> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.commander.finance/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Exporting your data

> Download a portable CSV copy of your transactions, merchants, accounts, and budget lines from Commander Finance—a single table at a time or the whole account at once.

The Data Export page in Commander Finance hands you a portable copy of everything you have entered into the app—your
budget, accounts, transactions, and merchants—as CSV files you can open in any spreadsheet. Use it to keep your own
backup, to move numbers into a tool Commander does not yet integrate with, or to take your data with you if you
decide to leave.

## Opening the Data Export page

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Settings">
    Tap or click **More** in the sidebar, then **Settings**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick Data Export">
    Under the Account section, choose **Data Export**. The subtitle reads
    "Download a copy of your budget, accounts, transactions, and merchants"
    so it is easy to find.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The page has two sections—**Targeted Export** and **Full Export**—stacked top to bottom. Targeted Export pulls a
single table at a time. Full Export bundles every table into one zip archive.

## What gets exported

Both sections write the same four tables; the only difference is whether you take them one at a time or all at once.
Every file is CSV, with one row per record.

* **Transactions**—every transaction in your account, with amount, date, status (settled or pending), and the
  names of the linked account, budget line, and merchant where set.
* **Merchants**—every merchant you have created or that Commander has created for you, with the business name
  and the default budget line where one is assigned.
* **Accounts**—every manual and synced account, with the account type, color, initial value, and current and
  available balances.
* **Budget lines**—every budget line, with its color, mode-specific configuration, and current activity total.

Cross-references between tables use names, not internal IDs, so a transaction's "Account" column matches the
"Name" column of the accounts file. That keeps the files readable on their own and lets you join them in a
spreadsheet without translating IDs.

## Targeted Export

Use Targeted Export when you only need one of the four tables—for example, to hand a colleague a clean
transactions CSV without sending them your account list.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Pick a table">
    Use the dropdown to pick **Transactions**, **Merchants**, **Accounts**,
    or **Budget Lines**. Tables that have no rows yet are tagged **(none
    yet)** in the dropdown so you know there is nothing to export.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check the count">
    The line below the dropdown summarises how many rows the file will
    contain, so you can confirm you picked the right table before
    downloading.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Download">
    Click **Download CSV**. Your browser saves a single CSV file named after
    the table. The button is disabled when the selected table has no rows.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Single-table exports skip the confirmation step by design, so a one-click download is all that stands between you and the file.

## Full Export

Full Export packages all four tables into one zip archive in a single click. Use it for backups or whenever you
want a complete snapshot of your data.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Review the summary">
    Below the **Download all my data** button, Commander shows a one-line
    summary of what your export will contain—the number of transactions,
    merchants, accounts, and budget lines. If your account has no data at
    all, the summary says so instead.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start the export">
    Click **Download all my data**. The button label changes to **Preparing
    your export…** while Commander assembles the archive, and re-enables
    once the download starts or an error appears.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm a large export, if asked">
    If your transaction count is unusually large, Commander first shows a
    **Large export detected** advisory warning that preparing a big archive
    can use a lot of memory on the device you are using. Click **Continue**
    to proceed or **Cancel** to back out.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The archive is a single zip file containing the same four CSV files you would get from Targeted Export. Extract it
with the built-in zip tool on macOS, Windows, iOS, or Android and open each CSV file in your spreadsheet of choice.

## If something goes wrong

If Commander cannot fetch some of your data, the section shows a brief message asking you to try again, and the
download button re-enables so you can retry. If a retry does not help, reach out to the Commander team using the
**Support** link at the top of this site.


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