Recurring Data Exports give you a scheduled, complete copy of your ShipHero data so you can analyze it, report on it, and connect it to your own systems. ShipHero generates them automatically for your account on a standard schedule, and they are free. Use them when your reporting needs outgrow a quick, one-time pull and you want your full history in one place.
Ready to get your exports? See How to Access Recurring Data Exports in ShipHero for the access and retrieval steps, and How to Give Users Access to Recurring Data Exports to grant permission to the user who will pull your files.
Table of Contents
- What Recurring Data Exports Are
- Why Use Recurring Data Exports
- Full vs. Delta Recurring Data Exports
- Recurring Data Exports Data Modules
- Who Can Access Recurring Data Exports
- Recurring Data Exports File Format
What Recurring Data Exports Are
Recurring Data Exports deliver your ShipHero data as a set of files on a schedule, instead of pulling one record at a time through the API. Each export is a collection of files, one per table within each data module. Files can be large depending on your volume.
Recurring Data Exports are free and run automatically on a standard schedule. Any user with the correct permissions can retrieve them.
Why Use Recurring Data Exports
Built-in reports and the live API each have their place. Recurring Data Exports earn their place when your questions outgrow a quick report, when you want your full history in one location, or when you need to feed your data into a database, a data warehouse, or a reporting tool like Power BI, Tableau, or Snowflake.
When to Use Recurring Data Exports
Choose Recurring Data Exports when you want to analyze large amounts of data over time, keep a running history, or connect your ShipHero data to your own systems. For quick, current questions about a single order or a live inventory count, the live API is the better fit.
Full vs. Delta Recurring Data Exports
ShipHero generates two types of Recurring Data Exports for your account: full exports and delta exports.
| Export type | Contains | How often it runs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Your complete history from the beginning of your account. Large, because it is the whole dataset every run. | Once per week. | Establishing a starting point and periodically reconciling your data. |
| Delta | Only what changed, up to the last 48 hours. Small and quick to work with. | Four times per day. | Staying current and tracking what changed. |
A common approach is to start with a full export to establish your baseline, then use delta exports to stay current.
Recurring Data Exports Data Modules
Recurring Data Exports organize your account information into modules based on the type of data they contain. Each module includes related tables that link together by shared IDs. For example, an order connects to its line items, and each line item connects to a product.
| Module | What the module holds |
|---|---|
| Orders | What a customer asked to buy, before it ships: orders, the products on each order, and order tags. |
| Shipments | What left the warehouse and how it is traveling: shipments, shipped items, shipping labels, and lot details for shipped items. |
| Returns | Items customers send back: returns, return labels, and the items on each return. |
| Products | Your catalog: products, tags, images, lots, stock by warehouse, and the kit and assembly maps that define which SKUs make up a kit or built product. |
| Inventory | Where stock lives in the warehouse and how it moves: bins, the products in each bin, location changes, hospital items, and cycle counts. |
| Purchase Orders | What you buy from suppliers: purchase orders, their items, vendors, and which vendors supply each product. |
| 3PL Metadata | For 3PLs: which warehouses serve which clients. |
| Users | Who has access to ShipHero: user accounts, names, roles, and permissions. |
| Labor | Who does the work and for how long: worker activities, alerts, jobs, shifts, special projects, warehouses, and workers. |
Who Can Access Recurring Data Exports
ShipHero Recurring Data Exports are retrieved through the Public API, so the person or system that retrieves the files must sign in as an eligible ShipHero user or Developer user with data exports access. Your account type sets what data is in scope. A 3PL sees every warehouse and client it serves, and a brand that runs its own fulfillment sees all of its own data. If a type of data does not apply to your account, it does not appear in your exports. See How to Give Users Access to Recurring Data Exports to turn on access.
Recurring Data Exports File Format
ShipHero delivers Recurring Data Exports in Parquet format. Parquet compresses your data to a fraction of the size of a CSV file and is faster to query. Load the files into a database or analytics tool, such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Spark, Power BI, or Tableau.
Parquet files are not meant to be opened by hand in a spreadsheet program. Use a tool built to read Parquet.