The Format Library
47 vendor export shapes across 8 categories. Every one names the traps that make the file lie and the anchor that ties it back to what the file itself asserts. The Metric Library →
Accounting & ERP
NetSuite saved-search CSV exportA CSV produced by whatever columns a saved search happened to define, which people treat as a standard report with fixed meaning, when its headers…QuickBooks A/R Aging Summary (and Aging Detail)A point-in-time snapshot bucketing open receivables by how overdue they are, which people read as a stable list of "who owes what" when it is really…QuickBooks Balance Sheet export (Excel / CSV)An as-of statement of assets, liabilities and equity that people trust to always balance, when a filtered export or an unresolved setup plug account…QuickBooks Profit and Loss export (Excel / CSV)A rendered P&L report dumped to a spreadsheet, which people treat as a flat table of accounts and amounts when it is actually a formatted, indented…SAP G/L line-item extract (FBL3N / BSEG / ACDOCA, documented shape)A dump of posted general-ledger line items, which people read as signed amounts in one currency, when the amounts are unsigned magnitudes carrying a…Xero report export (Excel, P&L / Balance Sheet)A Xero financial report saved to Excel, which people paste in and parse as a grid, when its merged header cells, region-driven date and number…
Ad Platforms
Google Ads performance report (UI CSV/Excel download)A per-campaign / per-ad-group / per-keyword performance table pulled from the Google Ads UI (Reports editor or any table's download button). People…Google Search Console performance exportThe Performance report export (Search results) from Search Console, a multi-sheet workbook (or multi-CSV zip) of clicks, impressions, CTR and average…LinkedIn Campaign Manager performance exportA campaign/creative performance CSV exported from Campaign Manager (Export > campaign performance). Assumed to be a plain metrics grid, it opens with…Meta Ads Manager insights export (Facebook/Instagram)A campaign / ad-set / ad performance export from Ads Manager (Reports > Export) or the Marketing API Insights endpoint. Read as "what our ads made,"…TikTok Ads Manager report exportA custom/dashboard performance export from TikTok Ads Manager (CSV/XLSX). Read as a straightforward spend-and-sales table, it hides an account-…
Analytics & Product
Amplitude event export (chart CSV / raw Export API)Two different artifacts people conflate: the CSV you download from an Amplitude chart (a rendering of that chart's series) and the raw Export API…GA4 BigQuery event export (events_ / events_intraday_ tables)The raw event-level export GA4 streams into BigQuery, which people wrongly assume will reconcile to the GA4 reporting UI, it will not, because the UI…GA4 Exploration CSV / TSV exportThe file you get when you download a report from GA4's Explore section, which people wrongly treat as a clean tabular extract of the underlying…Looker / Tableau crosstab exportThe pivoted "crosstab" you download from a Looker Explore or a Tableau worksheet, mistaken for a rectangular data table when it is a picture of a…MicroStrategy preamble-heavy grid exportA grid report or dossier grid exported from MicroStrategy to CSV/Excel/text, mistaken for a plain table when it is a banner-laden, multi-subtotalled,…Mixpanel export (Insights CSV / raw Export API)The report CSV downloaded from a Mixpanel Insights board and the raw /export API dump, mistaken for equivalent event tables, they use different…
CRM & Sales
HubSpot contacts exportA CSV/XLSX of contacts pulled from a list or the contacts index, assumed to be "our whole database." It is scoped to the active list/filter and view…HubSpot deals exportA CSV/XLSX emailed after Export from the Deals index, assumed to be every deal with its true value. It is only the deals matching the active…Pipedrive deals exportAn XLSX/CSV exported from a filtered Deals list, assumed to be a plain list of deal values. Its Value column is per-deal-currency, its status…Salesforce object export via Data Loader / Weekly Data Export (raw record shape)A raw per-object CSV (Account, Opportunity, etc.) from Data Loader, the Bulk API or the Weekly/Bulk "Data Export," assumed to be interchangeable with…Salesforce opportunity report (Amount vs Expected Revenue / splits shape)An opportunity-object report exported to CSV/XLSX, assumed to be "the pipeline in one number." It carries several amount-like columns that mean…Salesforce report export (Formatted Report / grouped-subtotal shape)A .xlsx a rep clicks "Export" on from any Salesforce report, wrongly assumed to be a clean table of records. In "Formatted Report" mode it is a…
E-commerce
Amazon Business Reports, Detail Page Sales & Traffic (by ASIN)The Seller Central Business-Reports CSV of sessions, page views, buy-box share and "Ordered Product Sales" per ASIN/SKU. It is a demand/traffic…Amazon settlement report (Flat File V2, Payments > Reports Repository)The tab-delimited statement covering one disbursement cycle, every charge, fee, refund and adjustment that nets to a single bank deposit. It is…BigCommerce orders export (Control Panel > Orders > Export)The order CSV produced by a BigCommerce export TEMPLATE. The trap begins before the data: the template is user-configurable, so "the BigCommerce…Shopify Payments payouts / transactions exportThe settlement export from Settings > Payments > Shopify Payments (the payout list and the underlying transactions CSV). It is a CASH/settlement file…Shopify orders export (Admin > Orders > Export CSV)The order-line CSV a merchant downloads from the Orders page. People assume one row equals one order and that summing "Total" gives revenue; it is…WooCommerce orders CSV exportA flat CSV of WooCommerce orders, from the Analytics > Orders export or a third-party order-export plugin. People assume a stable schema in the…
Payments & Settlement
Adyen settlement detail reportAdyen's per-batch reconciliation file showing every settled movement, sales, refunds, chargebacks, fees and the payout, for one settlement batch.…Braintree disbursement / settlement batch reportBraintree's record of which settled transactions were paid out in a given bank disbursement. People reconcile it by transaction date and by summing…PayPal activity / settlement (transaction reconciliation) reportPayPal's record of money movement, either the Activity CSV a merchant downloads or the fixed-format Settlement/Transaction Reconciliation report…Square settlements / transactions reportSquare's record of what was collected and what was deposited. The Settlements (deposits) report groups payments into a bank transfer; the…Stripe itemized balance change (transactions) reportThe transaction-grain export where every charge, refund, dispute and fee is its own row. It is the file people should use for revenue, and the one…Stripe payout / balance summary reportThe period-level roll-up Stripe produces to explain a bank deposit: opening balance, the activity that moved it, the payouts sent, and the closing…
Payroll & HR
ADP payroll registerThe per-pay-period detail of what each employee was paid, earnings, taxes, deductions, and net check, that people wrongly read as "total labor cost"…BambooHR exportA custom-report or table export from the BambooHR HRIS, wrongly treated as a canonical, payroll-grade employee roster.Benefits / census fileA census or enrollment spreadsheet sent to a carrier or broker, wrongly read as a clean one-row-per-employee headcount with cost attached.Gusto payroll exportA per-run payroll journal / payroll-details CSV from Gusto, wrongly read as the company's complete labor spend for the period.Paychex payroll journalPaychex's per-check payroll journal listing earnings, taxes, deductions, and the employer liability for a run, wrongly read as interchangeable with…Workday headcount / report exportA custom or delivered Workday report of workers "as of" a date, exported to Excel/CSV, that people wrongly treat as a stable, reproducible headcount…
Spreadsheets & Bank
Excel "Save As CSV" (locale & encoding export)A CSV written by Excel's Save As dialog. People assume "CSV" means comma-delimited, UTF-8, and value-faithful; Excel's output depends on the…Excel PivotTable range exportA worksheet range that was produced by an Excel PivotTable and then copied, saved, or sent on as if it were a flat table. People assume every row is…Generic bank statement CSV (deposit account transactions)A downloaded transaction history for a checking or savings account. People assume "Amount" means the same thing in every bank's file and that summing…Generic credit-card statement CSVA downloaded transaction list for a credit-card account. People treat every row as an expense and sum "Amount" to get spend; a card is a liability,…Google Sheets CSV exportThe file produced by File → Download → Comma-separated values, or by the /export?format=csv link. People assume it is the whole workbook rendered…Merged/blank-cell CSV (flattened formatted workbook)A CSV produced by exporting a human-formatted workbook that relied on merged cells and multi-row headers. People assume a CSV is a clean rectangular…