Import a bank statement

Importing your bank statement brings the bank's own lines into Books, so you can match them with what you recorded. Importing creates statement lines only; it does not post anything to your ledger.

Before you start

• You need the Books right Manage banking.
• Download one complete statement from your bank as CSV, Excel, OFX or MT940.

Steps

1. Open Books → Banking and cash → Bank statement import.
2. Choose the Account the statement belongs to.
3. Choose the File and select Preview.
4. For CSV or Excel, check the Sheet, Header row, Decimal separator and Date order.
5. For each column, choose what it holds: date, amount (or debit and credit), description, reference, bank transaction ID or balance. Select Preview again.
6. Read the first 20 rows. Each row shows Unmatched (new) or Duplicate. Fix any errors listed above the table.
7. Select Import checked rows.
8. If the import pauses, select Continue import.

When the import finishes, open the Bank statement to start matching: see Match bank lines and reconcile.

Undo an import

Open the import from the list and select Undo unused rows. Books removes the lines of that import that you have not matched or used yet. Lines already used stay and are counted as Retained.

Good to know

• Choose either one amount column or a debit and a credit column, not both. Books does not skip or round a row it cannot read; it shows the error instead.
• Books skips lines it has already imported. A line with the same bank transaction ID but different details is stopped for you to review. Without IDs, two identical lines in one file are kept as two lines.
• OFX and MT940 files must hold one account and one statement. For MT940, the opening balance plus the lines must equal the closing balance. The statement currency must be your base currency.
• Large imports continue in the background, about 200 rows at a time; refresh the page to see progress.
• Keep files under 6 MB. An uploaded file that is not imported is deleted after 14 days.
• The account number in the file is shown for you to check; Books does not match it to the saved number automatically.
• These formats were tested with sample files from public specifications, not with every bank's real files. If your bank's file is refused, export it as CSV or Excel.