Import from Breathe HR
Move from Breathe HR with the Employees report and an optional Absence report — holiday and sickness both come across, previewed before import.
Updated 11 July 2026
Rotaleave reads Breathe HR report downloads directly — CSV or Excel. Importing is admin-only, from Settings → Import / Migrate, the People page’s Import / Migrate button, or during onboarding on the Your people step — set Source to Breathe HR.
Get your Breathe exports
- Log in to Breathe as an admin.
- Go to Reports → Employees and download it — required.
- Optionally download an Absence report for the date range you want — it covers holiday and sickness, and both come across.
Breathe’s API is partner-gated rather than self-serve, so the file export is the supported route.
What comes across
| Column | Becomes in Rotaleave |
|---|---|
| Work email | identifies the person (must be unique) |
| First name / Last name | Name |
| Department | Department |
| Line manager | Manager role |
| Holiday allowance | Annual allowance (days) |
| Employee number | links leave rows to the right person (and flags duplicate IDs) |
| Status | Active/archived |
| Type | Leave type (created if missing) |
| Start date / End date | Start/end dates |
| Half day | Half-day/day-part |
| Reference | used to keep re-runs safe |
Not imported: remaining balances — enter opening adjustments after migrating — and job title (recognised, but Rotaleave doesn’t store one). Anything else the importer doesn’t recognise is listed as a warning, never dropped silently.
Preview, then import
- Upload the Employees file (and the Absence file if you have one).
- Click Preview — nothing is written yet. You get Created / Updated / Skipped counts per entity plus any warnings.
- The Import button stays disabled until a preview exists — the dry run isn’t optional, by design.
- Happy with the counts? Click Import and look for “Import complete.”
Safe to re-run
People are matched by email and leave records by their reference, so re-importing the same or a corrected file updates rather than duplicates. Iterate until the preview is clean.
After the import
- Spot-check a few people’s allowances against Breathe.
- Decide your bank holiday policy.
- Invite everyone when you’re ready — importing doesn’t email anybody until you say so.