Beacon makes it easy to get your data out of Beacon, using CSV and PDF exports. This is often useful when you need to use the data in Beacon offline or with another system, when you want to run more detailed analytics, or you want to show a report to clients or trustees.
Watch our video for an overview of exporting your data:
Ad-hoc CSV exports
To get your data out of Beacon, you first need to decide on the data you want - i.e. which record type to export.
Navigate to the correct record type, and select the records you want. You can either:
Select specific records
ORClick the top-left checkbox to select all records
Tip: If you select all records and have filters selected, you're only selecting all of the records that match your filters, not every record.
You'll see the action menu icon appear in the top left of the list page (the three dots!). Click it to open the "bulk actions" menu.
Click the export option. By default, you'll see a dialog where you can choose your template. Choose either Visible fields (default) or All fields and then click Start export.
Download your file. That's it!
Export templates
Ad-hoc exports let you get most of the data out in one big CSV file. Sometimes this is great, but sometimes you want the data in a specific format - either in a CSV file, or even in a beautiful PDF - or you want to export specific fields.
Export templates are the answer here. Read more in this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
What permissions do I need to run an export?
If the roles and permissions element has been purchased, admin users can restrict access to features, records, and fields. In order to run an export, a standard user will need at least the following permissions:
Feature - Export data - Edit permission
Feature - Export templates - Read permission (if exporting using a template)
Read permission for all fields being exported
Can I schedule an export?
No, you cannot currently schedule an export from Beacon. Please let us know if this is important for you!
Help! I'm having formatting issues.
Sometimes when opening up an exported CSV file in programmes like Excel, you might find that instead of the phone numbers you were trying to export, your file has numbers like 4.47E. Don't panic! You're phone numbers are still there and this is just excel applying some fancy formatting.
Before saving your file, simply change the formatting of any cells affected to the 'Number' format and make sure your column has enough space to display the full number. That should then give you the full number and you might just need to adjust the number decimal places.