Customizable Data Export Overview

The Customizable Data Export (often called the CDE) lets you download detailed timesheet data for a specific date range and choose exactly which fields to include. It is ideal for payroll exports, billing and invoicing, audits, and building your own reports in tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or BI tools.

Who this is for: Administrators and managers who need detailed time data for payroll, billing, analysis, or integrations.

Where to find it: Go to Company → Reports, then look for the Customizable Data Export section near the bottom of the page.

You can jump to a section:

• Access the Customizable Data Export
• Set filters and basic options
• Choose Simple or Advanced fields
• Saving a Customizable Data Export
• Download and open your export
• Data Linking and external tools
• Special fields: Date Created and status timestamps
• Using Pivot Tables with the CDE

For more examples of using CDE with Excel or other tools, see our Data Linking Overview. If you have specific questions about the tool or fields, please contact ClickTime Support (support@clicktime.com).

Accessing the Customizable Data Export

You can access the Customizable Data Export from the Company → Reports (or Report Center) page. It appears in the section labeled Customizable Data Export near the bottom-right of the page:

It may also appear in the Miscellaneous section of the Reports page:

Setting filters and basic options

When you open the Customizable Data Export, you will see filters on the left and field selection options on the right:

These filters control which time entries are included in your export. Once you have set your criteria, you will choose which fields (columns) to include.

Export as

• Export as: Choose the file format for your export: CSV, Excel, Text (tab-delimited), or XML. Pick the format that best fits your payroll, billing, or analysis workflow.

  

Date range and format

Under Select a date range, you can choose exact dates or use presets that automatically adjust the range for you.

• By Specific Dates: Set a custom date range (for example, a week, month, pay period, or any custom span). Only time entries with an Entry Date in this range will be included.
• Presets (Month/Week/Quarter/Year to Date): Month to Date, Week to Date, Quarter to Date, or Year to Date automatically update the date range based on today.
• Recent periods: Quickly select Last week, Last two weeks, Last month, or Last quarter without manually entering dates.
• Rolling windows: Choose Last 15 days or Last 30 days for a rolling view of recent activity.
• By Timesheet: Use Current timesheet or one of the last 4 timesheets, based on your organization’s timesheet period instead of calendar dates.

Please note: All date fields are exported in ISO format.

Sorting

• Sort By: Choose a default sort order for the exported file (for example, by Date, Employee, Client, Project, or another field). You can always change the sort inside Excel or your reporting tool after download.

  

  

Include worked time and time off

• Include: Decide which types of time entries to export: All worked and time off, Only worked time, or Only time off. This is useful when you want a payroll-only export, a time off report, or a combined view.

  

Filter by approval and billable status

• Filter by Approval Status: Choose which entries to include based on timesheet status:
  • All time entries.
  • Only approved or locked entries (often used for payroll or final reporting).

  • Not locked / not approved entries (useful for compliance checks or pre-approval reviews).

    

    

• Filter by Billable Status: If you track billable vs non-billable time, you can:

  • Export all entries.
  • Export only billable entries.
  • Export only non-billable entries.

  The rules that determine billable vs non-billable are defined on the Company → Preferences page (more details here).

Filter by labels (for incremental exports)

• Mark exported entries as: If you run this export on a regular schedule and only want new entries each time, use Labels. Enter a label to apply to all entries in this export (for example, Payroll 2025-10-31). Later, you can exclude entries with that label so you only export new time.
• Don't include entries already marked as: Use this to exclude entries that already have a specific label. If you leave this blank, all entries that meet your other filters will be included.

For more information on labels, see Labels.

As you adjust filters and fields, ClickTime shows a preview of entries (typically from the last 10 days) so you can see how your export will look:

Choosing Simple or Advanced fields

After setting your filters, choose which fields (columns) to include in the export. You can start with common fields using the Simple tab or access every available field on the Advanced tab.

Simple fields

The Simple fields include the most commonly used time-entry fields. This is a great starting point if you are:

• Doing basic time review.
• Preparing simple payroll or billing exports.
• New to the CDE and want a smaller, easier-to-read file.

Advanced fields

The Advanced fields include everything from Simple, plus additional details grouped by area (for example, employee, project, task, timesheet). This is where you can:

• Include timesheet-level details such as status, approver, and timestamps.
• Include internal IDs that help with integrations and pivot tables.
• Group entries by Timesheet ID to analyze or reconstruct complete timesheets.
• Use fields like Timesheet Status Changed On to see when timesheets were last updated.

Advanced fields are recommended when you need:

• Audit or compliance reporting.
• Detailed approval tracking.
• Complex pivot tables or BI models.

Note: The Timesheet Status Changed On field displays time in PST.

Saving a Customizable Data Export

If you expect to run the same export regularly, you can save your settings as a favorite report.

At the bottom of the filter panel, use the Save these report settings as a favorite report titled field to name your report. Then run the export:

After saving, your Customizable Data Export layout appears under the Customizable Data Export section on the Company → Reports page:

If you no longer need a saved layout, open it and choose Delete this saved report:

Downloading and opening a Customizable Data Export

After you click Run Report, ClickTime generates your export file and opens a new page with a download_export link:

We recommend:

• Click the link to download and save the file to your computer.
• Open the file from within Excel or your preferred tool rather than opening directly from the browser.

The file will be in the format you selected in the Export as setting.

Data Linking and external tools

In addition to the downloadable file, Corporate and Enterprise accounts will see an Excel Linking or Data Linking section on the results page. This provides a link you can use to:

• Feed CDE results into Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
• Connect to BI tools such as Power BI.
• Send data into databases or other systems.

For step-by-step instructions, see:

• Data Linking Overview
• Data Linking with Excel
• Data Linking with Google Sheets

Special fields: Date Created and other timestamps

When included in your export, Date Created shows the exact day and time the entry was originally saved to ClickTime:

Please note:

• The Date Created timestamp is in UTC.
• It reflects when the entry was first created, not when it was last edited.

Other Advanced fields, such as Timesheet Status Changed On, can help you track when timesheets were updated or approved. Use these fields for audit trails, compliance reporting, or troubleshooting.

Using Pivot Tables with the Customizable Data Export

Once you have opened your CDE file in Excel, you can use Pivot Tables to summarize and analyze your data (for example, hours by employee and project, or billable vs non-billable time by client).

The following video provides an introduction to using Pivot Tables with a Customizable Data Export file:

FAQ

• Question: Is it possible to use the CDE to understand when a timesheet was submitted or approved?  An example question this could assist with would be: "What off-the-shelf reports exist in ClickTime that will show if an approver is approving time before a deadline?"
• Answer: On the CDE, there are fields that track timesheet activity, they are: Previous Timesheet Status, Current Timesheet Status, Timesheet Status changes on, Timesheet Status changed by, Timesheet ID.  If you were to query for a specific timesheet period and then analyze these fields, you should be able to determine if activity was happening outside of what is considered the normal range.