Convert PDF bank statements to CSV

The columns

• Date: in DD/MM/YYYY unless you choose MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD when you export.
• Description: the transaction text as printed on the statement.
• Money Out and Money In: the amount in one column or the other, like most statements print it.
• Amount: the same value as one signed number, negative for money out.
• Balance: the running balance, where the statement prints one.
• Page, Line IDs and Flags: where the row came from on the PDF and any review flags, useful for an audit trail. Delete them if your software doesn’t want them.

File details

• UTF-8, comma-separated, with a header row.
• Amounts have two decimal places, no currency symbols and no thousands separators.
• A description that starts with =, +, - or @ gets a leading apostrophe, so a spreadsheet won’t run it as a formula.
• If £, € or accented letters look wrong after double-clicking the file in Excel, open it with Data › From Text/CSV and choose UTF-8.

How to convert a PDF bank statement to CSV

1. 1Upload the PDF statements, up to 10 at a time and up to 50 pages each. If a file is password-protected you’ll be asked for the password; it’s used once and never stored.
2. 2Review each statement next to its transactions. The opening balance, every transaction and the closing balance have to add up; if they don’t, the rows to check are flagged.
3. 3Choose Export, then CSV, and the date format your software expects.

Checked before it reaches the books

A dropped row or a misread minus sign doesn’t show up when you import a file. It shows up weeks later, when the account won’t reconcile. So before you export, the converter checks that the opening balance plus every transaction equals the closing balance printed on the statement, and flags the rows to look at when it doesn’t.

Every row is linked to the line on the PDF it came from, so you can click a transaction and see the original. On text PDFs, amounts are taken from the statement itself rather than retyped. Scanned pages can be converted too, but can’t be traced line by line.

Importing into accounting software?

Xero and QuickBooks Online each expect their own CSV columns. Export the Xero statement CSV or one of the QuickBooks layouts instead of the general CSV, and you won’t need to delete or rearrange columns before importing.