HourSlipGuides / Import, export and backups
Import, export and backups
Your history can come in from Toggl Track or a CSV, go out again as a spreadsheet, and travel between computers as a single backup file. All of it is in Settings › General, apart from CSV export, which sits on the Timesheet.
Import from Toggl Track or a CSV
Open Settings › General and find Bring your history under Import. Press Import CSV… and pick the file. HourSlip reads two kinds:
- A Toggl Track detailed report. Export it from Toggl as CSV. HourSlip looks for the Start date, Start time, End date and End time columns, and uses Client, Project and Description if they're there. Description becomes the entry's note. It has to be the detailed report, because HourSlip needs the start and end of every entry.
- HourSlip's own CSV, the one the Timesheet exports. It needs the Start, End and Hours columns.
Anything else is turned away with a message saying the format isn't one HourSlip knows. If you're coming from another tracker, the simplest route is to rearrange its export so it has the Toggl columns: dates as 2026-03-02, times as 09:00 or 09:00:00, separated by commas.
What the import does
- Clients and projects are matched by name, ignoring capitals. Missing ones are created. A row with no client goes to a client called Imported, and a row with no project goes to a project called General.
- New clients start with no hourly rate. The summary lists them, and it's worth setting their rates in Clients before you invoice anything.
- Rates, currencies and invoice numbers in the file are ignored. Every imported entry arrives unbilled.
- An entry that already exists (same project, same start and end) is skipped, so importing the same file twice does no harm.
- Rows with unreadable dates, or an end before the start, are skipped and counted.
When it finishes you get a summary along the lines of "Imported 212 entries. New clients: Acme, Globex. Skipped 3 already imported." If saving fails partway, the whole import is undone and nothing is left half finished.
Files saved by Excel on Windows or on a Mac are read correctly, accents included. Toggl times have no time zone, so HourSlip reads them in the zone your computer is set to.
The free version holds one client. If the file would take you past that, HourSlip tells you how many clients it found and imports nothing. Either trim the file to one client or activate Pro first.
Export a CSV
On the Timesheet, press Export CSV next to New Entry. It exports exactly what's on screen, so set the period, client, project, Unbilled switch and search first. A running timer is left out. CSV export is part of Pro.
The file is named HourSlip Timesheet.csv and has these columns, oldest entry first:
| Column | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Date | The day, as 2026-03-02 |
| Start, End | Exact times with your time zone offset |
| Client, Project, Notes | As they appear in the Timesheet |
| Hours | Decimal hours to two places |
| Rate | The hourly rate. For billed entries, the rate they were invoiced at |
| Amount | Time multiplied by rate, before any invoice rounding |
| Currency | The invoice's currency if billed, otherwise the client's |
| Invoice | The invoice number, or empty if unbilled |
It opens in Excel and Numbers with accents and currency symbols intact. Notes that begin with =, +, - or @ get a leading apostrophe so a spreadsheet doesn't mistake them for formulas. HourSlip removes it again if you import the file back.
Make a backup
Settings › General › Export Backup… writes one JSON file named with today's date. It holds your business details, clients, projects, time entries, invoices, templates and logo. Backups are free in every version.
A few things are deliberately left out:
- Your license key. It's tied to a computer, not to your data.
- App preferences such as appearance, the weekly goal and tracking switches.
- The activity log that smart tracking uses. It never leaves the computer it was recorded on.
- The filed PDF files. The invoices themselves are in the backup, and you can export their PDFs again.
Automatic backups
HourSlip also keeps a copy of its own every day and holds on to the last 14. You don't need to turn this on.
On a Mac, Settings › General shows when the last one ran, and Show in Finder opens the folder. These are ordinary backup files, so Restore Backup… reads them. If one fails, the same row says so in red.
On Windows and Linux, Show Data Folder opens HourSlip's data folder, and the daily copies are in its Backups folder. These are copies of HourSlip's own data file, store.json, not export files. To go back to one, quit HourSlip and replace store.json with the copy you want. For moving to another computer, use Export Backup… instead.
Restore, or move to a new computer
- On the old computer, choose Settings › General › Export Backup… and put the file somewhere you can reach from the new one.
- Install HourSlip on the new computer. Don't add any clients yet.
- If you have Pro and more than one client, move your license key first. The free version restores one client and refuses a larger backup.
- Choose Settings › General › Restore Backup… and pick the file.
HourSlip reports what came back, for example "Restored 4 clients and 31 invoices." Mac, Windows and Linux share the same backup format, so the file moves between them in any direction.
Restoring only works into an empty library, one with no clients and no time entries. That's on purpose: it can't overwrite or duplicate work you already have. If the library isn't empty, delete your clients first or restore on a fresh install. A restore that fails leaves nothing behind.
Two details to expect afterwards. A timer that was running when the backup was made comes back stopped. And a backup made by a newer version of HourSlip won't load into an older one, so update first.
Where your data lives
On a Mac, everything is in HourSlip's own sandboxed container. On Windows and Linux it's in HourSlip's data folder, which Show Data Folder opens. Nothing is uploaded. HourSlip goes online only to check a Pro key with polar.sh and to look for updates.
If the Windows or Linux app can't write to disk (a full drive, or another program holding the file), a red Not saved notice appears. HourSlip keeps trying by itself and your changes are safe while it stays open, so leave it running until the notice goes away.