How do I backdate employee data?

Backdating lets you correct historical employee attributes and supervisor relationships for surveys that have already been collected. You enable it during a regular employee import and pick a reference date — Honestly then recalculates all survey responses from that date onwards as if the employee data you are uploading now had already been in place at the time.

You find the option in the main navigation under Employees → Import Employees, inside the Backdate employee data section of the import modal.

Please note:

Only admins with permission to manage employees can import data and use backdating.
Backdating cannot be automatically reversed. Make sure your Excel file is correct before you confirm.
Only use backdating when previous survey results were collected with incorrect employee information. For normal day-to-day updates (new joiners, role changes going forward), a regular import is enough.
The reference date cannot be in the future. The time of day is always treated as 00:00.

Step 1: Prepare your Excel file

Before you enable backdating, prepare the Excel file with the corrected employee data exactly as you want history to look. The same rules as for any employee import apply: the ImportId of each employee must match the existing record, and the required columns (Email, Firstname, Lastname, Language, Role) must be present.

If you are not yet familiar with the file format, see How do I import or update my employees via Excel? and Which guidelines should I follow for a successful Excel import? first.

Step 2: Open the Import Employees modal

Go to Employees in the main navigation.
Click Import Employees.
Select your file in Select Excel File.
Choose Partial Import or Full Import as usual.

The Backdate employee data section appears below the import-type choice.

Step 3: Enable backdating and pick a reference date

Switch on the Backdate employee data toggle. A yellow warning box appears explaining that this action will permanently alter historical survey data.
In Reference date, pick the date from which the corrected employee data should apply. Every survey response received on or after this date will be recalculated.
Click Start import.

A Confirm Backdating dialog opens and lists everything that will be updated for all employees:

Employee attributes that are displayed on the dashboards for survey responses that have already been given.
Which employees were included in a survey if the survey was distributed based on an employee attribute.
Who can view the responses of individual employees.
Superior–subordinate relationships between employees and superiors.

Read the list carefully, then click Yes, Backdate Data to proceed, or Cancel to go back.

Step 4: Wait for the import and backdating to finish

After you confirm, two things happen:

The Excel file is imported as usual. Employees are created, updated, or — for a full import — removed.
Once the import succeeds, backdating runs automatically against the reference date you picked.

You can follow progress on the Last Import indicator at the top of the Employees page. Click it to open Import Details, where the Backdating section shows one of:

Status	What it means
Pending	Backdating is currently running. Historical dashboards may temporarily show mixed results while the recalculation finishes.
Success	Backdating completed. The Completed At timestamp tells you when.
Failed	Backdating did not complete. Your imported employee data is still saved, but the historical recalculation did not run. Please contact us so we can investigate.

If backdating fails, the new employee data is not rolled back — only the historical recalculation is. You can simply re-run the import with backdating enabled once the issue is resolved.

What backdating actually changes

Backdating only touches survey responses received on or after the reference date. Older responses keep their original snapshots. Within that window, four things are rewritten across all employees in the account:

What gets updated	Where you notice it
Employee attributes shown on dashboards	Filters, segmentations and demographic breakdowns of past surveys. A "Department: Sales" filter will include employees who are now in Sales, even if they were in Marketing when they answered. See What are attributes and how are they used?.
Who was included in a survey distributed by attribute	Participation counts and recipient lists on past surveys. Backdating does not retroactively send invitations to anyone who was missed — it only corrects how the historical recipient list is displayed and counted.
Who can view the responses of individual employees	Manager and report-viewer access to past responses. A new manager gains access to the past responses of their team; a previous manager who is no longer the supervisor loses that access. See How Do Reporting Structures and Data Permissions Work in Honestly?.
Superior–subordinate relationships	Manager dashboards and "my team" views for past responses. Open supervisor assignments are closed at the reference date and new ones are created from the reportsToId column in your Excel file.

What backdating does not change:

The content of any survey response. Answers stay exactly as the employee gave them.
Anything before the Reference date. Earlier responses keep their original attribute snapshots, access rules and supervisor links.
Employees that were already removed before the reference date. They stay removed in history.
No notification is sent to employees or managers whose access changes.

Tips

Pick the earliest date that needs correcting. The reference date is the lower bound — older surveys are not touched. Picking a date earlier than needed costs nothing in terms of result quality, but the recalculation will take longer.
Check a single dashboard before and after. Pick one survey that you know had incorrect attributes, and compare a filter or breakdown before and after backdating. This is the fastest way to confirm the correction landed.
Run a regular import first when in doubt. If you are not sure whether backdating is needed, do a partial import without it. You can always re-run the import with backdating enabled afterwards.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

How do I backdate employee data?