# Importing and exporting employees

> **You need:** *Employees — view* to export, *Employees — edit* to import.

## Exporting

Export produces a CSV of the employees within your brand and scope.

Two good reasons to export, beyond bulk editing:

- **As a snapshot before a bulk change.** It is your rollback, and takes seconds.
- **To review.** Reading a hundred records in a spreadsheet is faster than clicking through a hundred screens.

> An exported file is no longer scope-filtered. It contains staff data, so treat it accordingly — see the same caution in [Exporting data](/books/console-yF7/page/exporting-data).

## Importing

Import applies employee configuration from a CSV.

The sequence that avoids trouble:

1. **Export first.** This gives you both the current state and the exact column format the import expects.
2. **Edit the exported file** rather than building one from scratch.
3. **Test with a few rows.** Confirm they landed as intended before committing the rest.
4. **Import the remainder.**
5. **Spot-check** two or three people on the employee list.

## Imports are not transactional

A failure partway through leaves earlier rows applied and later rows not. There is no rollback, which is why the export in step 1 matters and why you find out *where* it stopped before re-submitting.

Re-running a whole file after a partial failure may re-apply rows that already succeeded.

## Backups

Employee configuration is covered by the backup system: exports are retained, and can be downloaded or restored — see [Backups and restoring configuration](/books/console-yF7/page/backups-and-restoring-configuration).

Restoring an employee backup follows the employee permission, not a separate backup one. And as with every restore, it reinstates the snapshot wholesale: anything changed since, by anyone, is overwritten for the records it covers.

## What import does not touch

Roles, scope and passwords are not part of employee configuration. Importing a hundred employees gives none of them console access — see [Managing roles from the console](/books/console-yF7/page/managing-roles-from-the-console).