Exporting Your Data
Your books are yours. Download every transaction, contact, and fund as CSV whenever you want a backup or a migration.
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NP Ledger lets you download all of your organization's accounting data as a ZIP file containing CSV spreadsheets. This is useful for creating backups, migrating to another accounting system, or sharing data with an external accountant or auditor.
- Data export is available on all plans (Starter, Standard, and Professional).
- You must be an admin, owner, or accountant to export data.
- The export includes all data in your organization. There is no option to export a subset.
- Open the Organization page (in the sidebar, Organization > Organization).
- In the Organization Admin section, click Export All Data.
- On the export page, click Download Export (.zip).
- Your browser will download a ZIP file named
yourorg_export_YYYY-MM-DD.zip.
The export runs immediately. There's no queue or waiting period.
The ZIP file contains 8 CSV files:
| File | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| chart_of_accounts.csv | All accounts with code, name, type, net asset class, natural class, group, parent group, and active status |
| transactions.csv | Every transaction with full line-item detail: date, type, reference, description, contact, bank account, status, account code, account name, debit, credit, fund, program, project, functional class, line description, line contact, in-kind category, and contribution type |
| contacts.csv | All supporters and vendors with their contact information and donor categories |
| funds_and_projects.csv | All funds with restriction type, linked programs and projects, and date ranges |
| bank_accounts.csv | Bank and cash accounts with names, types, institutions, and linked ledger accounts |
| in_kind_categories.csv | In-Kind Contribution categories with fair market value rates and account mappings |
| bills.csv | All bills with vendor, amounts, due dates, payment status, and line-item detail |
| fixed_assets.csv | Fixed assets with names, types, asset groups, purchase dates, and costs |
- Encoding: UTF-8
- Date format: ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Amounts: Plain decimal numbers (e.g., 1500.00), no currency symbols
- Delimiter: Comma-separated values (CSV)
- Headers: The first row of each file contains column headers
All CSV files can be opened directly in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or any spreadsheet application.
The export does not include:
- Document attachments (receipts, invoices, or other files attached to transactions)
- Audit log entries (the history of who changed what and when)
- Webhook events (donation connection event history)
- Support session history
- User accounts or passwords
- Subscription and billing information
- Importing into another system: Most accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero, Wave) can import CSV files. You'll likely need to map NP Ledger's column names to the target system's format.
- Archiving a fiscal year: Export your data at the end of each fiscal year to keep an offline backup alongside your Form 990 filings.
- Sharing with an auditor: The transactions.csv file contains complete double-entry detail with fund and program tags, which auditors typically need for compliance review.
- Opening large files: If transactions.csv is large, use Google Sheets or a database tool instead of Excel, which has a 1,048,576 row limit.
- After downloading, open the ZIP file and verify all 8 CSV files are present.
- Open transactions.csv and confirm that recent transactions appear with correct amounts.
- Check that the date in the filename matches today's date.
- Expecting attachments in the export. Document attachments are stored separately and are not included in the CSV export. Download them individually from the transaction detail pages.
- Expecting the export to be limited by plan. Data export is available on all plans (Starter, Standard, and Professional). If you see an "Upgrade Required" page, it's for a different feature.
- Opening CSVs in Excel with wrong encoding. If you see garbled characters, make sure Excel is importing with UTF-8 encoding. In Excel: Data > From Text/CSV > select UTF-8 from the encoding dropdown.
Accountant Note: Keep exported data as part of your nonprofit's records retention policy. The IRS recommends retaining financial records for at least 3 years (7 years if you're uncertain). The transaction export preserves the full double-entry detail including fund restrictions and program tags, which satisfies the audit trail requirement for Form 990 support documentation. Store exports securely. They contain your organization's complete financial history.
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