Freshteam Shutdown: How to Export & Migrate Your ATS & HRIS Data

Freshteam Shutdown: How to Export & Migrate Your ATS & HRIS Data

Freshworks is sunsetting Freshteam, and every account will lose access within 90 days of its subscription expiring (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com). To get your data out, request the full account export under Settings → Account, pull structured employee records through the Freshteam API, then load the ATS and HRIS records into their new systems. If you haven't started your data export, start today — once that window closes, Freshworks deletes the account data.

An ATS migration is a data-model translation problem, not a simple spreadsheet export. Freshteam was a hybrid ATS + HRIS product, which means your data likely needs to land in two different target systems with two different schemas. This guide covers the exact export paths available, what each one misses, the API constraints you'll hit during extraction, and how to move your records to a new platform without losing candidate history or employee data.

What Is the Freshteam Shutdown Timeline?

Freshteam's deprecation began on January 5, 2026, when Freshworks made the account-level data export available and showed admins a deprecation banner (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com).

Date	What happened
January 5, 2026	Deprecation began; data export available in admin settings
March 7, 2026	Free account expiry began (14-day export window after expiry); annual and half-yearly renewals stopped
June 2026	All remaining renewals stopped (the FAQ gives both June 1 and June 7)
90 days after subscription end	Platform access ends; account data deleted

Paid accounts get 90 days after their subscription expires to export data. Free accounts only got 14 days. After those windows close, Freshworks deletes the account data. The sunset FAQ gives both June 1 and June 7, 2026 as the end of renewals, so confirm your own dates with Freshteam support.

Some customers with annual contracts that renewed before the March 7 cutoff may retain access through approximately April 2027, according to People Matters. But if your renewal already lapsed, treat the deadline as immediate.

Because the final cutoff depends entirely on your individual renewal date, audit your contract immediately. Export first, then scope the migration, so the data transfer is never squeezed against the deletion date.

What Data Does Freshteam Hold?

Freshteam was a combined ATS + HRIS product. That dual nature is what makes this migration harder than a pure recruiting-tool switch. Your account likely contains two distinct data sets that may need to land in two different target systems.

ATS data (recruiting) manages jobs, candidates, applicants, interview stages, feedback scorecards, offers, source attribution, and recruitment vendors. This data is deeply relational — a single candidate profile might link to three different applications across three jobs, with multiple interview scorecards and custom field responses attached to each application.

HRIS data (employee management) manages employee profiles, compensation, time-off types, balances and request history, onboarding/offboarding workflows, organizational structure (branches, departments, sub-departments, business units, teams, levels), and payroll data. While employee profiles are relatively flat, time-off ledgers are event-driven. Migrating a time-off balance requires moving both the current accrual state and the historical ledger of requests and approvals to maintain accurate payroll records.

Freshworks' sunset FAQ lists most of these categories in the account export (see Method 1). The completeness of what you actually get depends on which export method you use.

How to Export Data from Freshteam

Three export paths are available, each with different coverage and different limitations. Use this decision framework to choose:

Scenario	Recommended method
You need a full backup before anything else	Method 1 (account export) first, always
You need HRIS records with all embedded objects (compensation, bank accounts, documents)	Method 3 (API) + Method 1 as backup
You need ATS data with interview feedback and scorecards	Method 1 (XML export) — the API cannot list applicants
You need flat CSV for a simple import tool	Method 2 (per-module CSV)
You have >5,000 candidate records	Combine all three; use API for employees, XML for ATS, CSV for validation

No single method is complete on its own. The practical approach is: trigger the full account export immediately as insurance, then use the API for HRIS data and the XML export for ATS data.

Method 1: Full Account Export (Admin Settings)

This is the export path Freshworks points to in its sunset FAQ. Navigate to Settings → Account → Export Account Data and click "Request Now." Freshworks processes the export and emails you when it's ready to download (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com).

What you get: A bundle of files covering candidate data, offer data, requisition data, jobs, interview feedback forms, employee data, onboarding/offboarding records, payroll data, tasks, time-off balances and requests, locations, and vendors.

Format: Freshteam's guide to exporting ATS data describes the account export as XML files — not CSV, not JSON (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com). This matters because XML requires parsing and transformation before it's usable in most target systems. If your target platform only accepts CSV imports, you'll need an intermediate conversion step.

Freshteam does not publish a full XML schema. The same guide describes four ATS files: Leads (candidates, each with a unique lead ID), Jobs (job details, applicants and recruitment email conversations), Users and Vendors. The Jobs file links to Leads through the lead ID, so one candidate who applied to several jobs can be traced across them. The sunset export covers more modules than those four files, so download the sample format from the right-hand pane of the export page before you write a parser.

Key points to handle in your parser:

• Rebuild relationships from shared IDs. Keep a lookup table from lead ID to candidate, and from each job to its applicants.
• Freshteam IDs are large integers. Verify your target system doesn't truncate them.
• Download every referenced file while you still have access to the account. Do not keep links for later retrieval.

Limitations:

• The export is a snapshot, not a live sync. Changes made after you trigger the export aren't captured.
• Check the sample format to see how the export stores attachments and interview feedback before you rely on it for either.

Method 2: Per-Module CSV Exports

Freshteam also allows exporting specific modules directly from the product UI:

• Candidate data per job: Go to a specific job posting → export a CSV of applicants for that role, including bio and professional experience (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com).
• Full recruitment pipeline: From Recruitment → Candidates, export a CSV of candidates in the pipeline, including which jobs they applied to.
• Time-off requests: Export from Settings → Time Off → Timeoff Import/Export → Export requests, filtered by date range (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com).

What you get: Flatter, easier-to-use CSV files — but scoped to individual modules rather than the full account. Freshteam emails each CSV to the user who requested it.

Limitations:

• CSV exports flatten relational data, so you have to rebuild links between candidates, jobs and stages yourself.
• Freshteam's export guide does not say the candidate CSVs include interview feedback, scorecards or attachments. Do not rely on them for those.

For most organizations, CSV exports are a starting point for validation, not a complete solution.

Method 3: API Extraction

Freshteam's REST API provides structured JSON access to most HRIS objects and some ATS objects. Authentication uses API key authentication — retrieve your API key from the Freshteam UI under your profile's API Settings and pass it as the Authorization: Bearer {api_key} header on each request (developers.freshteam.com).

Available API endpoints:

Endpoint	What it returns
GET /api/employees	All employee records (filterable by status, department, location)
GET /api/employees/{id}	Single employee with embedded objects via include parameter
GET /api/employee_fields	All default and custom employee field definitions
GET /api/job_postings	All job postings (filterable by status, department, location)
GET /api/job_postings/{id}	Single job with custom fields, requisitions, skills
GET /api/job_postings/{id}/applicant_fields	Field definitions for the applicant form
GET /api/time_offs	All time-off requests (filterable by status, user, date range)
GET /api/time_off_types	Leave type definitions
GET /api/new_hires/{id}	Single onboarding (new hire) record
GET /api/branches	Office locations
GET /api/departments	Department structure
GET /api/teams	Team definitions
GET /api/candidate_sources	Source attribution data
GET /api/roles	User role definitions

The employee endpoint is the richest — a single GET /api/employees/{id} call with include=compensation_details,bank_accounts,qualifications,government_documents,stocks,dependents returns the full employee record. The include parameter is documented on the single-employee call, so plan for one request per employee.

GET /api/employee_fields returns each field's name, label and field_type, but its documented response has no list of dropdown options. GET /api/job_postings/{id}/applicant_fields does return picklist_values for applicant dropdown and radio fields (developers.freshteam.com). If your target system requires you to pre-create dropdown options before importing records, collect the employee picklist values from the records themselves and the applicant ones from applicant_fields before loading any records.

Freshteam API Rate Limits

Rate limits scale with your plan and employee count, enforced per minute, per account (developers.freshteam.com):

Plan	Rate limit (calls/minute)
Free	None (no API access)
Trial	10
Growth / Pro	MAX(50, number of subscribed employees)
Enterprise	MAX(100, 2 × number of subscribed employees)

For a 200-employee Growth account, that's 200 calls per minute. For a 30-employee Growth account, the floor kicks in at 50. Track usage via the x-ratelimit-remaining response header and back off before hitting 429 Too Many Requests.

Your extraction scripts must implement exponential backoff: on a 429, wait min(2^attempt * base_delay, max_delay) seconds before retrying. Without this, a script that ignores rate limits will stall mid-extraction and may leave your dataset incomplete.

Pagination defaults to 50 records per page, and the docs list no page-size parameter. Extracting 5,000 employees requires at least 100 paginated requests. Use the page query parameter (?page=2&sort=id) and follow the link response header, which carries the next page's URL, until it is absent. The total-pages header tells you how many pages to expect.

Extracting Binary Attachments via API

Attachments are the heaviest part of any ATS migration. The Freshteam API does not send actual files in the standard JSON response — file objects (such as time-off attachments) carry a url that links to the file (developers.freshteam.com). Because the API cannot read candidates (see the callout below), candidate resumes have to come from the account export, not the API.

To migrate a file referenced in an API record, your script must:

1. Parse the record's JSON to find the attachment URL.
2. Execute a secondary GET request to download the binary file.
3. Buffer the file in a secure staging environment.
4. Upload the file to the target system through its attachment or document API.
5. Map the new attachment ID back to the target record.

Every attachment requires a separate HTTP request, so attachment-heavy migrations take far more requests than the records alone. Plan for parallelism with rate-limit-aware concurrency controls.

What Gets Lost in Every Export Method

No single Freshteam export method captures everything. Here's what to watch for:

• Resume and document files: The API returns file links, not files, and cannot read candidate resumes at all. Download every file while the account is still live — don't store links for later retrieval.
• Interview feedback and scorecards: The sunset FAQ lists interview feedback form data in the full account export. The API has no feedback endpoint, and Freshteam's export guide does not list feedback in the per-module CSVs.
• Stage transition timestamps: Candidate pipeline history (when they moved between hiring stages) may not survive any export method. Without these timestamps, hiring velocity metrics (time-to-screen, time-to-offer) cannot be rebuilt in the target system.
• Custom field definitions (not just values): The API and XML export include custom field values on records. Field definitions come from GET /api/employee_fields, and applicant dropdown options from GET /api/job_postings/{id}/applicant_fields. Load picklist definitions into your target system before loading records, or dropdown values will fail validation.
• Referential integrity: The XML export is a set of separate files. Relationships between candidates, applications, jobs, and interview stages need to be reconstructed from shared IDs. Build and maintain ID mapping tables throughout the migration.
• Time-off current balances: The API returns individual time-off requests and leave type definitions, and documents no balance endpoint. The account export includes leave balances, so take balances from the export and reconcile them against the request history before you load them.

Mapping Freshteam Data to Target Systems

Moving data out of Freshteam is only half the battle. Translating it into the schema of your new platform is where the real complexity lies.

If you primarily used the ATS (recruiting): Dedicated applicant tracking systems like Greenhouse, Workable, Ashby, Zoho Recruit, or Manatal will handle your job postings, candidate data, and hiring pipelines with more depth than Freshteam offered. For a comprehensive migration plan, see our ATS data migration checklist.

If you primarily used the HRIS (employee records, time-off, onboarding): BambooHR, Gusto, Bob (HiBob), or Personio are common destinations. People Matters reports that Freshworks is consolidating its non-IT HR work into Freshservice for Business Teams (peoplematters.in). That product handles HR service delivery (cases, a service catalog, onboarding and offboarding journeys) and connects to an HRIS rather than replacing one (freshworks.com). If you used Freshteam's recruiting features, Freshservice does not fill that gap.

If you used both equally: You likely need two separate systems, which means two migration workstreams. Separating the two functions gives you better tooling on both sides — Freshteam's ATS was basic compared to purpose-built recruiting platforms.

Target Example: Greenhouse

Greenhouse's data model separates the person (Candidate) from the candidacy (Application). Freshteam's account export keeps candidates in the Leads file and job applicants in the Jobs file, linked by a lead ID. Migrating Freshteam ATS data to Greenhouse requires transformation logic that creates each person once as a candidate, then one application per job they applied to. Greenhouse set August 31, 2026 as the removal date for its Harvest v1/v2 API, so build the load on Harvest v3 (docs.greenhouse.io).

Freshteam data	Transformation	Greenhouse target (Harvest v3)
Candidate first and last name	Direct map	Candidate name fields
Candidate email	Direct map	Candidate email address
Job applied to	Look up the matching Greenhouse job	Application's job
Hiring stage	Map Freshteam stage name → Greenhouse stage	Application's current stage
Interview feedback	Rebuild as a scorecard, or import as a note	Scorecard (POST /v3/scorecards) or note (POST /v3/notes)
Resume file	Download binary; re-upload	Attachment (POST /v3/attachments)
Source	Map source name → Greenhouse source	Application's source

The critical challenge is scorecard data. A Greenhouse scorecard belongs to an interview kit on an application (harvestdocs.greenhouse.io), and Freshteam's interview feedback forms will not match those kits one for one. There is no lossless mapping — you must decide whether to rebuild feedback as scorecards, import it as a single note on the candidate, or discard it and start fresh.

Target Example: BambooHR

BambooHR organizes employee data into standard fields (a fixed set of core HR fields), custom fields, and tables that hold history rows, such as Job Information (jobInfo) and Compensation (compensation). Freshteam's flat custom field model must be mapped into this structure before import.

Freshteam custom field (example)	Type	BambooHR target
employee_level (dropdown)	Enumerated	Custom field in the Job Information table
shirt_size (text)	Free text	Custom field on the employee record
visa_expiry (date)	Date	Standard field (if available) or custom date field
stock_grant_date (date)	Date	Custom field in the Compensation table

BambooHR's API lists fields and tables (GET /v1/meta/fields, GET /v1/meta/tables) but documents no call to create them (documentation.bamboohr.com). An admin creates custom fields and tables in BambooHR's settings before you import records. Create field definitions first, verify them through the meta endpoints, then load records.

For a full treatment of HRIS field mapping strategies, see our HRIS data migration checklist.

How to Handle Compliance During Migration

Freshteam accounts hold personally identifiable information (PII) across both the ATS and HRIS — candidate names, addresses, government document numbers, bank account details, EEO data, compensation history. Moving this data triggers specific regulatory obligations.

Data minimization (GDPR Article 5(1)(c)): Don't migrate everything by default. Candidate records older than your retention policy should be purged, not transferred. Under GDPR Article 17, data subjects have the right to erasure — migrating records you're no longer legally entitled to hold transfers that liability to your new system. Establish a retention cutoff date and filter records before extraction, not after.

Legal basis for processing (GDPR Article 6): Your original legal basis for processing candidate data may not extend automatically to a new platform. If you relied on Article 6(1)(b) (processing necessary for a contract) for employee records, that basis follows the employment relationship — not the specific system. If you relied on Article 6(1)(f) (legitimate interests) for candidate records, review whether that basis still holds given the new processing context and controller relationship.

EEO data handling (OFCCP requirements): Freshteam can collect EEO data (gender, veteran status, ethnicity and disability) on job application forms, and only admins and roles granted "View EEO Fields" can see it (freshteambeta.freshdesk.com). Federal contractors must keep disability self-identification data confidential and in a separate data analysis file (41 CFR 60-741.42(e), law.cornell.edu). If your migration script maps EEO responses into standard, visible candidate fields in your new ATS, hiring managers can see data that must not influence hiring. Map EEO data to the target ATS's restricted EEO fields instead.

Encryption requirements: Any staging environment holding exported Freshteam data should use AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit. Staging databases should auto-purge within 30 days after migration completion — no orphaned candidate data should persist beyond project close.

Cross-border data transfers: If your Freshteam instance held data on EU residents and your target system is US-based, the transfer requires an adequate legal mechanism — Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) under GDPR Article 46(2)(c), or a vendor covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Confirm your target system's DPA before initiating transfer.

For a detailed compliance treatment, see our GDPR/CCPA compliance guide for ATS migrations.

How Long Does a Freshteam Migration Take?

Two clocks run in parallel, and confusing them is the most common planning mistake.

Clock 1: The data migration ClonePartner performs. The actual movement of records from Freshteam to your new platform. For the data migration phase — extracting from Freshteam, transforming the schema, loading into the target, validating — most migrations complete within 1–5 business days, depending on data volume, complexity, and API rate limits.

Small datasets under 10,000 flat records can finish in under 24 hours. Attachment-heavy migrations (many resumes, offer letters) take longer, because every file is a separate download and upload.

Clock 2: Your own platform selection and implementation. Choosing a new ATS or HRIS, configuring it, rebuilding workflows, training your team — that's a separate project that you run on your own timeline. ClonePartner does not perform it.

The mistake teams make is treating both clocks as one project and procrastinating on the data export because they haven't chosen a target system yet. Export your data now, even if you haven't picked a replacement. The Freshteam shutdown window is hard — your data will be deleted. Platform selection can happen on your own timeline.

Step-by-Step: Exporting and Migrating from Freshteam

1. Trigger the full account export immediately. Go to Settings → Account → Export Account Data. Download the result and store it securely, encrypted at rest. This is your insurance policy — even if you do a more targeted extraction later, you want the full backup before anything else.

2. Download all attachment binaries from the export. Download every file the export references as soon as you receive the package, while the account is still live. Do not store links for later retrieval.

3. Audit what you actually have. Parse the XML files and CSV exports. Count records by type: employees, candidates, job postings, time-off requests. Inventory custom fields by type (text, dropdown, date, file). Identify EEO data fields that require segregated handling.

4. Decide on your target architecture. ATS-only, HRIS-only, or both? This determines whether you're running one migration or two, and which fields map to which system.

5. Extract via API where the export falls short. List employees with GET /api/employees, then call GET /api/employees/{id} with include=compensation_details,bank_accounts,qualifications,government_documents to pull HRIS records with full embedded objects. Use GET /api/employee_fields and GET /api/job_postings/{id}/applicant_fields to extract custom field definitions, including applicant picklist values. For ATS data, use the account-level XML export — the API has no applicant listing endpoint.

6. Load field definitions into the target system before records. Create custom tables, custom fields, and dropdown option lists in your target system. Attempting to import records before their field definitions exist will cause validation failures.

7. Map fields to the target schema. Build an explicit mapping table (Freshteam field → transformation rule → target field). Handle type conversions (Freshteam dropdown → target picklist), relational reconstructions (employee → department ID → department name), and EEO field segregation.

8. Run a sample migration. Load 50–100 representative records into your target system. Verify: custom field values landed in correct fields, dropdown values match the target's picklist options, relational links (employee → department → branch) survived, document attachments are accessible, and EEO data landed in segregated/anonymized fields.

9. Execute the full migration. Run the bulk historical load during the working days before go-live, while recruiters and HR keep working in Freshteam. Go live on a Monday morning: freeze Freshteam before the working day starts, run a final delta migration of changed records only (about 30 minutes), and have the team log in to the new system that Monday.

10. Run a delta sync and validate. Compare record counts between source and target. Spot-check 10–20 records across employee, candidate, and time-off categories. Verify referential integrity. Confirm the delta captured every record that changed in Freshteam between your initial export and the cutover.

11. Confirm compliance documentation. Record the data transfer date, the legal basis used, and the target system's DPA reference. Document the Freshteam deletion date (90-day post-expiry) in your compliance records.

Common Pitfalls

• Assuming the XML schema follows a standard. Freshteam's XML export does not follow HR-XML or HR Open Standards. Budget time for schema discovery, starting from the sample format on the export page.
• ID truncation. Freshteam uses large integer IDs (e.g., 3000053373). Some import tools silently truncate integers exceeding 32-bit range (2,147,483,647). Verify your target system stores these as 64-bit integers or strings, and maintain an ID mapping table linking Freshteam IDs to target system IDs for post-migration reference.
• The "List all Candidates" API gap. Freshteam's API supports creating applicants via POST /api/job_postings/{id}/applicants but provides no corresponding GET to retrieve applicants in bulk. This is the most consequential API limitation for ATS migrations — the XML export is the only path to complete candidate data.
• Time-off balance miscalculation. The API returns individual time-off requests and leave type definitions but documents no balance endpoint. Take balances from the account export, which includes them, and reconcile each one against the underlying request history before you load it.
• Leaving files behind. The XML export and API responses reference files by link. Download binary files immediately — once Freshworks deletes the account, those files are gone.
• Freshservice ≠ Freshteam. Freshworks is consolidating non-IT HR work into Freshservice for Business Teams, but it's an HR service-delivery product that connects to an HRIS. Its HR page lists no ATS functionality (candidate tracking, interview scheduling, offer management) or traditional HRIS features (time-off management, compensation tracking). If you used Freshteam for recruiting or employee management, Freshservice requires separate ATS and HRIS selection.
• EEO field placement errors. Mapping Freshteam EEO fields (veteran status, ethnicity, disability, gender) into standard visible candidate fields in your new ATS creates OFCCP compliance exposure. Verify your target system supports EEO data in a segregated, non-visible location before import.

Getting Help With the Migration

If your Freshteam account has straightforward employee records and a manageable number of candidates, a self-service migration using the account export and your target platform's import tools may work fine.

For more complex scenarios — large candidate databases, custom field mappings that need transformation, multiple target systems, compliance constraints around PII handling, or tight timelines where the 90-day window is already shrinking — working with a migration specialist reduces the risk of data loss.

ClonePartner specializes in ATS and HRIS data migrations. Our process:

1. Connect accounts: We securely authenticate with Freshteam and your target system's API.
2. Migration checklist & mapping: A dedicated migration engineer maps every custom field, stage, picklist definition, and attachment with you — producing an explicit field mapping document before any data moves.
3. Sample migrations: We run sample migrations with real records until the data mapping is validated. You review actual records in your new system before approving the full transfer.
4. Full migration: We run the bulk transfer during the working days before go-live, while your team keeps working in Freshteam.
5. Delta sync: On go-live Monday morning, a final sync captures any candidates who applied or advanced during the bulk transfer window.

One fixed price per project starting at $500. No hourly billing, no per-record pricing, no change orders.