-by-Step

Why the export is the first step, not the last

Most switching guides start with the new tool. They should start with the data you already own. Scheduling, roster, and payroll-reconciliation data all sit in 7shifts right now, and the access you have today is not the access you will have after cancellation.

This guide covers what 7shifts exports, how to get it, and — the part most guides skip — what the export does not include, because that gap is exactly where the next system decision happens.

Step 1: Decide what you actually need

Before touching the export button, list the data with a home on the other side:

• Roster — who works where, in what role, with what contact info. Goes to the new scheduling tool and/or HRIS.
• Schedule history — the last payroll period or two, for reconciliation. Goes to payroll, then to the archive.
• Open tasks and notes — anything a manager is tracking. Goes to the new tool, or to the person who owns it.
• Anything payroll-referencing — if 7shifts fed time data to payroll, confirm with payroll before cutover that the handoff is complete.

Write the list down. It is short, and it prevents the "did we lose the summer schedule?" conversation three months later.

Step 2: Find the export in your admin area

Exports are an admin function. The person doing the switch needs admin rights on the 7shifts account, which in many groups is a role only one or two people hold — identify that person first.

From the 7shifts admin area:

1. Open the team or people settings section (menu names vary by plan and product version).
2. Look for an export or data option, typically producing CSV files.
3. Run the export for each data type on your list: team/employee data and schedule data separately.
4. Save the files to a shared, neutral location — not a personal device.

If the export option is not visible at your plan tier, or the files look incomplete, contact 7shifts support while the account is active and request what you are missing in writing.

Step 3: Check the exports before you cancel

Open the CSVs. Confirm:

• Every location and every employee is present
• Roles and contact details are intact
• The schedule history covers the period payroll needs
• Dates and shifts match what was actually worked (spot-check one week)

Incomplete exports are far cheaper to fix now than after the account closes.

Step 4: Confirm retention in writing

Before cancellation, send 7shifts support a short written request: "We are exporting our data. Please confirm what data is retained after account closure and the retention period." Keep the response. The safe assumption remains that the export you created is the data you keep.

Step 5: Import, test, and run in parallel

• Map your CSV columns to the new scheduling tool's import format and run a test import with one location.
• Confirm payroll's handoff is complete before cutover.
• Run both systems for one to two pay periods if scheduling feeds payroll.
• Cut over during a slow period, with the calendar already published in the new tool.

The gap the export reveals

Here is what the export does not contain, and why it matters:

• No incident records — 7shifts does not keep them
• No write-up archive — write-ups posted to team channels are not an exportable personnel file
• No discipline timeline — there is no per-employee history to pull
• No documentation of any kind — because the product's data model is the schedule, not the record

When the export finishes and you look at what came out, you will have a roster and a schedule. You will not have a single dated, structured record of what happened with any employee. If that documentation lives in text threads and a departing manager's memory, the switch is the moment to give it a real home.

That is the job of a documentation tool: capture in the moment, structure the record, keep the timeline. Docu-Coach™ is built for exactly that layer, and it is the easiest part of this whole migration, because there is nothing to import — you start capturing on day one, and the file builds itself from that point forward. See Docu-Coach™ vs 7shifts for how the two layers divide.

Checklist

• Admin rights identified and confirmed
• Export list written (roster, schedule history, open tasks, payroll handoff)
• CSVs exported from the active account
• Exports verified against a spot-checked week
• Retention confirmed in writing from 7shifts
• Test import completed in the new tool
• Payroll handoff confirmed
• One to two pay periods of parallel run
• Cutover scheduled for a slow period
• Documentation layer decided on (this is the gap the export exposed)

Bottom line

Exporting from 7shifts is straightforward while the account is active, and the files you need are the roster and the schedule. The export will also show you, precisely, what the platform never kept: the documentation. If that gap is the reason you are switching in the first place, put a documentation tool in the new stack before the first incident of the new year.