Salesforce is an excellent CRM platform that provides many business solutions, and that’s why companies worldwide use various Salesforce services, from small startups to large enterprises in different industries. However, Salesforce data management sometimes spreads outside the Salesforce platform. Businesses use diverse services and platforms to collaborate and engage the business growth. Data integration has become a necessity, and Salesforce meets this requirement and provides various opportunities for data export and integration. Let’s see the 5 most common methods to export data from Salesforce.
Table of Contents
- Why Salesforce Data Export is Important?
- How does Data Export Work in Salesforce?
- 5 Methods to Export Data from Salesforce
- What are the Available Export Formats for Salesforce Data?
- Conclusion
Why Salesforce Data Export is Important?
Data export in Salesforce allows users to extract their data from the Salesforce platform and save it externally for various purposes such as:
- Data Backup. Users often back up Salesforce data outside Salesforce because of the relatively expensive and limited storage capacity in Salesforce itself. And for an additional security layer for backed-up data.
- Analysis and reporting. Although Salesforce offers reporting and analysis tools, companies use third-party apps designed for these purposes and offer more flexible reporting services.
- Data Integration enables efficient data exchange across multiple platforms.
- Compliance. Export allows managing data according to data governance policies and regulations requirements.
- Collaboration. Users export data to share it with colleagues, stakeholders, and partners.
How does Data Export Work in Salesforce?
Salesforce opens various opportunities for data integration in general and data export itself. Salesforce data export is a process of retrieving data from Salesforce objects for reporting or backup purposes or for further processing by external applications. There’s a variety of tools to solve this task. Salesforce offers its native tools for manual and automatic data export. Also, Salesforce offers different APIs that allow retrieving data directly. Salesforce is also open for external connections for third-party apps. Different export tools may vary in setup and used concepts.
5 Methods to Export Data from Salesforce
There are several methods of data export from Salesforce, including the following.
Data Export Wizard
The Data Export Wizard is a built-in web tool offered by Salesforce. It allows users to perform manual ad-hoc export or schedule weekly/monthly export of small data volumes to CSV or XML files. You can export all the available Salesforce objects or select specific objects, for example, export account list. Salesforce also allows you to include images and file attachments to your export.
To retrieve Salesforce data using Data Export Wizard, go to setup -> type Data Export in the Quick Find/Search box, and click Data Export. Click Export Now for ad-hoc export or Schedule Export to set up the automatic export.
Salesforce Data Loader
Salesforce Data Loader is a client application for bulk data import and export. You must install this application on your computer to perform these operations with data. It allows importing and exporting up to 5 million records via wizard UI or a command line (for Windows users). Data Loader supports various file formats, including CSV, XML, and Excel. Explore more information about Salesforce Data Loader here.
Dataloader.io
Dataloader.io is a Mulesoft web-based application that performs bulk import and export. With Dataloader.io, you can extract large volumes of data, schedule exports, and perform automated data loads.
To export data using Dataloader.io, use your Salesforce credentials to log in.
Click NEW TASK -> EXPORT, select Salesforce connection and object to export data from. Select fields and add filters, sorting, or specify custom SOQL query if needed.
Salesforce APIs
Salesforce provides a comprehensive set of APIs that allow developers to operate with Salesforce data programmatically. The APIs, such as SOAP API, REST API, Bulk API, and others, can be used to query and retrieve data from Salesforce objects. Developers can write custom code or integrate Salesforce with other systems to extract data as needed.
You can find details about all available Salesforce APIs here.
Automate Salesforce Account List Export on a Schedule with Skyvia
Numerous third-party tools and integration platforms offer advanced data extraction capabilities for Salesforce. Besides such features as data synchronization, real-time integration, and complex data transformations, these platforms provide services for data export.
Skyvia, among the others, offers simple and efficient solutions for various data-related tasks. With Skyvia, you can easily export Salesforce data in a few clicks. With Skyvia Query, you can query Salesforce data and immediately download query results as CSV files.
With Skyvia Export, you can extract data from Salesforce objects manually or by Schedule. You can download your files manually or automatically, placing them in a predefined folder on a supported storage service.
Below, you can find an example of an account list export from Salesforce.
To export the account list from Salesforce, you must log in to Skyvia. You can use your Salesforce account to sign in or create a separate Skyvia account.
Register now and go for easy and rapid Salesforce data export!
To proceed, perform the following steps:
- Login to Skyvia and create a new export integration.
- Select Salesforce connection if it exists, or click +New Connection to add a new Salesforce connection.
- Set the Target Type: Click CSV download manually to get CSV files for further manual download or click CSV to storage service to download files automatically to storage service.
- Set other available integration options and сlick Add new on the right.
- Select the object and fields for export. Set filters and sorting, optionally. Click Next Step to change the names and order of the columns, if needed, and save the task.
- Click Schedule on the Model tab to set the recurrence, time, and other time settings for automatic export launch.
When the Export is ready, you can run it and observe the results on the Monitor or Log tabs. To get the result file, click on the exported records number.
That was the example of the simple scenario of export account list from Salesforce. However, Skyvia offers different opportunities for various Salesforce data export and integration scenarios.
What are the Available Export Formats for Salesforce Data?
Skyvia functionality is not limited by simple export scenarios retrieving CSV files. Skyvia also allows exporting Salesforce data to Excel or Google Sheets. Skyvia can export Salesforce data directly to over 180+ cloud applications and databases.
Export Data to CSV and Excel
Microsoft Excel is one of the most popular spreadsheet tools among users worldwide.
Although there is no separate connector for Excel in Skyvia, there are several ways to export data from Salesforce to Excel using Skyvia.
You can use Skyvia Query Excel Add-In to run queries against your data and get quick custom reports directly from Salesforce to Excel.
Another way to perform Salesforce export to Excel is using the ODBС driver. Skyvia’s universal ODBC driver supports various data sources via Skyvia Connect SQL endpoints, including Salesforce.
Visit 5 Ways to Export Data from Salesforce to Excel to get more details on each method.
Export Data to Google Sheets
Google Sheets is another powerful spreadsheet tool you can integrate with Salesforce using Skyvia. Skyvia offers two methods of loading data from Salesforce to Google Sheets: Skyvia Query Google Sheets Add-on or Skyvia Import to Google Sheets.
Skyvia Query Google Sheets Add-On is a robust tool for building reports directly from supported cloud apps and databases. You can instantly export and transform data from Salesforce to Google Sheets using a visual query builder or custom SQL command editor.
The Add-on allows running predefined queries stored in Skyvia Query Gallery.
To export Salesforce data to Google Sheets with Skyvia, you need to install the Skyvia Query Add-on from Google Workspace Marketplace first. Then, go to Extensions -> Skyvia Query -> Login and log in to your Skyvia account.
To run a new query against Salesforce, do the following:
- Click Extensions -> Skyvia Query -> Query. Click Gallery to open a predefined query.
- Select your Skyvia workspace, and select Salesforce connection as a source.
- Select the object and fields for export. Set filters and sorting, optionally.
Run the query or save it in the Gallery to run it later.
More information about Skyvia Query, Google Sheets Add-on, is available here.
Using Cloud Data Transformations Tool
Another way to retrieve Salesforce data with Skyvia is using the Cloud Data Import tool. This method is helpful when you need to transfer Salesforce data to a target with different data structures.
For example, you can integrate Salesforce and Google Sheets using Skyvia Import. The below example shows how to export an account list from Salesforce to Google Sheets.
For that, perform the following actions:
- Login to Skyvia and create a new Import Integration.
- Select the Salesforce connection as the source and the Google Sheets connection as the target. Add new task.
- On the Source Definition tab, select the object and fields you want to export to the Google Sheets. Add filters and sorting optionally.
- Select the target sheet and the operation to perform on the Target Definition tab.
- Map the fields on the Mapping Definition tab.
- Save the task and set the schedule if needed.
Now, when the Import is ready, you can run it and observe the results on the Monitor or Log tabs.
Click the number of successfully imported records to view the import result.
That was only one example of an easy account list export scenario that could have been implemented with Skyvia. However, Skyvia’s capabilities are not limited to export or import.
Skyvia offers various solutions covering different data-related scenarios.
You can manipulate Salesforce data with a universal Skyvia Data Loader. It enables loading and transforming data from Salesforce to over 160 supported cloud apps, databases, and storage services. You can implement scenarios with complex branchy flows, data splits, and complicated logic. Skyvia also allows setting up the full Salesforce data backup. Skyvia offers storage capacities for backup and provides stable and safe service for your data.
Conclusion
Salesforce is a robust platform covering business needs for different business functions; however, companies may need Salesforce data outside the platform for:
- backup
- reporting
- data integration
- compliance
- collaboration
There are several opportunities to retrieve data from Salesforce. You can manually export data from Salesforce using Data Export Wizard, Data Loader, or Dataloader.io via REST API or with the help of third-party platforms such as Skyvia.
Skyvia is a cloud-based platform that helps users to perform various data-related tasks without coding. Skyvia offers various methods of Salesforce data export. You can:
- export Salesforce data to CSV
- build a report from Salesforce directly in Excel or Google Sheets
- integrate Salesforce data with other apps with different data structures
You can use Skyvia to implement any data-related scenario online without coding and for reasonable prices. If you are still deciding what plan to choose, try any paid subscription free for two weeks.
Sign up with Skyvia now and elevate your data management capabilities.
