PDF bank statement converter for Irish bookkeepers

Statements from Irish banks

Most clients bank with AIB, Bank of Ireland or PTSB, and many use Revolut as well. Since Ulster Bank and KBC left the Irish market, clients with accounts there have been left with PDF statements and no bank feed. Converting those PDFs is often the only way to bring that history into their books.

There’s no list of supported banks to wait for: the converter reads each statement’s layout instead of relying on a template per bank. It’s designed for English-language PDF statements. Results vary by layout, so try one of your client’s statements with the free pages before you rely on it.

Xero in Ireland

Xero only reads PDF bank statements for organisations in the US and Canada. Everywhere else, a PDF has to become a CSV or OFX file before Xero will import it. Export the Xero statement CSV, or OFX with the sort code and account number, and import it with Manage account › Import a statement.

The six-digit sort code (NSC) is also part of the IBAN, straight after the four-letter bank code.

QuickBooks Online and Sage

For QuickBooks Online, export the 3-column CSV with one signed amount, or the 4-column layout, split to fit QuickBooks’ limit of 1,000 lines per upload. Sage Accounting lists OFX among the bank statement files it imports.

QuickBooks Online can now read a PDF or a photo of a statement itself. Converting first is still worth it when you want each statement checked against its balances and reviewed line by line before anything is imported, or when the same file has to go into Excel or Xero as well.

Client data

Files and results are deleted 24 hours after upload, or straight away if you delete them. Before uploading client statements, read the privacy notice: it names every company that processes statement data and where.