Switching guide
Leaving Personio without losing history
By the Capstan team at PeopleCap · Last updated 8 September 2026 · About 6 min read
Leaving Personio is straightforward for the data you can see and fiddly for the data you cannot. Personio is a modern HRIS you export from, so the directory and reports come out to spreadsheets, but documents are typically held per profile, absence balances depend on an accrual policy that no two systems model alike, and the effective-dated history behind each record needs its own report. Confirm all of that in your own account while it is still live, pull it, then stand up the replacement in parallel so you can check the numbers against the source.
This guide is the export checklist, the parts of the move that catch people halfway through, and the steps to bring the new system up. The value is the process, not a price fight.
The export checklist
Work through this while your account is active and paid. Access to reports and documents in any tool is a function of your subscription, and a former customer is a lower support priority everywhere, so give yourself the margin.
- Employee data. Build a full export of the directory from the reporting view: personal details, job information, compensation, employment status, and any custom attributes you added. Export to a spreadsheet format the next system can read. This is your master index and the thing everything else is checked against.
- Documents. Signed contracts, policy acknowledgements, tax and identity forms, and anything uploaded to a profile. This is the awkward one. Test it 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.
- Absence and balances. Current absence balances and the accrual rules behind them. Export the balances, then write the accrual policy down in plain words, because you will be re-entering the rules by hand in the new system.
- Effective-dated history. 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 reports to capture the timeline before it becomes inaccessible.
- Paid modules. Anything you pay for on top of the core, such as time tracking, recruiting or a compensation cycle, holds records the directory does not. Check every module on your invoice and export from each one directly.
Save everything to a dated folder you own. Whatever the new tool ingests, keep your own copy of the raw exports.
Where it tends to be hard
Three things reliably slow people down, and they are worth checking early rather than discovering in week three.
First, how documents are filed. If they are held per person rather than exportable as one archive, a clean set means visiting every profile, and forty people is forty passes. Test this on one profile on day one and size the job from there.
Second, absence balances almost never import. A balance is meaningless without the accrual policy that produced it, and no two systems model accrual identically. Plan to configure the policies in the new system and load opening balances by hand, then check a sample of people individually before you trust the set.
Third, the effective-dated history. A system that keeps a dated chain behind a field like salary holds far more than a flat export shows. A standard directory export gives you today figure and nothing behind it, so pull the history reports as a separate step if the audit trail matters, and it usually does.
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 and balance 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, configure the accrual policies and enter opening 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 and the absence balances. If those ten are right, the bulk import is probably right.
- Hold the replacement to the exit test the last tool failed. Check what the new tool hands you on the day you leave: the container, whether the original document files come with it, whether there is a manifest you can check the archive against, and whether the export still works if a payment lapses. With Capstan, the export is a plain archive holding documented JSON as the authoritative form, a matching CSV of the same rows, and the original file of every document, with a manifest listing each entity and its count. The export endpoints deliberately sit outside the billing check, so a workspace suspended for non-payment can still take a complete copy and leave. One-click export is always available.
- Cancel only after the new system has held a full cycle and every document, history and balance report is safely downloaded.
The Personio 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 modern, well-supported HRIS has genuine strengths, and if your processes are built around a particular module or a set of workflows, that weight is real. A move that forces you to rebuild working configuration by hand is not automatically an improvement, and you should count what you actually use 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. Capstan is free for teams up to twenty active employees, and all fourteen modules are included in the single paid plan at no extra charge, so there is no per-module pricing and no separate list of core features held back behind a higher tier. Every price sits on one public pricing page, adjusted by country. Employees and contractors live in one system, with contractors held as a distinct entity outside your headcount, and the contractor module records each payout by reference while no money moves through Capstan.
Two facts worth having straight before you plan the move. Sign-in is passwordless, so there is no password to migrate. And the whole product runs from one self-contained EU region, with data resident in Frankfurt (eu-central-1) and compute in Amsterdam (eu-west-1); the security page states what that means for where your records live. On payroll, Capstan is partner-integration mode: it compiles the inputs and hands a documented export to a payroll partner, and computes no statutory payroll itself, so plan the pay side of your move around that.
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 export from Personio before I leave?
Four piles, and they come out through different doors. The employee directory and any saved reports, usually as spreadsheet files through the reporting view. Documents uploaded against each profile, which are often held per person rather than as one archive. The effective-dated history behind fields such as job title and salary, which a flat directory export flattens to today value. And anything held inside a paid module such as time tracking, absence or recruiting, which a standard employee report will not touch. Confirm all four in your own account before you set a cancellation date.
What usually gets lost when moving off a modern HRIS?
The data you cannot see on screen. A current directory is easy; the effective-dated history behind each field is not, because a plain export gives you the present value and nothing behind it. Uploaded documents are the second loss, since they are frequently filed per profile and were never downloaded in bulk. Absence balances and the accrual policy behind them are the third, because a balance is meaningless without the rule that produced it and the two systems model that rule differently.
When should I cancel Personio?
After the new system has carried a full cycle, not before. A cycle means a complete month of absence requests and approvals, one pay period handed to whoever runs your payroll, and any recurring compliance task that falls in the window. Keep the subscription running through that overlap and reconcile the outputs. One extra month is cheap next to discovering in week three that a report you relied on exists nowhere else.