How do you get a bank statement into a budgeting app?
You download a file from your bank and the app reads it. Which file to download is the part nobody explains, and picking the wrong one is why most statement imports fail.
What file should you download from your bank?
Download a CSV if your bank offers one, and if it does not, download the "Quicken" or "QuickBooks" option — those are OFX, QFX and QBO files, which carry the same data in a stricter format.
Can you import a PDF bank statement?
Sometimes — a PDF that contains real text can be read, but a scanned one is an image of a statement and there is nothing in it to read.
Why do PDF statement imports get the amounts wrong?
Because a statement line ends in two numbers that look identical — the amount and the running balance — and a reader that takes the last number on the line imports your balance as a transaction on every row.
How do you stop an import creating duplicate transactions?
A good importer compares each incoming row against what you already have and against the rest of the file, and it has to do that on the date and amount rather than on the description.
Does a bank statement include the categories?
No — a bank gives you a date, a signed amount and a description, and every category you see after importing one was guessed by the app.
Is it safe to upload a bank statement to a budgeting app?
It is safer than connecting the account, because a statement file contains a record of what happened and no credential that can reach the account it came from.
What if your bank offers no export at all?
Then a text-bearing PDF is usually still available, and failing that, entering a month by hand takes less time than people expect — roughly four seconds per transaction.