Guides

Written for bookkeepers, accountants, landlords, sole traders and anyone who has to make sense of a pile of statements. Each guide stands on its own. Start with the basics if you’re new to this:

• How to download bank statements online: getting the right file in the first place.
• Paid in vs paid out and opening and closing balances: reading a statement correctly.
• What a running balance check proves: why converted data can be trusted, or not.

Then, for spreadsheets: opening a CSV without breaking dates, splitting by month, totalling money in and out and categorising transactions.

For year-end work, see the whole-year statement check and the guides on finding a missing transaction and preparing statements for your accountant. Importing into accounting software has its own section: accounting imports.

Every guide works with the CSV the converter produces: Date, Description, Paid in, Paid out and Balance, with UK dates and plain numeric amounts. If you have a statement PDF to hand, convert it first on the home page and follow along with your own data. Nothing is uploaded.

How the guides are written

Each guide sticks to steps you can follow in Excel, Google Sheets or your accounting software without add-ins. Where software menus are involved, the guide names the option to look for and suggests what to search for in the software’s help if the menu has moved, because menus change more often than the underlying steps.

Who they’re for

Bookkeepers and accountants handling clients’ statements, sole traders and landlords preparing a tax return, treasurers of clubs and charities, and anyone who needs to make sense of their own statements for a mortgage, a budget or a dispute. No accounting background is assumed; where a term like “brought forward” or “reconcile” comes up, there is a guide that explains it.

Keeping statements safe while you work

Several guides involve opening statements and spreadsheets made from them. Keep both in a folder only you can access, delete working copies you no longer need, and share totals rather than whole statements where that is enough. The converter itself never uploads anything, but the CSV you download is as sensitive as the statement it came from.

Suggested reading order for accountants

If you handle clients’ statements, read what a running balance check proves first, because it explains exactly what a Verified result does and doesn’t prove. Then finding a missing transaction for when something doesn’t reconcile, and CSV, OFX and QIF explained for choosing import formats.

Missing a guide you need? Email [email protected]. New guides are listed on the updates page.