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Import bank statement

Created on  | Last modified on 

Summary

How to import bank transactions from a file downloaded from your bank into Sage Accounting Start.

Description

Use this when your bank doesn't have a bank feed, your bank feed isn't working or you have historical transactions not included in your bank feed. Import using XLS, CSV, QIF, and OFX files.

If your bank statement is only available in PDF format, consider using AutoEntry to import directly into Accounting. See how to import your statement using AutoEntry.

What you need to know

Once your statement has been uploaded you can also:

  • Apply bank rules to transactions to automate the process, saving you time
  • Bulk delete any duplicate transactions before importing them

Resolution

Download your bank statement

Log in to your online banking service and download your bank statement.

You need to make sure you download the file as one of the following types:

  • OFX/ASO
  • QIF
  • CSV
  • XLS

 

 

 

 Import your statement in 3 steps

Step 1 of 3: Upload your file

  1. From Banking, select the bank account you want to import transactions to.
  2. From Actions select the drop-down arrow and Import statement.
  3. Select your file type.
  4. To add the file you can either:
  5. Choose Select file and find the bank statement file on your computer. Select Open to add the bank statement.
  6. Or you can drag and drop the file.
  7. Select the date format used in your file so we can process it correctly. Choose either:
    Day, month, year
    Month, day, year
    Year, month, day
  8. Add a comment to help you identify the import later.
  9. Select upload file.

Step 2 of 3: Verify transactions

After the file upload, you need to tell us which transactions show:

  • Money coming into the account
  • Money coming out of the account

To help with this, one of your transactions will be displayed on screen. You need to confirm your transaction as either money in or money out of the account. We will apply this rule to the rest of your transactions.

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Step 3 of 3: Review transactions

All your transactions will be listed and shown as either money in or money out of the account. If there are errors with the way these are categorised, you can go back to the Verify screen.

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Once you have reviewed the transactions select Import transactions. You will be taken back to the Banking screen. Once the transactions have been imported into your account, they will show on your banking tile.

Review bank transactions

The number of imported transactions from your statement are shown on the Banking page. Select the number to view all transactions on the incoming bank transactions page.

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The Imported from statement message shows each transaction that has been imported from your bank statement.

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Match, create or transfer transactions

For each transaction you need to choose whether to:

Help with importing a statement

Fixing import issues

If your file isn't imported, review the list of errors to see which entries failed and why. Correct the issues in your file and then try the import again.

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Tips for creating a CSV file

If you are consistently getting errors when importing, try copy and pasting into a template, then copy the formatting from an example row across all the copied rows:

  1. Download CSV template that matches the information from your bank's CSV file. The CSV file from your bank will usually have either a single amount column (3 column CSV file) or a column for money in and a column for money out (4 column CSV file).
  2. In the CSV template file, leave the heading and the top example row, then delete the information from all other rows.
  3. In your bank's CSV file you will need to do the following:
  4. Remove any columns that are not in the template file.
  5. Copy all the remaining rows and columns.
  6. In the CSV template you will need to:
  7. Right click under the top example row (row 3),
  8. In the paste options, choose Paste as values.
  9. Copy the formatting from the top example to all the pasted rows below.
  10. Make sure amount columns with no values are left blank and do not contain zeros, 0.00.
  11. Remove any special characters.

Unable to upload bank statement

Check above to make sure that the file type you have from your bank is supported. 

Apply bank rules to transactions

Find out how to apply bank rules to transactions imported from your bank statement.

Delete transactions you don’t want to import

Find out how to delete duplicate transactions, including how to save time with bulk delete.

Delete transactions you don’t want to import.









Related Solutions

What's next?

Process incoming bank transactions