Switching guide
Leaving BambooHR without losing history
By the Capstan team at PeopleCap · Last updated 17 August 2026 · About 5 min read
Leaving BambooHR is straightforward for the data you can see and fiddly for the data you cannot. The directory and reports export to spreadsheets, but documents are typically held per profile and the effective-dated history behind each record needs its own report. Confirm all three in your own account before you commit to a date, pull them, then stand up the replacement in parallel so you can check the numbers against the source.
This guide is the export checklist, the gotchas that catch people halfway through, and the steps to bring the new system up. The value here is the process, not a price fight.
The export checklist
Work through this while your account is still active. Some of it may be one file at a time, so start earlier than you think you need to.
- Employee data. Use the reporting tool to build a full export of the directory: personal details, job information, compensation, employment status, and any custom fields you added. Export to a spreadsheet format the next system can read.
- Documents. Signed contracts, policy acknowledgements, tax forms, and anything uploaded to a profile. This is the awkward one. Test on a single profile first: if documents download per person rather than as one archive, your timeline is a function of headcount, and you want to know that in week one rather than week three.
- Reports. Any saved standard or custom reports you rely on, exported in full rather than screenshotted. If a report drives a recurring process, you want its underlying data, not a picture of it.
- Historical records. The change history behind each field, such as compensation adjustments, role changes, and status transitions. A plain directory export flattens this to the current value only. Run the history or changes reports to capture the timeline before it becomes inaccessible.
Save everything to a dated folder you own. Whatever the new tool ingests, keep your own copy of the raw exports.
The gotchas
Three things trip people up when leaving a mature HRIS, and all three are avoidable if you check them in advance.
Documents may not bulk-export. If they come out per employee, a team of forty is forty passes through the same screen. Do not leave this to the last day. Block out real time for it, or the cancellation date will arrive before the files do.
Flat exports drop the history. An HRIS that keeps effective-dated records holds a chain of past values behind a single field like salary. A standard directory export gives you today figure and nothing behind it. If you care about audit history, and you should, pull the history reports as a separate step.
Add-ons hold data you might forget. Anything you pay for on top of the core, such as payroll, benefits administration or time tracking, holds records the directory does not. Check every add-on on your invoice and export from it directly. Pay runs, timesheets, and benefit elections do not appear in a standard employee report.
How to stand up the replacement
The steps below are the migration-specific ones. The wider order to stand the new system up in, what to configure before you load anybody and what to test before you invite the team, is set out separately and is worth having open alongside this.
- Finish the export and validate it. Open the files, confirm the document count matches your headcount, and spot-check the history reports. A file that does not open is not a backup.
- Load the new system in parallel. Import the directory, attach the documents to each profile, and enter leave balances. Keep the old system live while you do this so you can compare against the source.
- Reconcile a sample by hand. Pick ten people across different teams and check every field against the original, including the historical values. If those ten are right, the bulk import is probably right.
- Rebuild the integrations that earn their place. List what actually connected, confirm each has a home in the new stack, and drop the ones nobody used. With Capstan, your export is a plain archive of documented JSON, a matching CSV and your original document files, with a manifest whose row counts you can check the archive against, so you are not trading one lock-in for another. Worth knowing before you plan: Capstan has webhooks and no pre-built connector marketplace, so an integration you need is something you or a developer wire up rather than something you switch on.
- Cancel only after the new system has held a full cycle and every document and history report is safely downloaded.
The BambooHR comparison sets out where the two products differ in scope and packaging if you want the side-by-side.
Who should stay where they are
Be fair to the tool you are leaving. A mature, well-supported HRIS with a broad integration ecosystem has genuine strengths, and if your stack is built around it, that weight is real. A move that forces you to rebuild a dozen working connections by hand is not obviously an improvement, and you should count them before you decide.
The case for moving is a different one. It rests on a portable system of record, published pricing you can read without a call, and a free complete core at small headcount. Check both sides against that standard yourself rather than taking anyone’s word for it, including ours: open each vendor’s pricing page and see whether there is a number on it. Capstan is free up to twenty active employees, the complete core is on every plan, and every price sits on one public pricing page, adjusted by country. Paid plans raise the headcount limit and are what let you switch a module on; there is no separate list of core features held back behind a tier.
If the integration ecosystem is the thing you value most, stay and use it well. If a clean, portable, transparently priced system of record matters more, that is the trade you are making by leaving.
Where to go next
The HR software for startups guide covers what a small team actually needs from a system of record. When you are ready to onboard your first hire in the new tool, the employee onboarding checklist is a working template. And the switching pillar covers the migration sequence that applies whichever tool you are leaving.
Common questions
What should I try to export from an established HRIS?
Four things, and they come out through different doors. The employee directory and any saved reports, usually as CSV or spreadsheet files through the reporting tool. Uploaded documents, which are often held per person rather than as one archive. The effective-dated history behind fields such as compensation and job title, which a flat directory export flattens away. And anything held inside a paid add-on, which a standard employee report will not touch. Confirm each of the four in your own account before you set a cancellation date.
What gets lost when you leave an HR system?
The most common losses are uploaded documents that were never downloaded, the effective-dated history behind each field, and anything held in a paid add-on such as payroll or time tracking. A flat directory export carries today value and nothing behind it, so pull the history reports separately, and export from every add-on you pay for as its own step.
Should I stay for the integrations?
Possibly, and it is worth answering with a list rather than a feeling. Write down every system that actually connects today, mark which ones a person would notice breaking, and check whether each has a home in the new stack. If several tools genuinely sync and you would have to rebuild those connections by hand, that weight is real. If most of the list turns out to be things nobody has used in a year, it is not.