How to download a CSV file from your bank

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo’s help page gives these steps:

1. Sign on to Wells Fargo Online and choose the account.
2. Under the Accounts tab, open Download Account Activity and fill in the form.
3. Check the From and To dates. The default is the last 90 days; some account types allow up to 18 months.
4. Choose Comma Delimited (ASCII, Spreadsheet).
5. Click Download and save the file. Give each account’s file its own name.

The file has no header row: date, amount, a status mark, check number and description. The converter recognizes this layout.

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank’s help gives these steps for the website (downloads aren’t available in the U.S. Bank Mobile App):

1. Sign in and select the account.
2. In the Transactions tile, select the download icon (top right).
3. Choose the date range and a file format: Spreadsheet (.CSV), Quicken (.QFX) or QuickBooks (.qbo).
4. Select Download. Up to 18 months of activity is available online; older activity is in your statements.

Chase

Chase says that on a computer you can download your transactions as spreadsheet (CSV), QFX, QIF or QBO files for the last two years, while the Chase Mobile app gives PDF statements. Chase doesn’t publish the click-by-click steps on a public page; look for the download option on the account’s activity page. The converter recognizes Chase’s checking and credit card CSV layouts.

American Express

American Express says you can sort, filter and download the last two years of transactions from your online account as PDF, Excel or CSV files. The converter recognizes the Amex CSV layout, including its detailed version, and flips the signs, because Amex lists charges as positive numbers.

PayPal

PayPal’s help gives these steps:

1. Go to Activity and select the Download icon.
2. Choose Custom, then the activity download report.
3. Follow the prompts to pick the date range and CSV.
4. Select Download when the file is ready. Large reports can take a while.

PayPal lets you choose which columns the file has. The converter uses the Net amount (after PayPal’s fee) and PayPal’s transaction ID, and leaves out “Memo” lines such as holds, which don’t change your balance.

Venmo

On the website: sign in at venmo.com, open Statements in the sidebar, choose the month and year, and click Download CSV. In the app: Settings › Statements, then choose the month and year. The converter skips the lines above the table and the balance and disclaimer rows, and uses the other person’s name as the payee.

Stripe

Stripe recommends its balance report for accounting. In the Dashboard, open Reports › Balance, go to Balance change from activity, click Export, and choose CSV with the itemized format. The converter uses the net amount and Stripe’s balance transaction ID.

Square

In the Square Dashboard (not the point-of-sale app), open Orders & payments (or Invoices & payments, or Payments), then Transactions, set the filters and click Export to download the transaction details as CSV. The converter recognizes this file: it uses each payment’s Net Total (the amount after Square’s fees) and Square’s transaction ID, and refunds come in as money out. The file lists sales, not bank deposits. Cash payments are in it too, and they never reach your bank through Square, so import the file into a separate Square account in QuickBooks, not into your bank account. The converter tells you how many rows have no deposit.

SoFi

SoFi’s help describes the export, which works in a web browser but not in the SoFi app. Sign in on SoFi.com, open the Money tab, click the Gear icon and choose Export Transactions. Pick the account and a date range (up to two years at a time), then click Export to download the CSV file. The converter recognizes its layout.

Mercury

Mercury’s help describes the export from the web dashboard: open Transactions, click Export all (or add filters and click Export filtered), choose .csv and click Download. The converter recognizes the layout and leaves out failed payments. A Mercury file can hold transactions from several accounts; the converter warns you when it does, because a QBO file holds one account.

Barclays

For Barclays US credit cards, the help page describes the download: sign in, open Activity and Statements, choose Transactions and click Download transactions. Pick a format from the list, enter the beginning and ending dates, and click Download. The page doesn’t say which item in the list gives a CSV file. The converter recognizes Barclays’ CSV, which starts with a few lines about the account before the column names.

Apple Card

Apple’s support page describes the export. On iPhone, open Wallet, tap Apple Card, then Card Balance, choose a monthly statement and tap Export Transactions, then pick the file format. For a range of dates, sign in at card.apple.com, click Statements, then Export Transactions, choose the dates and the format, and click Export. Apple offers CSV, OFX, QFX and QBO files. The converter recognizes Apple’s CSV and turns purchases into money out.

Other banks

Bank of America, Citi, Capital One, Discover, USAA, PNC and Charles Schwab Bank customers can download CSV files (the converter recognizes their layouts), but these banks don’t publish the steps on a public help page we could check. Look for Download or Export near the transaction list on the bank’s website. PNC’s help also describes exporting transactions as QFX (Quicken) or QBO (QuickBooks) files, which the converter reads too.

For any other bank, the same general steps work: sign in on a computer, open the account’s activity, choose download or export, pick CSV or Excel and a date range, and save one file per account.

Tips for a clean download

• Use a computer. Banks often offer CSV downloads only on their website, not in the app.
• One account per file. Download each account separately and give each file its own name, as Wells Fargo’s help suggests.
• Pick the dates on purpose. Start the download the day after the newest transaction already in your books, so nothing is imported twice. Intuit names files that overlap a bank feed as a common cause of duplicates.
• Know the bank’s limit. How far back you can go depends on the bank: Wells Fargo defaults to 90 days (up to 18 months for some accounts), U.S. Bank offers 18 months online, Chase and American Express mention two years, and PayPal reports go back up to seven years, with at most 12 months in each report.
• Keep the file as the bank made it. The converter handles the bank’s own layout, including summary lines at the top. If you open the file in Excel first, save it as CSV again before converting.

Bank layouts the converter recognizes

When your file matches one of these layouts, the converter sets the columns, the date format and the signs for you: Chase checking and credit card, Bank of America checking or savings and credit card, Wells Fargo, Citi credit card, Capital One credit card and 360 accounts, American Express, Discover, Barclays credit cards, Apple Card, USAA, PNC, SoFi, Charles Schwab Bank checking, Mercury, PayPal, Stripe, Square transactions and Venmo. Pending transactions in USAA and PNC files are left out until they post. Every other bank’s file is read by its column names and contents, and you can check and change the columns before converting.