Import from BrightHR
Move from BrightHR with the employee details export and an optional absence report — CSV or Excel, previewed before anything is written.
Updated 11 July 2026
Rotaleave reads BrightHR 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 BrightHR.
Get your BrightHR exports
- Log in to BrightHR as an admin.
- From Reports, download the employee details export — required.
- Optionally download an absence report for the date range you want to bring across.
BrightHR has no self-serve API, so the file export is the supported route.
What comes across
| Column | Becomes in Rotaleave |
|---|---|
| identifies the person (must be unique) | |
| First name / Last name | Name |
| Team | Department (BrightHR “Teams” are org units) |
| Annual leave entitlement | Annual allowance (days) |
| Employee ID | links leave rows to the right person (and flags duplicate IDs) |
| Status | Active/archived |
| Absence type | Leave type (created if missing) |
| Start date / End date | Start/end dates |
| Duration | Half-day/day-part |
| Reference | used to keep re-runs safe |
Not imported: remaining balances — enter opening adjustments after migrating — job title, and lateness rows, which are skipped because they aren’t leave. Anything else the importer doesn’t recognise is listed as a warning, never dropped silently.
Preview, then import
- Upload the employee details 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 entitlements against BrightHR.
- Decide your bank holiday policy.
- Invite everyone when you’re ready — importing doesn’t email anybody until you say so.