How do I upload bank statement transactions?
Open banking provides an automated transaction feed for the banking providers that offer this.
However, you can also choose to upload transactions to ExpensePlus instead. This is still quick and efficient.
This article explains how to upload bank statement transactions into ExpensePlus.
For an overview, watch the bank reconciliation module overview video here.
Important: If your bank account is connected to open banking, but the automated transaction feed has stopped (because reconsent was needed), you don't need to manually upload transactions. When you re-consent, ExpensePlus will pick up where it left off, and automatically import all transactions since the last automated import.
How do I upload Bank Transactions?
- Upload transaction: Within the Bank Reconciliation screen, click the Upload Transactions button for the relevant account.
- Select the file to upload: In the popup that appears, select the file that contains the transactions downloaded from online banking.
Note: PDF files cannot be uploaded - the statement needs to be in .CSV, .XLS or .XLSX format.
If you only have a PDF or paper statement and need to upload transactions manually, see this help guide article.
Top tip: When downloading transactions from your bank, we recommend you only download transactions up until the previous day.
ExpensePlus purposely does not import bank transactions from the day of upload to prevent errors.
- Check the upload: Check that the transactions look correct, and click 'Yes, upload these transactions' if they are.
ExpensePlus knows the download format of statements from major bank accounts.
It can find the column headers automatically and the data to import, as well as setting the date format correctly.
If the transactions do not look correct, or we're not able to automatically select the data, click 'No, something doesn't look right'. Them you can specify transaction columns yourself on a separate screen.
- Check the bank balance: A popup will then let you know your transactions have been uploaded successfully.
It will ask you to check the bank balance on your account within ExpensePlus matches your actual statement.
If it does, you can click 'Yes'.
This is a way of checking that you have not missed or double-imported any transactions.
Important: You need to check this balance is correct.
If it isn't, it's far easier to sort any erros at this point, before you match any transactions.
If the closing balance doesn't match your bank statement, you can select 'No' to delete the import,.
Double-check your statement file before retrying. At the bottom of this help article, we've listed the common reasons a closing balance might be incorrect.
- Match your transactions: You can then reconcile your bank transactions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Top Tip: to find answers to more common questions about Uploading Bank Statement Transactions click here.
What if ExpensePlus can't automatically read my bank statement format?
If something doesn't look right, or ExpensePlus is not able to automatically select the data, then you will be able to specify the bank statement format yourself and ExpensePlus will remember this for future references:
Note: when specifying the bank statement format yourself, be sure to check that the date format at the bottom is correct (as sometimes dates are saved within the .CSV in American date format which is MM/DD/YYYY even though in Excel these may appear as DD/MM/YYYY).
Why is my closing balance shown in ExpensePlus different from my actual bank statement?
Here are some of the common reasons for this:
- The bank statement was uploaded to the wrong bank account in ExpensePlus (you will need to delete the upload)
- You've uploaded one or more transactions twice (you will need to find and then delete the duplicate transactions)
- You've missed uploading one or more transactions (you can just upload the missing transactions if this happens)
- Your bank account opening balance was set incorrectly (you will need to correct the opening balance)
- The previous upload caused an issue (check the balance at the start of your current statement upload matches between your statement and ExpensePlus).
Most commonly, issues occur when downloading part-month statements from your bank account.
How can I delete incorrectly uploaded transactions?
If there is an issue with the transactions you have uploaded, the best point to realise this is at the point of upload (which is why we ask you to check the closing balance every time you upload transactions).
If the closing balance doesn't match your bank statement, you can simply select No within the popup to delete the import, and then double-check your CSV file before retrying.
You can also delete transactions from within the view statement screen, but note the 'Delete Last Upload' option (which allows you to remove the last statement you uploaded) is only available if none of these uploaded transactions have been matched.
Where transactions have been matched OR where you need to delete specific duplicates, you can do this by clicking the 'unmatch' / 'delete' buttons to the right of the transactions shown on the view statement screen.
What if I don't have access to online bank statements?
Nearly all banks provide downloadable statements, you may just need to request access to online banking.
For bank accounts with paper statements, where there are just a few transactions each month/year, at the bottom of the Upload Transactions popup, there is an option to upload transactions manually.
For bank accounts with more than 1-2 transactions each month, we'd highly recommend that you contact your bank to ask if they offer online banking so that you can access downloadable spreadsheet statements (and if they don't, it may be worth considering alternative banks as most provide this as standard).
Without downloadable statements, transaction data will need to be manually keyed in each month, which is not only extremely time-consuming (and just not unnecessary), but it is also prone to errors.
To better understand the Bank Reconciliation module, please view the module overview video here.