Load & Save

Load files to get started

Transaction data can only be loaded from PDF bank statements or CSV files.

PDF data extraction

This page has a lightweight program embedded to read and process your PDF bank statements inside your browser.

The extraction process

  • Read opening and closing balances
  • Extract transaction dates, descriptions, amounts, and balances (if present)
  • Correct the sign of incoming and outgoing transactions
  • Fill in implicit balances and dates
  • Validate transaction amounts against opening and closing balances

Errors and warnings will be logged if a PDF is unreadable or does not pass a validation check.

Supported banks

The Transtractor must be pre-configured to read your bank statements. Check here to see if your statements are supported.

No scanned copies

Only load PDFs files downloaded directly from your bank. This app is not fancy enough to read scanned copies or photos.

CSV files

CSV files are used to save and load your work so you can continue later. You can also prepare and edit these files manually using Excel or other spreadsheet programs.

Required format

Each row must have a date, amount, description, balance, account name and categories. For example:

14/01/2024,2000.00,Stark Industries,2500.0,Checking,Salary
15/01/2024,-500.00,Desert Caves,2000.00,Checking,Rent
16/01/2024,-100.00,Supermarket,1900.00,Checking,Groceries
17/01/2024,-50.00,Auto payment,1850.00,Checking,
10/01/2024,-10.00,Jarvis Box,-90.00,Credit card,Subscriptions;Entertainment
17/01/2024,50.00,"Payment received, thank you",-40.00,Credit card,;

More about this format:

  • Dates are DD/MM/YYYY
  • Outgoing transactions are negative, incoming are positive.
  • Encapsulate comma-containing descriptions and categories in double-quotes
  • Categories are separated by semicolons
  • Use a lone ";" or tailing "," for empty category cells

Other things to be aware of

These additional treatments are done whether transactions are loaded from PDF or CSV files.

Transfers between accounts

A transfer is assumed when an outgoing (negative) transaction in one account equals an incoming (positive) transaction for another account, and the outgoing transaction has occurred no more than three days prior to the incoming transaction. Both the outgoing and incoming transactions are interpreted as a transfer and will be ignored income and expense calculations.

Duplicate prevention

The Transtractor checks for duplicate transactions, so don't worry if you mistakenly load the same PDF or CSV file more than once.

But be careful if mixing PDF and CSV files, like loading recent transaction data from a CSV file when data is not yet in your PDF statements. Subtle differences in the transaction descriptions exported into these formats, such as upper and lower case letters and spaces, will break this mechanism and lead to duplicate transactions.