Exporting Data from Shelf

Shelf exports asset data as CSV from the Assets index — a selection of items or a filtered view, in either of two formats. This guide covers both methods, what each includes, and the reporting scenarios they're best for.

Two Export Methods

1. Export Selected Assets

Navigate to the Assets index
Select the assets you want using the checkboxes
Click Export selection at the top of the asset list
Pick a Format and a Columns scope (see Choosing an export format below)
Click Download CSV

Assets index showing the export toolbar

2. Export a Filtered View

Apply any filters in the Assets index (category, location, custodian, tags, status)
Click Select all X entries to include all matches across every page
Click Export selection, pick your format, and click Download CSV

Your current search and filters are carried into the export, so the file contains exactly the rows you can see.

Filter-then-export is the most common reporting path — see Common reporting scenarios below. For the full filtering reference, see Advanced Asset Index: Complete Guide.

If you run the same report every month, save the filter once and pick it from Saved Filters each time. See Saved Filters.

Looking for the Asset backup card?

The Asset backup card with its Download CSV button under Workspace Settings → General was retired on 15 October 2026, together with the restore tool Shelf support used to run on those files. The Assets index export replaced it: select all assets, click Export selection, pick Import-ready and All columns, and the file carries every asset with its category, tags, location, custodian, asset model, barcodes and custom field values written as names the importer reads back. Keep that file as your copy, or upload it into another workspace through Assets → Import. See Choosing an export format and Moving assets to another workspace.

Asset photos are not part of any export, so images need to be re-added after an import. An Import-ready file leaves QR IDs out too. A Standard file lists each QR ID for reference, but a QR code stays with the workspace that issued it.

Choosing an Export Format

When you click Export selection, Shelf asks two questions before it builds the file.

Export options showing the Standard and Import-ready formats and the column scope

Format

Standard: a readable spreadsheet that mirrors what's on your screen: display labels, formatted values, and a total value column. Use it for reporting, insurance schedules, budget reviews, and anything a person will read.
Import-ready: the same assets written with the importer's own column headers and values. Use it whenever the file is going back into Shelf. It does two jobs from one download: upload it into another workspace through Assets → Import to recreate the assets there, or upload it to Assets → Import → Update existing to edit the very assets it came from.

An Import-ready export quotes every cell. Where a tag name or a barcode value contains a comma, it is also quoted inside its cell, so Berlin, DE comes back as one tag when you upload the file again. The Standard export lists tags for a reader, separated by commas, so use Import-ready for any file that goes back into Shelf.

An Import-ready export always starts with an id column, in either column scope. That is what lets the update flow match each row back to its asset. The create flow ignores the column, since those ids belong to the workspace that issued them.

Columns

Visible columns: only the columns currently shown in your index.
All columns: every available column, regardless of what's displayed.

Switching to Import-ready selects All columns for you, since a fuller file re-imports more completely. You can switch back to Visible columns if you only want a subset: Import-ready always keeps id plus the fields required to recreate an asset (title, type, quantity, minQuantity, unitOfMeasure, consumptionType), so a trimmed file still imports and still updates.

Moving Assets to Another Workspace

Import-ready exports are built for exactly this. Export from the source workspace, then import the file into the destination workspace with Assets → Import. The importer creates the categories, tags, locations, custodians, asset models, kits, and custom fields it finds by name, so you don't have to set anything up first.

Two fields are deliberately left out:

QR IDs are tied to the workspace that owns them, so they can't travel. Assets get fresh QR codes in the destination workspace.
Images aren't carried over yet, so asset photos need to be re-added after the import. For a fleet of identical units there is a shortcut: the importer recreates your asset models by name, so uploading one cover image on the model in the destination workspace gives every unit of that model a picture in a single step.

Everything else, including barcodes and custom field values with their types, comes across. See Importing Assets to Shelf: CSV Guide for the import side.

What's Included in Each Export

Standard exports include the columns you chose in the export dialog: either the ones currently visible in your view, or all of them. Customize which columns display by clicking the Columns control in the top-right of the index.

Typical fields included:

Name, Description, Category, Tags, Location
Status (Available, In custody, etc.)
Custody (the current custodian)
QR ID, QR URL and Asset ID / SAM ID. QR URL is the link the asset's QR code encodes (https://eam.sh/…), right after QR ID, so label software such as Brady Workstation, P-touch Editor or Dymo Connect can print the code from it. It is empty for an asset without a code. If you have a custom field named QR URL, your field keeps that header instead
Total quantity as a plain number, with Unit of measure right after it whenever the quantity is exported, and Free now, Reserved, Stock status and Min quantity when those columns are chosen
Value, Purchase date, any other custom fields you've defined
Activity history (on selected exports; not on filtered views)

How the file is encoded

Every CSV Shelf hands you is written as UTF-8 and carries a byte order mark, and the download says charset=utf-8 on the wire. That mark is what tells a spreadsheet application which alphabet it is reading. Without it, Excel falls back to whatever codepage the machine happens to use, and Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, CJK and even plain accented Latin come out as unreadable symbols.

So a file exported from Shelf opens correctly on the first try, in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets, with no import wizard and no encoding to pick. It holds for all of them: the asset index export, bookings, report exports, non-registered members, and the activity note exports on assets, bookings, audits and locations.

The mark does not travel into your data. Shelf's own importer strips it, so a file you export, edit and upload again round-trips cleanly, and so does a file Excel saved with a mark of its own.

Values that look like formulas

A spreadsheet treats a cell that starts with =, +, - or @ as a formula and runs it when the file is opened. So when an asset name, tag, custom field value or name, booking, note or team member name starts with one of those characters, Shelf puts a single quote (') in front of it in the CSV. Excel and Google Sheets then show it as plain text, for example '=HYPERLINK(...) rather than a link. Negative numbers such as -5 or -$5.00 are left alone, so values and amounts still add up.

This applies to both asset export formats, Standard and Import-ready, and to bookings, report exports, non-registered members and the activity note exports. Upload an asset export to Bulk Updating Assets via CSV, or an Import-ready export to the CSV import, and Shelf removes the added quote again, so the values come back exactly as they were.

Dates in exported files

Dates in a CSV are written in your own date format, time format, and time zone, the ones set under Account settings → General, so a downloaded file reads the same way the screen does. A colleague with different settings who exports the same assets gets the same dates written their way. See Date, Time and Timezone Preferences.

Common Reporting Scenarios

Assets assigned to a specific custodian

Click Filter → choose Custody → pick the person
Select all filtered results
Export selection

Useful for offboarding reports, asset recovery after a role change, or quarterly accountability reviews.

All assets in a given category

Filter → Category → pick the category
Select all → Export selection

Useful for category-level financial reporting or insurance documentation.

Available assets in a specific location

Filter → Status = Available AND Location = the site
Select all → Export selection

Useful for what-can-I-pick-up-today snapshots for teams planning on-site work.

Assets due for maintenance

If you track maintenance dates in a custom field, filter by that field
Alternatively, use tags (e.g. needs-service) and filter by tag
Export the list to drive a maintenance schedule

See Asset Reminders for setting up maintenance reminders alongside your exports.

Using Exports for Bulk Updates

A common workflow: export a filtered selection, edit the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets, re-import to apply changes at scale. The Update Existing Assets feature handles this with a preview step that shows every field change before anything is saved.

Important: Only use Asset Index exports for re-import updates. A file from the old workspace backup download (retired in October 2026) stores category, tags, and asset model as raw data rather than plain names. Shelf still recognizes such a file and stops with an explanation rather than proposing changes from it.

Pick Import-ready. It carries the id column the update flow matches rows on, and it writes quantity-tracked fields in the shape that flow expects: quantity as a plain number, plus minQuantity, unitOfMeasure, and consumptionType as their own columns.

A Standard export can be used as well, with two caveats:

It only carries an ID column when that column is visible in your index or you pick the All columns scope.
It has no Consumption type column, so add one yourself, spelled exactly that way, when you want to change it in bulk. Total quantity is a plain number and Unit of measure comes with it; Min quantity is there when the column is shown or you pick All columns. A Standard file exported before 20 October 2026 still writes the quantity with its unit, as 10 boxes, and the update flow needs the number alone.

The other way round, Last audit date is a Standard-only column: a Standard export carries it when the column is visible or you pick All columns, and an Import-ready file never does, since an audit date cannot be imported. Both formats respect a Last audit date filter, so a Select all export matches the rows the index showed. See Last audit date.

Full walkthrough: Bulk Updating Assets via CSV.

Troubleshooting

Getting unexpected results when filtering?

Check for conflicting filters applied simultaneously
When filtering by custodian, remember registered users and Non-Registered Members (NRMs) are handled separately
Clear all filters and re-apply one at a time if results look wrong

Export missing columns you expect?

Click the Columns control and verify the fields you want are enabled
Reorder columns before exporting — the CSV respects the current display order

Non-Latin characters look like symbols in Excel?

Re-download the file. Exports now carry a UTF-8 byte order mark, so Excel reads the alphabet correctly without an import wizard. Files downloaded before that change need to be exported again.
If a re-exported file still looks wrong, check whether the file was opened and re-saved in an application that dropped the encoding on the way.

Too much data to export at once?

Narrow with filters before selecting
Export by location or category in separate passes

Exporting Other Data Types

Bookings — separate export flow. See Exporting Booking Information.
Audits — open the audit and choose Actions → Download Receipt for a PDF holding the counts, the full asset table, the audit photos, and the activity log. There is no CSV of audit results; the audit's Activity tab exports its note log separately as CSV. See Audits.
Locations — a location's Activity tab logs every asset that arrived or left, whether it was moved on the web, in the Shelf Companion app, together with its kit, or by changing where a quantity-tracked asset's units are kept. Each line names the location the asset came from or went to, when there was one. Export activity CSV downloads that log.
Asset history across the workspace — the Asset Activity Summary report exports every change to every asset in a timeframe, with SAM ID, QR Code ID and separate From and To columns. See Read the Asset Activity Summary.
Team members — the Team page has its own export option for user lists.

Advanced Asset Index: Complete Guide — full filtering, sorting, and column reference
Bulk Updating Assets via CSV — export + edit + re-import workflow
Importing Assets to Shelf: CSV Guide — the import side of the same workflow
Using Batch Actions in Shelf — bulk changes without exporting