Move your data into or out of Nova

See what Nova can export and import, where the Exports and Imports pages are, and the order to follow when you move a customer list into or out of Nova.

In the sidebar, open Administration, then look under Data. Exports opens Create export at /settings/org/exports/create, and Imports opens Start import at /settings/org/imports. The past runs are on Export jobs (/settings/org/exports/jobs) and Import jobs (/settings/org/imports/jobs).

Before you start

• Exports and imports are admin tools. If Exports or Imports is missing under Data, your role does not have the export or import permission. Ask your admin.
• Decide which way you are moving. Bringing a customer list over from another tool is an import. Taking a copy of your Nova records for a backup, an accountant or another Nova workspace is an export.
• Nothing is imported until you confirm it. Every import starts as a preview, and every export is built in the background and downloaded by you.

Steps

This is the whole path for a company moving its customer list from another tool into Nova.

1. In the old tool, export the customer list as a CSV or Excel file. Move a customer list from another tool shows what to export and how the columns line up.
2. Open Imports. On Start import, choose Customers, upload the file, tell Nova where the file came from, and match its columns to Nova fields.
3. Check the customer matches and the issues Nova found, then press Preview import. Nova runs a dry run and writes nothing yet.
4. On Review preview and import, press Continue to live import, or approve the run when your organization asks for an approval first. Follow the run on Import jobs.
5. Import any related files next, such as work orders, using the same customer numbers, so each row links to a customer that now exists. The full walkthrough is Import customers and work orders from a file.
6. Moving out is the reverse: open Exports, pick the record groups on Create export, press Create export run, then download the zip from Export jobs before it expires. See Export your data from Nova.

What you see

• Exports has two tabs, Create export and Export jobs. The record groups are arranged by area: customer records (accounts, contacts, locations, phones and emails), organization and access, work, files and notes, communications and more. Files come out as CSV, XLSX, JSON or NDJSON inside one zip, with an Expires tag on every run.
• Imports has four tabs: Start import for files from another system, Import jobs for every import run with its dry run and approvals, Saved mappings for column choices you reuse, and Restore Nova export for a zip that Nova itself exported.
• Start import offers two choices: Customers, for a customer file that can also carry contacts, addresses, phones and emails, and Work orders, for rows that each belong to a customer.
• For admins who can see organization settings, Export jobs and Import jobs open with an approval policy panel, Export approval policy and Import approval policy. It is an organization setting. With Automatic (recommended) a run starts as soon as your permissions allow it; the other modes hold matching runs until an admin approves them.

If something looks different

• /settings/org/exports sends you to Import jobs rather than Export jobs: your role can import but not export.
• The old tool gave you several files, or one Excel file with several tabs: import customers first, then contacts, addresses and work orders that carry the same customer number or account number. Nova checks those matches before related records are allowed in.
• An export run has expired: do not keep working on the old run. Create a fresh export and download the new zip.
• You need documents and photos in the export, not just records: switch on Include file contents when you create it. It needs permission to download files.

Start an import