Help Center / Reporting

Exporting Reports

What is this page about: Light's reporting engine lets you export any report or drilldown as a CSV file. This page explains how to export a report, what happens with large exports, what the exported CSV contains, what separator the CSV uses, how drilldown export works, how to share a report link, how to format exported data for presentations, and common use cases for exporting reports.

On this page

  • How do I export a report?
  • What happens with large exports?
  • What does the exported CSV contain?
  • What separator does the CSV use?
  • How does drilldown export work?
  • How do I share a report link?
  • How do I format exported data for presentations?
  • What are common use cases for exporting reports?

Light exports report data as CSV so you can open it in a spreadsheet application, import it into a BI tool, or share it with auditors and stakeholders.

How do I export a report?

To export a report, open it, apply your filters, then click the download icon. Light downloads a CSV file to your browser's default downloads folder.

  1. Open any report in Planning & Reports → Reports
  2. Apply your filters (entity, date range, currency, comparison period)
  3. Click the download icon
  4. Light downloads a CSV file to your browser's default downloads folder

Filename format:

  • Period reports: {reportName}_{startDate}_to_{endDate}.csv
  • Snapshot reports (e.g. Balance Sheet): {reportName}_as_of_{endDate}.csv
  • The report name is sanitised before it's used in the filename: most punctuation is removed, but hyphens and underscores are kept, and spaces become underscores (e.g. P&L Report becomes PL_Report).

What happens with large exports?

When you export a large ledger transaction drilldown above a certain size, Light prepares the file in the background instead of downloading it immediately.

  1. You'll see a toast titled "Your export is being prepared" with the message "You'll be notified when it's ready."
  2. Continue working in Light while the export runs in the background
  3. When the file is ready, a notification appears in your notification panel (top right)
  4. Click the notification to download the CSV. Your export stays available for 7 days, so download it within that time

Smaller exports download immediately without going through this background step.

What does the exported CSV contain?

A CSV exported from Light mirrors what you see on screen in the report:

  • The first column header is Description, with row labels indented to reflect hierarchy
  • One column per entity, per consolidation column (Subtotal, Elimination, Consolidated), and per comparison period, where applicable
  • A single header row: the entity name appears as a suffix on each column, and period labels appear only when the report is in comparison mode
  • For the Income Statement and Balance Sheet reports, Light excludes account-detail rows with all-zero values, but always includes header, subtotal, and total rows

What separator does the CSV use?

Light's exported CSV uses a comma or a semicolon, based on the CSV data separator setting under Settings → Profile → User preferences. The same section has a Numeric format setting (Decimal Point, e.g. 1,234.56, or Decimal Comma, e.g. 1.234,56), which controls how numbers appear in your export.

How does drilldown export work?

Clicking into a cell opens a drilldown of the underlying transaction lines. The consolidated and pivot report drilldowns each have their own download icon for exporting those lines as a separate CSV. The aged report drilldown does not currently have an export option.

Every report in Light has a stable URL you can share with a colleague.

  1. Hover over a report row in Planning & Reports → Reports
  2. Click the ⋯ (ellipsis) icon that appears
  3. Select Link

Light copies the URL to your clipboard and shows a "Copied to clipboard" confirmation. Anyone with access to Light and the appropriate permissions can open the link directly.

How do I format exported data for presentations?

After exporting a report from Light, open the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets to:

  • Apply formatting, fonts, and colours for presentations
  • Build charts and visualisations
  • Add narrative commentary for board packs or management reports
  • Save as PDF for external distribution

What are common use cases for exporting reports?

Auditor requests — Export trial balance, balance sheet, P&L, and aged AP/AR reports from Light as CSV. Auditors can import these directly into their analysis tools.

Tax compliance — Export transaction detail by tax code from Light to support VAT returns and income tax schedules.

BI and analytics tools — Import CSVs exported from Light into Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or similar tools for advanced visualisation.

Was this article helpful?

Book a demo