Exporting Data from OnCare🖨️

There are several situations where you will need to get data out of OnCare and into another format. You may need to share payroll figures with your accountant or payroll bureau. You may need to provide visit records or client information during a CQC inspection. Your local authority commissioner may request evidence of service delivery. You might want to analyse scheduling patterns, staff utilisation, or financial performance in a spreadsheet. Or you may simply need to keep offline backups of key records for your own peace of mind.

Exporting data is also important for demonstrating care continuity planning, which is a CQC requirement. You need to be able to show that if there were ever a system outage or technical issue, your agency could continue delivering services because you have the essential data available on paper or in offline files. Even though this is extremely unlikely to happen, CQC expects you to demonstrate that you have a plan in place. Regularly exporting key data such as care plans, schedules, and client information helps you meet this requirement.

OnCare provides export options across different areas of the system. There are two types of exports available: PDF downloads and CSV downloads.

PDF downloads are available for care plans, risk assessments, and invoices. These PDF documents include your agency logo, business details, and client information. Care plan PDFs also include the client's photo. These are formatted, print-ready documents that you can share with clients, leave in client homes, or provide to inspectors.

CSV downloads are available for the schedule, visit reports, invoices, mileage reports, and time sheets. Each of these has a dedicated download button that exports the data in CSV format. CSV files can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or any other spreadsheet application for sorting, filtering, and analysis.

Go to the Reports section and click Visit Reports. You can use the available filters to narrow down the data before exporting. Filter by client, care worker, date range, or specific task types (for example, filtering by medication tasks only to get a medication-focused export). Once your filters are set, click the download button to export the filtered visit reports as a CSV file.

This is useful for running audits, reviewing care delivery patterns, sharing evidence with CQC, or tracking specific metrics such as medication administration over a given period.

Payroll and invoicing data can be exported from the Reports section. Select the relevant report (payroll summary, time sheets, or invoices), apply your date range and any other filters, and download the CSV. This data can then be shared with your accountant, payroll bureau, or imported into your accounting software.

Invoices can also be downloaded individually as PDFs, which include your agency logo, business details, and full invoice breakdown. These are suitable for sending directly to clients or local authority commissioners.

Mileage data is available under Reports, then Mileage. Select the date range and any filters (by care worker or group), then export the report as a CSV. The downloaded file will show each care worker's journeys between visits, the distances calculated, and the mileage totals for the period. This is useful for processing mileage reimbursements, submitting expense claims, or providing evidence of travel costs to commissioners.

Care plans and risk assessments can be downloaded as PDFs directly from the client's profile. These PDF documents are fully formatted and include your agency logo, business details, client information, and the client's photo. They are designed to be printed and left in the client's home, as CQC requires a paper copy to be available for care workers to reference during visits.

If you ever need to switch to a different care management system, OnCare makes it easy to take your data with you. Go to Settings and scroll to the bottom where you will find the Export Data option. From here, you can export your client data and care worker data, all in CSV format. This makes it straightforward to import your information into another system by uploading or dragging and dropping the CSV files.

Most exports from OnCare are delivered as CSV (Comma Separated Values) files. CSV is a universal format that can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice Calc, and virtually any other spreadsheet application. When you open a CSV file in Excel, the data will appear in columns that you can sort, filter, format, and use for calculations.

If you find that a CSV file opens with all data in a single column, this is usually a delimiter issue. In Excel, use the "Text to Columns" feature (found under the Data tab) and select "comma" as the delimiter. This will split the data into the correct columns.

The only exports available as PDFs are care plans, risk assessments, and invoices. All other exports (schedule, visit reports, mileage, time sheets, payroll) are CSV only.

During CQC inspections, it is increasingly common for inspectors to review your data directly within the system rather than asking you to send files. Inspections are mostly conducted online now, and one effective approach is to add the inspector as an office staff member on your OnCare account with appropriate permissions. This allows them to scroll through the system and verify that all key data requirements are met, including care plans, visit reports, medication records, alerts, and resolutions.

Inspectors rarely need you to send them exported files, but having the ability to export data quickly is still valuable for any specific requests they may have, or for preparing summary reports in advance of an inspection.

There is currently no dedicated eMAR PDF download or bulk eMAR export. For medication data, use the Visit Reports export with medication task filters to get a CSV of medication-related visit data. You can also use your browser's print function to save the eMAR page as a PDF if needed.

There is no bulk download feature that exports everything at once. Each type of data (visit reports, payroll, mileage, etc.) must be exported separately from its respective section.

Exported files contain personal and sensitive information about your clients and care workers. Once the data leaves the OnCare platform, you are responsible for keeping it secure in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This means storing exported files in a secure location, not emailing unencrypted files containing personal data, and deleting exports when they are no longer needed.

If you need to share exported data with a third party (such as a commissioner, accountant, or auditor), make sure you have an appropriate data processing agreement in place and that you are sharing only the minimum amount of data necessary.

We are continuously looking for ways to make it easier for you to export and work with your data. If you have specific requirements or feedback about the export features, please let us know. Your input helps us prioritise improvements that make a real difference to how you manage your agency.