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Exporting your data

Everything your firm keeps in Firmdesk is yours. Take a copy whenever you like, as spreadsheets and the documents themselves, and delete a client or the whole workspace when you're done.

Export everything

  1. Go to Settings › Export and delete.
  2. Under Export everything, click Make an export.
  3. Firmdesk makes the file in the background, so you can leave the page. The list shows the export as Being made until it's done.
  4. When it's ready, you get an email. Its Go to the download button brings you back to this page; sign in if you're asked to.
  5. Click Download beside the export.

What's in the file

One zip file, named after your firm and the day it was made:

  • a spreadsheet (CSV) for every kind of record: your firm's details, the team, clients, contacts, deadlines, tasks, time, invoices, payments, requests, reminders, the emails sent, the activity log and more;
  • every document, in a folder for its client and year;
  • your firm's logos, and a README that explains the files.

The spreadsheets open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. Records point to each other by id, with the name of what each id points to beside it. Passwords and sign-in codes are never part of an export.

Export one client's data

  1. Open the client's page.
  2. Click More actions (⋯), then Delete this client. Opening this page deletes nothing.
  3. Under Keep a copy first, click the button that says Export and the client's name.

The file holds that client's records and its documents. As with a full export, you're emailed when it's ready, and it's listed under Settings › Export and delete.

Delete one client for good

For a client that left the firm, or one added by mistake.

  1. On the client's page, click More actions (⋯) › Delete this client.
  2. Read What will be deleted: the client with its engagements, deadlines, tasks, time, invoices, payments, documents and requests, and the emails logged about it.
  3. If the client has contacts linked to no other client, you can tick the box to delete them too. Their client portal logins go with them.
  4. Type the client's name in The client's name, to confirm, then click the button that says Delete and the client's name.

This can't be undone. Team members and other clients are kept, and so are contacts unless you ticked the box. To stop working for a client but keep its history, edit the client and make it inactive instead.

A client named in another client's share register can't be deleted until those entries are removed there.

Delete the workspace

Only an owner can do this.

Make an export first

Once the workspace is deleted, nothing can be brought back.

  1. Go to Settings › Export and delete, and click Delete this workspace….
  2. Read what will be deleted: the clients with their deadlines, tasks and time, the documents and their files, the invoices and their payments, the team, and the logins of clients who use no other firm's portal.
  3. Type the firm's name in The firm's name, to confirm, and enter Your password.
  4. Click Delete in 30 days.

Nothing is deleted that day. For 30 days, everything works as usual, and a banner at the top of each page gives the date. Until then, any owner can cancel: click Keep the workspace on Settings › Export and delete (the banner links there). On the date, everything goes: the records, the documents, and the logins that belong to no other firm.

Good to know

  • Exports, downloads and deleting a client are for owners and admins. Asking for the workspace to be deleted, and cancelling that, are for owners.
  • An export is kept for 24 hours, then deleted.
  • A firm can make up to 5 exports an hour. While one is being made, Make an export can't be clicked.
  • The email goes to the person who asked. Any owner or admin can download the file from the list.
  • Asking for an export, downloading it and deleting a client are written in the activity log, under Settings › Activity.
  • For smaller spreadsheets, Time › Report has Export CSV, and Settings › Activity has Download as CSV.
  • Our privacy policy says a deleted client is gone from the service at once and from backups within 30 days. A deleted workspace is gone from backups within 30 days after its deletion date.
  • The policy also notes that firms have their own duties to keep records: when to delete is your firm's decision.