# Exporting your expenses: what it's actually for and how often to do it

> It isn't just insurance against switching apps. It lets you see two years at once, hand them to your accountant, and not depend on a company surviving.

_Habits · Published 2026-09-02, updated 2026-10-14_

Exporting your expenses sounds like an emergency feature: something you do the day
you switch apps. That's the least important of the five reasons, and it's the only
one almost everybody mentions.

## The five reasons, least to most important

**5. Switching apps.** Yes, it's insurance. But if you leave, you leave once.

**4. Giving it to your accountant.** A CSV filtered by the "work" tag is
infinitely better than twelve screenshots. How to separate work spending is in
[separating personal and work expenses](/en/blog/separate-personal-and-work-expenses).

**3. Doing a calculation the app doesn't do.** Every app shows what it decided to
show. If you want to cross two categories, see what you spent at one specific
merchant over two years, or build an unusual chart, that's what spreadsheets are
for. It isn't a failing of the app: particular questions are infinite.

**2. Having the backup before you need it.** Phones get lost, broken or soaked. If
you never created an account, your database lives in exactly one place — and
uninstalling the app takes all of it. An occasional export is the difference
between losing a month and losing three years.

**1. Not depending on a company continuing to exist.** This is the real one. Any
app can shut down, change owners or change its pricing. Five years of your
financial data shouldn't depend on that. A file of your own, stored where you
decide, is the only thing that makes you independent of anyone else's decisions —
ours included.

## JSON or CSV: which to use

**CSV** if you'll open it in a spreadsheet, send it to an accountant or build a
chart. It's a table: one row per transaction, one column per field.

**JSON** if what you want is a complete backup. It preserves the whole structure —
categories, accounts, tags, groups, budgets — that a flat table can't represent.

If you have to pick one to store: **JSON**. If you have to pick one to look at:
**CSV**.

## How often

**Once a quarter** is enough for most people. Frequent enough that an accident
costs you no more than three months, spaced enough that it isn't a chore.

**Once a month** if you don't use an account and everything lives only on the
phone, or if the data is for work.

**Always before:** changing phones, uninstalling the app, or doing anything that
starts with "reset data".

The [monthly close](/en/blog/monthly-money-review) is a good place to attach it:
you're already looking at the numbers.

## Where to keep it

Two rules that matter more than the specific choice:

**Don't keep it only on the same phone.** A backup that's lost with the device
isn't a backup. Email it to yourself, put it in your cloud, whatever you use.

**Know where it is.** An export sitting in your downloads folder from two years
ago doesn't exist.

And a reminder: **the file contains your complete finances.** If you put it in a
shared cloud folder, check who that folder is shared with.

## In one line

Export once a quarter and always before changing phones; JSON to store and CSV to
look at; keep it off the phone and know where it is. It isn't insurance against
switching apps: it's what keeps your data from depending on anyone continuing to
exist.

## Download

- iPhone (App Store): https://apps.apple.com/app/id6758053806
- Android (Google Play): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kesef.app

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