# Exporting data

> **You need:** *Metrics — export*. This is a **separate, higher** permission than *Metrics*, and is normally held by `admin` rather than by everyone who can read metrics.

Two things can be exported: **order action logs** and **archived alarms**. Both come out as data files for analysis outside the console.

## Why export is a separate permission

Reading inside the console is scoped. Every screen filters to the stores, brands and sources you are allowed to see, every time you open it.

**An exported file is a snapshot with that protection removed.** Once it is a file on someone's laptop, it can be opened, forwarded and combined by anyone, regardless of what they could see in the console. The scope applied at export time; it does not travel with the file.

That is why export sits behind its own permission, and why it is worth thinking about before using it.

## Before exporting

| Ask | Because |
|---|---|
| Do I need the raw rows, or an answer? | A conclusion shared in a message is safer and usually more useful than a spreadsheet |
| Can the report answer it instead? | [Reports and Metrics: which to use](/books/console-yF7/page/reports-and-metrics-which-to-use) — aggregated reports often answer the question without raw data |
| Who will end up with this file? | Assume everyone the recipient works with |
| Does it need customer data? | Narrow the filters before exporting, not after |

## Exporting

1. Filter down to what you actually need — the export honours your filters and your scope.
2. Export.
3. Store it somewhere appropriate, and delete it when the analysis is done.

Narrow filters are the main control you have. An export of one store for one day is a very different object from an export of the whole chain for a month.

## What you get

The export reflects exactly what you could see when you ran it. It is not live — reopening the file a week later shows the state at export time, not now.

For anything recurring, re-export rather than reusing an old file, and take the answer from the console where you can.

## Related pages

- [Order logs and timelines](/books/console-yF7/page/order-logs-and-timelines) — what is being exported
- [Archived alarms](/books/console-yF7/page/archived-alarms) — the other exportable history
- [How scope works in practice](/books/console-yF7/page/how-scope-works-in-practice) — what scope does, and what it stops doing at export