Getting your data out

The quarter ends, the VAT return is due, and your accountant sends the same email they send every quarter. CleanFlo does not integrate with accounting software, so the answer to that email is always a CSV file. This guide is a map of which file, from where, with which columns in it.

Every export in the product is one click. No dialog, no column picker, no date-range prompt. The file downloads with the name it was going to have, and a toast tells you how many rows went into it.

Three places to export from

The seven files Reports produces

Each card on Reports that has a table under it carries a ghost Export button in its header. The invoice ledger is the only one whose button reads Export CSV instead. All seven follow the same rules: the button is disabled when the table is empty, and the file always covers the whole row set behind the table rather than the ten rows on screen.

Money columns in these files carry your own currency symbol in the header rather than in every cell, so a column of amounts stays numeric and a spreadsheet will sum it without being argued with. The success toast counts what went out: "Exported 14 invoices", "Exported 3 team members", "Exported 1 client".

The exports on the working screens

Four of the list screens have their own Export CSV button beside the pager. These are rawer than the Reports files: what you see, in the order you sorted it, with the filters you applied.

Note that invoices.csv exists in two different shapes. The one from the Invoicing screen carries the client name; the one from the Reports Financial tab does not, but is already cut to the date range. For a VAT quarter you want the Reports one. For a debt chase you want the Invoicing one, filtered to Overdue first.

Settings, Data Export: everything at once

The fourth tab of Settings is Data Export, and it is a different kind of export. The other buttons hand you a view. This one hands you the tables. Its subtitle says what it is for: "Download your data as CSV files. This fulfils your right to data portability under GDPR."

Each row exports its own table with a stable set of columns, and the files are dated: cleanflo_clients_2026-08-14.csv. The toast tells you the count, or tells you there was nothing there: "Clients exported (128 rows)." or "No clients to export."

Export All Data runs all six in order. While it works, the button label becomes a progress line reading "Exporting Invoices (4 of 6)…", a thin progress bar appears, finished rows turn green with a tick and the row in flight tints brand. The result is one combined file, cleanflo_export_2026-08-14.csv, with each table separated by a comment line such as "# Clients (12)". The final toast reads "All data exported (243 rows across 6 tables)."

Invoices shaped for Xero or QuickBooks

Underneath the six generic tables on Settings, Data Export sits a second, smaller block headed Accounting Software Export, with two rows: Xero and QuickBooks, each with its own Export CSV. These are not another copy of invoices.csv. They are built to match the column headers each product's own invoice-import screen already expects, so a bookkeeper can hand the file straight to Xero or QuickBooks' import step rather than remapping columns by hand first.

Both flatten every invoice down to one row per line item, so a three-line invoice becomes three rows sharing the same invoice number — this is the shape both products' importers expect an invoice to arrive in. Draft invoices are left out entirely: a draft was never actually issued, so there is nothing yet for an accountant to book. Dates are written UK-style, day/month/year with slashes, which is the format both tools read by default.

What to actually send your bookkeeper

A practical sequence for a VAT quarter, assuming you are on the standard scheme and accounting on invoices raised rather than cash received.