Exporting data from your swim club software

Several screens let you save a list or a report as a spreadsheet file (a CSV file). This article explains which files exist, who can download each one, how to open them, and the rules every download follows. Each screen's own help article describes what is in its file.

Instructors, members and anyone with a lower role cannot download these files. The guided Download CSV button in the reports workspace works the same way for the report you are looking at; see Reports and CSV exports.

To take a copy of everything your club has stored at once, see Downloading all of your club's data below. Your club's own API keys can also read much of the same information (see API keys and the public API).

Your club can add an Export button to these pages, next to the list:

• Members: Households, Waitlist, Renewals and Leaving the club.

• Money: Invoices, Check run (every refund check, whatever its status), and on Reports the Credits & refunds review and the Bond money held ledger.

• Programs: Camp (the roster, and the roster's attendance), Lap swim (the calendar), Lessons (the day sheet), Facility rentals, the Guest log (guest visits, and caregiver passes) and the Shop (orders).

• Reach: Tickets, Messages (the delivery details behind Sent, the Newsletter subscribers and the Suppressions), Tasks and Documents (the list of documents, never the files).

• Club: the Audit log and Agreements (who has signed).

It is off until an admin turns on Export buttons on list pages (Club → Staff & tools, under List downloads). Only an admin signed in to the admin console can turn it on or off; a connected tool cannot. The downloads in the table above keep working whether it is on or off.

Export opens a short window that shows:

• How many rows match the filters you have on the page right now, for example "412 people match." The file has exactly that many rows: everything that matches, not just the page of the list you can see. (The audit log's file can have one more: the line that records your download.)

• A choice of rows, where the page has one. On Households, for example, one row per household or one row per person.

• A choice of columns. Standard leaves out contact details. The other choices (such as With contact details, With custom fields, With emergency and medical details or Mailing list) add more. Before you download, the window says what the file will include, for example "email addresses, phone numbers or street addresses", and asks you to keep it private.

• Any extra choices the page needs, such as a date range or Include canceled registrations.

Then select Download. If the file can't be prepared, the window says why. On Households, Export selected appears in the bar that shows when you tick households: the file holds only the ticked households (up to 1,000), and leaves out any that are no longer in your club.

What you searched for is sent with the download, never in the page's address, so it does not end up in your browser history or a shared link. While Export buttons on list pages is on, an old saved link to the household list download that includes a search takes you back to Households: search there and use Export.

Who can export: the same people who can open the page. Managers and admins on most pages; treasurers, managers and admins on Invoices, Renewals and Reports; treasurers and admins on Check run and the Audit log; every staff role on Tasks. A custom field marked Sensitive is treated like medical details in these files (see Custom fields).

Each page's own article lists its choices and columns: Households, Invoices, payments and credits, Waitlist and bond, Renewals and dues, Leaving the club, Check run, Reports, Camp, Lap swim, Lessons, Facility rentals, Guest log, Shop, Tickets, Messages (delivery details and newsletter subscribers), Email and text delivery (suppressions), Tasks, Documents, Audit log and Agreements.

When a member asks to see the information your club holds about them, an admin can open the household and choose Download everything in the Everything about this household card. It saves one ZIP file, prepared while you wait and not kept online. It holds only that household's own records (its people and children, billing, memberships, registrations, messages, staff notes and the changes the club recorded about them), in the same format as the download of all club data below, with a README.txt and a description of every column. It includes contact, children's and medical details and notes, so share it only with the member who asked and delete your copy when you are done. Only admins can use it, and only while Export buttons on list pages is on. See Households.

The camp week roster, a program's roster and the lessons day sheet each have a Print button. The printout leaves out the menus, filters and buttons, and starts with your club, what the sheet is and its date. There is no separate PDF file.

List files are made to be read by people: the household list, unconfirmed email addresses, the camp roster, the program roster, member questions and every file from the Export buttons. They use plain column headings, words instead of codes (for example "Registered" instead of a status code), money in dollars and cents with a "($)" in the heading (for example "Deposit ($)"), phone numbers like (925) 555-0123, lists joined with "; ", and times in your club's time with the time zone in the heading. They start with a marker that makes Excel show accented names correctly, and the file name is your club's name, what the file is and today's date.

Accounting files are made to be read by another program: the journal for your accountant, payout reconciliation, dues and unpaid list, bond money held list, approved check list and lesson payouts. Their columns, values and file names are fixed and have not changed, because a bookkeeper's import maps them by name and position. Do not expect them to look like the list files.

A CSV file opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers. A few things to know:

• Accented names. List files carry the marker that lets Excel on Windows show names like "José" correctly when you double-click the file. If a name still looks garbled, import the file as UTF-8 text instead.

• Leading zeros. A spreadsheet may drop the leading zero from a ZIP code or a similar number when it opens a CSV directly. In Excel, open a blank workbook and use Data, then From Text/CSV (or Get Data from text), and set that column to Text. Opening the file in Google Sheets keeps leading zeros.

• Long text. An Excel cell holds at most 32,767 characters, and anything longer is cut off when you open the file. The member questions testing file is a different kind of file (one record per line) and is meant for a developer's tool, not for Excel.

• Do not edit a file you will import back. Make a copy to work in.

• Complete or refused. A file holds the whole list that matches your filters, never just the first page, and never a silently shortened list. If the list would be larger than 10,000 rows or about 10 MB, the download is refused with a message asking you to narrow the filters (for example, by choosing a status, a tag or a date range) and try again.

• Not saved online. The file is prepared when you ask for it, from the current data, and sent straight to you. Your browser is told not to keep a copy in its shared cache. Asking again prepares a new file, which can differ from the last one.

• A pace limit. Your club can prepare at most 30 files in any minute, across everyone and every download. Attempts that fail count too. If you reach the limit, wait a minute and try again. The guided report download in the reports workspace has its own stricter limit of 10 a minute, and counts against the same allowance.

• Recorded in the audit log. Every download adds two entries to the audit log: one when the file was requested and one when it was prepared. They record who downloaded, which file, which kind of rows and columns, what kind of details the file carried (such as contact or medical details), how many rows, and a fingerprint of the filters. They never record what you searched for, anyone's name or what is inside the file. See Audit log.

• Who is refused. The file is refused in "View as member" sessions (you are signed in as a member to see their view, which is read-only), on the public demo, for API keys, and for anyone below the role the screen needs.

Many of these files contain members' contact details, children's details, medical details or free-text notes. Download only what you need, keep the file in a private place (not a shared drive, a public folder or a personal email account), share it only with the people who need it for their job, and delete it when you are done. A member's information in a file you keep is not updated when it changes in the system, so download a fresh copy rather than reusing an old one.

If your club has connected an AI assistant (a connected tool), here is what it can get:

• The program roster holds names, statuses, dates and money only, so the tool can fetch it like any other information.

• Files with contact details, children's details, medical details or free-text notes wait for your approval first: unconfirmed email addresses, member questions, the journal for your accountant, the approved check list and the newsletter subscribers list. Asking for them needs a connection your club lets make changes.

• Files with a choice of columns (the household list, camp registrations, invoices, the waitlist, renewals, the credit and refund review, the bond ledger, the check run list, leaving-the-club requests, facility rentals, shop orders, tickets, message delivery details, tasks and the document list) also need a connection your club lets make changes. A choice with contact, children's, medical or notes details waits for your approval; a names-only choice (each page's Standard) is sent straight away. On Tickets, Check run and Documents, a request that includes a search waits for your approval too, because a search reads the text people typed.

• The suppressions list is made of email addresses, so it always waits for your approval.

• Everything about one household always waits for an admin's approval, and the admin downloads it on the approval page.

• The payout reconciliation, the dues and unpaid list, the bond money held list, the lesson payouts, the lap swim and lesson lists, guest visits, caregiver passes, camp attendance, the audit log and agreement signatures can't be fetched by a connected tool at the moment. Download them on the website.

• While Export buttons on list pages is off, a tool's request for anything new on the list pages (the new files, and the new choices on the household list and camp roster) is refused before anything is sent for approval.

After you approve, the approval page offers the file to you to download once. It is not kept online, and the tool cannot read the file later. Download it before you leave the page.

A connected tool can also ask to prepare a download of all club data (below). That request always waits for an admin's approval, the admin who approves needs a sign-in in the last 30 minutes, and the tool never receives the file: only admins download it from Club, Advanced. See Approving an action and Connecting an assistant.

Admins can prepare one download that holds everything your club has stored: every household, person and membership, every bill, payment, credit and bond, registrations, reservations, waitlists, signed agreements, messages sent, member questions, tasks and the change log, your club's settings and website pages, and your document library. The pictures used on your website come in a second file. It includes information from features your club has since turned off, because that information is still yours.

Where: Club, then Advanced, the Your club's data section. Only admins see it.

Turning it on. The section has a switch, Let admins prepare a download of all club data, which is off until your club turns it on. Only an admin, signed in to the admin console, can turn it on or off. A connected tool cannot.

Preparing a download.

1. Select Prepare a download of all club data and confirm. For your security this needs a sign-in in the last 30 minutes. If it has been longer, the page shows Sign in again instead: select it and sign in, and you return to this page. It is also refused on a shared computer (a sign-in made without "Keep me signed in on this device").

2. The download is prepared in the background. A large club can take several minutes. You can leave the page; it updates itself while you watch.

3. When it is ready, you get an email, and every admin of your club gets an email saying a download of all club data was prepared, and by whom. If nobody expected it, tell your other admins and contact Swim Ops support.

4. Select Download all club data (and Download website files, if your website has pictures). Each download is recorded in the audit log.

Only one download can be prepared at a time, and at most three in a day. Each is kept for seven days and then deleted. Any admin can download it during that time; someone who is no longer an admin cannot.

What is in the file. It is a ZIP file. Open it to see:

• records/: one spreadsheet (CSV) file per kind of record, such as households, people, invoices and payments.

• settings/: your club's settings, membership types and prices, schedules and other set-up, as spreadsheets or JSON files.

• content/: website pages, agreement texts, automatic email wording, saved replies, delivered messages and member questions, as JSON files (made for another program to read).

• files/: your document library.

• README.txt explains the files, and manifest.json lists every file with how many rows it has, what each column means and what each status code stands for.

These files are made for another system to read, so they look different from the list files above: column headings are short code-style names (for example household_id), statuses are codes (the manifest says what each one means), money is in cents (12500 is $125.00), times are in UTC, and yes/no is true/false. They still open in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.

What is left out. Passwords are never stored, so they cannot be included. Also left out: sign-in codes and connection secrets; the record of which tools are connected and what they did; internal records kept only so something happens once, such as queues and counters; raw import files; the payment processor's raw messages; Swim Ops' own notes and test data about your club; and the address of the computer used during Swim Ops support sessions. Saved reports that someone kept private stay private. The file's README.txt and manifest.json list everything left out and why. The rest is included, including members' contact details, children's details, medical notes and staff notes, so keep the file somewhere private and delete it when you are done.

When Swim Ops prepares it for you. If your club asks in writing (for example at the end of your agreement, or when no admin can sign in), Swim Ops support can prepare the download for you. It works the same way: every admin is emailed and it appears on Club, Advanced. Swim Ops downloads it only when no admin of your club can sign in, and that is recorded in your audit log too.

• "Narrow the filters." The list is over the size limit. Filter by status, tag, date or program and download in parts.

• "Wait a minute." Your club has reached the pace limit. Try again shortly.

• "Downloads from the list pages are not turned on for this club." An admin turns on Export buttons on list pages (Club → Staff & tools, under List downloads).

• No Export button. Export buttons on list pages is off, or your role can't export that list (see Export buttons on the list pages).

• Not allowed. Your role cannot download that file, or you are in a "View as member" session or the demo. Ask a manager or admin.

• The file is empty or has fewer rows than you expected. Check the filters on the page. The file always matches them. The program roster ignores the on-screen filter on purpose and includes canceled registrations.

• "Sign in again." Preparing a download of all club data needs a sign-in in the last 30 minutes. Select Sign in again, then try once more.

• "Couldn't be prepared." The page says why. Try again later, or contact Swim Ops support, who can prepare it for you.

• The download of all club data has gone. It is kept for seven days. Prepare a new one.