Convert a bank statement PDF to Excel

How to convert a statement to Excel

1. Download the statement from your bank as a PDF. If it is password-protected, save an unlocked copy first.
2. Sign in to Payslip Generator with a free account and open the bank statement converter.
3. Upload the PDF and check the preview: the number of transactions, the totals and the balance on the last row.
4. Choose Excel (.xlsx) and open the downloaded file. The transactions are on a sheet called Transactions.

Excel file or CSV?

Both exports have the same five columns: Date, Description, Amount, Balance and Reference. The difference is how Excel reads them.

In the .xlsx file, amounts and balances are stored as numbers and references as text, so nothing is reinterpreted when you open it. A CSV is plain text, and Excel guesses what each value is as it opens the file. Microsoft documents what that guessing does: it removes leading zeros, cuts numbers longer than 15 digits and shows them in scientific notation, and can turn some text into dates. A long payment reference can come out as 4.12346E+15, with the last digits gone for good.

Newer versions of Excel in Microsoft 365 let you switch these automatic conversions off under the data options, if you often open CSV files.

Turning the dates into real Excel dates

The Date column is written as text in the form 2026-03-31. That sorts correctly, oldest to newest, but Excel will not group it by month in a pivot table or let you filter it by date until it is converted. The conversion takes a few seconds:

1. Select the Date column.
2. On the Data tab, choose Text to Columns.
3. Choose Delimited, click Next, and click Next again without ticking any delimiter.
4. Under Column data format, choose Date and pick YMD from the list.
5. Click Finish. The column is now made of real dates, which you can format however you like.

Useful formulas once the statement is in Excel

Because money out is negative and money in is positive, most questions about a statement come down to a SUMIF on the Amount column, which is column C.

• Total money in: =SUMIF(C:C,">0")
• Total money out: =SUMIF(C:C,"<0")
• Net movement for the period: =SUM(C:C), which should equal the closing balance minus the opening balance.
• Spending at one shop: =SUMIF(B:B,"*WOOLWORTHS*",C:C), using the name as it appears in the description.
• Monthly totals: convert the dates as above, insert a PivotTable, put Date in Rows grouped by month and Amount in Values.

If =SUM(C:C) does not match the closing balance minus the opening balance on the PDF, compare the preview with the statement before you rely on the sheet.

Putting several months in one sheet

Each statement converts to its own file. To build a year, open the first file, then copy the rows from each later file (without its heading row) and paste them underneath. Because the dates sort correctly as text, a single sort on the Date column puts everything in order.

A tax year runs from March to February, so for a year of income and expenses you need twelve monthly statements. Twelve statements come to at least twelve pages, more than the 5 free pages a month, so either convert each statement as it arrives or buy credits for the batch.

Before you upload

• A free account converts 5 pages a month. Each PDF page counts as one, and a CSV counts as one however long it is. After that you can buy credits, and Premium subscribers convert without a monthly page limit.
• One PDF upload can be up to 20 pages and 8 MB. Split anything longer by month.
• The PDF must have selectable text. A scanned or photographed statement has none, so download the digital version from online banking instead.
• Password-protected PDFs have to be unlocked first. Our guide to password-protected bank statements shows how.
• Where a statement prints dates without the year, the converter takes the year from the statement period. If a statement runs from December into January, check those dates in the preview.
• A PDF is read in memory over an encrypted connection and is not saved. A CSV never leaves your browser.