Guides, examples and answers
How bank statements are structured, how the converter reads them, and how to get the export into your accounting software without duplicates.
How to read a bank statement: every line, explained
A field-by-field walk through a bank statement: period, balances, transaction columns, running balance, posting dates, codes and completeness checks. The same checks the converter runs, done by hand once so you know what it is checking.
Read the guide Example · Checking statementNorthgate Bank, two pages, nine printed rows
A fictional US checking statement with transaction and posting dates and a description that wraps onto two lines. See the printed table, what the converter keeps and the balance check line by line.
All resources
27 articles- Guide3 min
What is a bank statement?
A bank statement is the bank's periodic record of an account: balances, every transaction in the period and account details. What it contains and how it's used.
Read - Guide4 min
How to read a bank statement
A field-by-field walk through a bank statement: period, balances, transaction columns, running balance, posting dates, codes and completeness checks.
Read - Guide3 min
How to download bank statements as PDF
Where to find PDF statements in online banking and mobile apps, which file to choose, how far back you can go, and what to do about images and passwords.
Read - Guide3 min
How long should you keep bank statements?
Retention periods for bank statements for individuals and businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the EU, what they are based on, and how to file them.
Read - Walkthrough3 min
How to convert bank statements to Excel
Four ways to get a PDF bank statement into Excel, from copy and paste to a converter with reconciliation, the pitfalls of each, and how to check the result.
Read - Walkthrough3 min
How to convert bank statements to CSV
Convert a PDF bank statement to a clean CSV for accounting software or analysis: columns, signs, delimiters, date formats and the classic import errors.
Read - Walkthrough3 min
How to convert scanned bank statements to Excel or CSV
Turn a scanned or photographed bank statement into a spreadsheet: scan settings OCR reads well, what OCR gets wrong on financial documents, and how to verify.
Read - Walkthrough3 min
How to convert password-protected bank statements
Why banks password-protect statements, open versus permissions passwords, where to find the password, and how to convert without leaving an unprotected copy.
Read - Walkthrough5 min
How to convert a credit card statement to CSV
Convert a credit card PDF statement to CSV: which way the signs go, what the account summary should add up to, and how card layouts differ from bank statements.
Read - Walkthrough4 min
How to merge multiple bank statements into one file
Combine a year of PDF statements into one spreadsheet: what to check at the joins, how to handle several accounts, and when merging is the wrong idea.
Read - Walkthrough3 min
Why can't I copy text from my bank statement PDF?
Five reasons text in a PDF statement will not select or copies as garbage: image pages, outlined fonts, missing character maps, restrictions, reading order.
Read - Walkthrough5 min
Your PDF bank statement will not convert: what to check
No transactions found, missing rows, wrong dates or amounts that do not add up: what each symptom means in a PDF statement and what to do about it.
Read - Import3 min
How to import bank transactions into QuickBooks from a PDF statement
Import bank statement transactions into QuickBooks Online and Desktop with CSV or QBO files: column mapping, institution ids and duplicate prevention.
Read - Import5 min
How to import bank transactions into Xero from a PDF statement
Import a PDF bank statement into Xero using CSV or OFX: the exact columns Xero expects, how its date format setting works, and how to avoid duplicates.
Read - Import3 min
CSV vs QBO: which format should you import into your accounting software?
Practical differences between CSV, QBO and OFX for importing bank transactions: duplicates, institution ids, software support, balances and when to use each.
Read - Import3 min
How to fix duplicate transactions after a bank import
Why duplicate transactions appear after importing statements into QuickBooks, Xero or a spreadsheet, how to find and remove them, and how to prevent them.
Read - Guide6 min
How to reconcile a bank statement
Reconcile a bank statement against your books: the balance equation, outstanding items, the six checks worth running, and how to find a difference fast.
Read - Guide4 min
How to categorise bank transactions in a spreadsheet
Turn a converted statement into a spending summary: a keyword rules table, the formulas that apply it, and a pivot table that totals by month and category.
Read - Guide5 min
Why Excel mangles your CSV, and how to stop it
Dates flipped, leading zeros gone, accents broken, everything in one column: why Excel does this to CSV files and the settings that prevent each problem.
Read - File format3 min
What is an OFX file?
OFX (Open Financial Exchange) explained: structure, versions 1.x and 2.x, the fields in a statement download, which software reads it, and QBO, QFX and QIF.
Read - File format3 min
What is a QBO file?
QBO (QuickBooks Web Connect) files explained: how they differ from OFX, the FI and INTU.BID identifiers QuickBooks checks, where to find them, how to import.
Read - File format2 min
What is a QFX file?
QFX is Quicken's Web Connect format: OFX with Intuit identifiers. How it differs from OFX and QBO, why Quicken rejects plain OFX, and how to import it.
Read - File format2 min
What is a QIF file?
QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) explained: the plain-text structure and field codes, why it has no transaction ids, who still reads it, and alternatives.
Read - Security4 min
Is it safe to upload a bank statement to an online converter?
What happens to a statement you upload, the questions to ask any converter (encryption, retention, deletion, subprocessors, AI) and how this service answers.
Read - Security3 min
How to redact a bank statement properly
How to remove account numbers and personal details from a PDF statement so they are really gone, not just covered: tools that redact properly and what to keep.
Read - Security5 min
Bank statements for a mortgage or loan application
What lenders ask for, why they want the original PDFs, how many months to send, and what they look at once they have them.
Read - Example4 min
Bank statement examples, annotated field by field
Two fictional statements, one US and one UK, with the period, account number, deposits, withdrawals and running balance labelled and the balances tied out.
Read
Bank statement examples
Fictional statements built to exercise one layout family each: page breaks, comma decimals, scanned pages, missing running balances, two accounts in one file. The engine is run over all 19 on every release and the row counts below are what it must extract. None are from a real bank.
All examples| Example | Tests | Pages | Rows | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US checking, running balance | Three pages, wrapped descriptions, daily-balance distractor block | 3 | 60 | All checks passed |
| US credit card | Liability signs, CR suffix on refunds, no balance column | 1 | 19 | All checks passed |
| UK current account, day-first dates | DD/MM/YYYY dates, money in and money out columns | 2 | 42 | All checks passed |
| German current account, comma decimals | 1.234,56 numbers, signed Betrag column, Buchungstag and Valuta dates | 2 | 36 | All checks passed |
| French account, space thousands | 1 234,56 numbers, Débit and Crédit columns | 2 | 37 | All checks passed |
| Canadian chequing | Row dates without a year across a New Year period boundary | 2 | 41 | All checks passed |
| Australian savings | Interest row beside interest-rate distractor lines | 1 | 19 | All checks passed |
| Swiss account, apostrophe thousands | 1'234.56 numbers, German column labels | 2 | 32 | All checks passed |
| Two accounts in one PDF | Checking and savings tables, each with its own summary box | 2 | 37 | All checks passed |
| Narrow description column | Descriptions wrapped over two or three lines | 2 | 19 | All checks passed |
| Parenthesised negatives | (84.17) debits in a single Amount column, checks-paid distractor | 2 | 32 | All checks passed |
| Indian savings, DR/CR suffix | 1,23,456.78 grouping, Dr and Cr suffixes on amounts and balances | 2 | 34 | All checks passed |
| ISO dates with reference column | YYYY-MM-DD dates, check numbers and ACH codes in a Reference column | 2 | 32 | All checks passed |
| No running balance column | Reconciled from brought-forward and carried-forward balances only | 1 | 23 | All checks passed |
| Password-protected UK account | AES-256 encrypted PDF opened with the user password | 2 | 42 | All checks passed |
| Scanned checking, clean | 200 DPI image-only pages, OCR on every page | 3 | 60 | All checks passed |
| Scanned checking, rotated | Pages rotated 90 degrees and letterboxed, corrected before OCR | 3 | 60 | All checks passed |
| Scanned checking, noisy | 150 DPI JPEG, 1.5 degree skew, noise and low contrast | 3 | 60 | All checks passed |
| Hybrid text and image pages | Page 2 is a raster image between two text pages | 3 | 60 | All checks passed |
Changelog
All releases- Initial release v1.0.0
- Convert text, scanned (OCR) and hybrid PDF statements from any bank; password-protected PDFs on paid plans.
- Regional date and number parsing: MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD.MM.YYYY; 1,234.56, 1.234,56, 1 234,56, 1'234.56, 1,23,456.78, (125.00) and DR/CR suffixes.
- Reconciliation checks (balance equation, running-balance chain, period, duplicates, page-boundary repeats, printed totals, row count) with a Conversion Confidence Score and row-level flags.
- And 5 more in the release notes
Is it safe to upload a statement?
Encryption in transit, random storage keys, deletion after 24 hours and masked account numbers, explained in plain language.
Read the security overviewTry it on a statement of your own.
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