Import / export formats

The CSV files used for Import from CSV and produced by Export data follow a set of column conventions for each item type. They round-trip: exporting an item type and re-importing the same file is the safest way to bulk-edit your data outside Ceum.

The shortest path

Don't try to reverse-engineer the format by hand. On any importer, click Download sample. The sample is built from your own account — your real statuses, types, and tags — so the example values are guaranteed to validate.

Edit the sample, save it, and feed it back through the importer.

General conventions

Encoding — UTF-8. Spreadsheets that save UTF-8 with a byte-order mark (for example, Excel on Windows) usually work too.
Delimiter — comma. Put quotes around any value that contains a comma or a line break, and double any quotes inside it.
Header row — required. Column order doesn't matter; columns are matched by name (case-insensitive), and common alternative names are accepted.
Dates — ISO format, YYYY-MM-DD. Locale-specific formats aren't reliably understood.
Dates with time — ISO 8601 with a timezone (2026-05-28T14:30:00Z) or without one (2026-05-28T14:30:00).
Amounts — plain numbers, no thousands separator. The decimal mark is always a period, regardless of your display preferences. Currency comes from a neighboring column or your default currency.
Yes/no values — true / false, or yes / no for some item types (subscriptions accept both).
Set values — must match exactly (for example, income, expense, monthly, weekly).
Tags — comma-separated within a single cell (for example, eu, vat, q3). Tags that aren't already in your library are created automatically.
References to other items — matched by name (case-insensitive) when an ID isn't given. For example, a transaction's client column accepts the client's display name.

Columns by item type

Clients — name, company, email, website, phone, address, status (by name), next follow-up date, estimated value, probability, source, tags, notes.
Projects — name (required), status (required), description, client (by name), start date, end date, tags.
Tasks — name, status, type, priority (high / medium / low), description, project, start date, deadline, tags.
Invoices — invoice number, client, issue date, due date, amount, currency, status, notes, tags.
Transactions — date (required), description (required), type (income / expense, required), amount (required), currency, tags/category, net amount, tax rate, tax amount.
Subscriptions — service, cost, tax rate, currency, billing date, period, times per period, active, tags. Exports can also include net cost and tax amount; both are calculated from cost and tax rate, so they export but don't import.
Time entries — name, start time, end time, task, tags.

Each importer's Download sample is the authoritative reference — the lists above are the headline columns, and some item types accept extra optional columns shown in the sample.

Exporting and re-importing safely

The safest way to edit data in bulk outside Ceum:

From the item type's exports page, generate a fresh CSV.
Open it in your spreadsheet. Edit cells, add or remove rows.
Feed it through that item type's importer. Rows that match an existing item update it; others create a new one.

Keep in mind that not every item type can update existing items on import. Clients, for example, import as create-only with a duplicate-name warning. Read the import validation step carefully.

Tips and edge cases

Turn off thousands separators before exporting. If you're round-tripping through Excel, set Currency formatting to use no thousands separator so amount columns parse cleanly on re-import.
Don't mix plain dates and dates with time. Stick to whichever the item type uses.
Tags split on commas inside the cell. A tag that literally contains a comma will be split into two tags on import.
Set values are exact. Income (capitalized) is not the same as income for the transaction type column.

On mobile

Not available on the mobile app — manage from the web app. The mobile app shows and edits your data, but CSV import and bulk export are web-only.