Review export dates in Excel
Updated August 24, 2026
Export your reviews with Export as Excel rather than Export as CSV. The Excel file carries real date values, so a spreadsheet shows every timestamp exactly as Pluspoint wrote it. The CSV file stores dates as plain text in MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:ss. Double-click that file and Excel re-reads those dates using your regional settings — the whole cause of “my exported dates look wrong”.
Before you start
- You need access to Reviews: the account owner, or a member of a team with Reviews set to Restricted or Full.
- Both exports follow the filters currently applied on All reviews — set them before you export.
- You can only run one reviews export at a time; the finished file is also emailed to you.
Where to find it
Reviews → All reviews, or go to https://app.pluspoint.io/reviews/manage.
Exporting as Excel
- Open Filters, set the locations, review sites, timeframe, rating and categories you want, and select Apply filters.
- Select the arrow on the export split button and choose Export as Excel.
- When the export is ready, select Download, or use the link from the email — it works later and from another device.
Clicking the body of the split button instead of the arrow runs Export as CSV.
What the two formats contain
Both files hold the same rows and the same columns; only the encoding of dates differs.
| Export format | How timestamps are stored | Time zone | What a spreadsheet does with them |
|---|---|---|---|
Export as Excel (.xlsx) | Real date values, displayed as yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss | UTC | Shows them as written; no re-interpretation |
Export as CSV (.csv) | Text, MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:ss on a 24-hour clock | UTC | Re-formats them to your system’s regional settings when you open the file directly |
Neither file converts timestamps into your local time zone. A review posted at 16:03 in Lisbon reads 15:03 in the export during summer time.
Reading a CSV without mangling it
Sometimes you need the CSV anyway — for a system that accepts nothing else, for example. Do not open it by double-clicking. Use your spreadsheet’s import flow instead: in Excel, that is From Text/CSV on the Data tab. In the import dialog:
- Set the file origin or encoding to UTF-8. The CSV carries no byte order mark. If the importer guesses a different encoding, accented names and review text come through garbled.
- Set the two date columns to Text to keep the raw
MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:ssstrings verbatim. For real date values instead, tell the importer that the file’s locale uses month-first dates.
Google Sheets and Numbers auto-format less aggressively, so importing there and copying into Excel is a workable alternative.
Exported columns
Column headers are in English in every interface language.
| Column | What it contains |
|---|---|
Name | Reviewer name, or the fallback the review carries (phone, email or external id) |
Location | The location’s internal name |
Channel | The review source as stored internally, so official connections read GoogleOfficial and FacebookOfficial, and iFood reads Ifood |
Rating | 1 to 5 |
Comment | The review text |
Review Date | When the review was posted |
Review Update Date | When the reviewer last edited it |
Reply | The reply text recorded in Pluspoint |
Reply Date | When the reply was recorded |
Keywords | Comma-separated keywords detected in the review |
Categories | Comma-separated categories detected in the review |
Review Link | Public URL of the review on the source site, when there is one |
Review ID | The review’s id on the source platform |
Deleted | True when the review no longer exists on the source, otherwise False |
Pluspoint ID | Pluspoint’s internal id for the review |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Dates appear as 08/19/26, or day and month are swapped | Excel re-interpreted the CSV’s text dates using your regional settings | Re-export with Export as Excel, or import the CSV and set the date columns to Text |
| Accented characters look garbled | The CSV carries no UTF-8 byte order mark, so the spreadsheet guessed a different encoding | Import the CSV with the encoding set to UTF-8, or use Export as Excel |
| Timestamps are a few hours off the times shown on the review cards | Every exported timestamp is UTC | Add your UTC offset in the spreadsheet, or account for it when reporting |
| Toast reads Export in progress. You’ll receive an email when your file is ready | You already have an unfinished export; Pluspoint refuses a second one within an hour of it | Wait for the email from the first export before starting another |
| The toast never turns into Export ready | The page watches for the file for up to 10 minutes, then stops | Use the download link in the email, which arrives whether or not the page is still open |
| Toast reads Export failed or Couldn’t export data as CSV | The file could not be generated | Narrow the timeframe or the location selection and export again |
Reply is empty for a review you answered in Google Business Profile | Replies written outside Pluspoint can take up to 6 hours to appear | Export again once the reply shows in the feed |