How do you turn a bank statement into a CSV?

Choose the file your bank gave you and this converts it here, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and there is no account to make.

Is my bank statement uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is opened and converted by code running in your own browser, so it never travels over the network and is never stored — you can confirm that yourself by opening your browser’s network tab while you convert one. Closing the tab is all it takes to be rid of it.

What does it cost?

Nothing, and there is no account, no email address and no row limit. It exists because the same reader is already built into Accountable, and a capability nobody can see before signing up may as well not exist.

Which files can it read?

CSV, TSV, Excel (.xls and .xlsx), OFX, QFX, QBO, OFC and QIF, plus PDF statements that contain real text. Those cover what banks actually offer: if yours has no CSV option, the “download to Quicken” and “download to QuickBooks” buttons produce OFX/QFX and QBO files, and both are read here.

Why can it not read a scanned PDF?

Because a scan is a picture of a statement with no text in it to read, so the only way to get figures out is optical recognition — and a misread digit in a column of money is worse than importing nothing at all. The tool says so by name rather than guessing, which is the same rule the app follows.

How does it avoid importing the running balance as a transaction?

It finds the columns rather than assuming them. Every text run in a PDF carries its own position, so the header row is located first and each figure is assigned to the column whose horizontal range it falls in — which is what keeps the amount and the running balance apart. A reader that simply takes the last number on each line imports your balance on every row, silently, and every figure comes out wrong by an amount that grows down the page.

What is in the CSV it gives me?

Six columns — date, type, amount, category, description and notes — in the layout Accountable imports. Category is blank for a raw bank statement, because a bank does not tell you one; an export from Mint, YNAB or Monzo carries the categories it had.