Paid in and paid out, explained

The basics

Paid in (also “Money in”, “Credits”, “Deposits” or “Receipts”) is money arriving in the account: wages, transfers from someone else, refunds, interest. It makes the balance go up.

Paid out (also “Money out”, “Withdrawn”, “Debits”, “Payments” or “Withdrawals”) is money leaving: card payments, direct debits, standing orders, transfers you send, cash withdrawals, charges. It makes the balance go down.

Why credit and debit feel backwards

A bank statement is written from the bank’s point of view. Your money in the bank is something the bank owes you, so when money arrives, the bank “credits” your account. In your own double-entry books, the same bank account is an asset, and money arriving is a debit to it. Both are right; they’re just describing it from opposite sides. This is why accounting imports use a single amount with a sign instead of the words.

Signed amounts

Some statements and most accounting imports use one Amount column: positive for money in, negative for money out. The Xero and QuickBooks files from the converter work like this. To turn separate columns into one, use =Paid in − Paid out.

How to read any statement’s direction

1. Find the balance columnEvery statement with a running balance shows the direction for you: if the balance went up, the transaction was money in.
2. Check a known transactionFind your salary or a card payment you remember, and see which column it is in.
3. Look at the headings, not the orderSome banks print money out before money in. Read the headings each time.
4. Watch for overdrawn balancesA balance shown with a minus sign, “OD” or “D” is overdrawn: you owe the bank. Money in still increases it towards zero.

The converter reads column headings rather than positions, and then checks each row’s direction against the running balance, so money in and money out end up in the right place in the CSV.