Exporting and importing bank transactions as CSV
Almost every bank offers an export of transactions as a CSV file in its online banking. With it you bring older transactions into your household budget without typing each one, or you use accounts for which there’s no automatic connection. This article shows how the export generally works and what Ausgabentracker recognises during import.
Exporting transactions from online banking
Exactly where the export is differs from bank to bank and changes with new versions of online banking. But the procedure is almost always the same:
- Sign in in the browserThe export is usually easier to find in online banking on a computer than in the banking app.
- Open the account’s transaction listThe section is often called “Transactions”, “Account activity” or “Bookings”.
- Choose the periodFor example the last twelve months. Some banks limit how far back you can go.
- Export as CSVOften an icon or menu item like “Export”, “Download” or “Download transactions”. Choose CSV, not PDF.
What Ausgabentracker recognises during import
CSV files from German banks look very different. That’s why the import recognises a lot automatically:
- Encoding: UTF-8 and the older Windows format, so special characters arrive correctly.
- Separators: semicolon, comma or tab.
- Preamble: many exports start with account details or the period. The actual header row is searched for below.
- Columns: booking date, amount, payee or payer, reference and balance, even under different names.
- Numbers and dates: German and English number formats, various date formats.
- Debit and credit: separate columns for debits and credits or a separate debit/credit indicator, as some Volksbank exports have.
- Payee in the booking text: if the payee is only in the booking text, as with comdirect, it is read from there.
- Balance rows and pending transactions: are skipped because they aren’t booked transactions.
If recognition doesn’t fully work, you assign the columns yourself once. The import remembers this mapping for the account and reuses it as long as the file has the same columns.
Duplicate transactions and balance
- Duplicates: transactions that already exist, from an earlier import or the automatic bank connection, are recognised and not imported again. So you can import overlapping periods.
- Balance history: if the file contains a balance column, the import adds the history of your balance for the days that are still missing.
- Preview: before importing you see how many transactions are new, already exist or are unreadable, with the reason per row.
After the import: apply instead of typing
Imported transactions land in the import queue like fetched transactions. You confirm as which expense or income they’re booked; the app learns categories per payee from your decisions. Only what you confirm gets booked.
Typical problems
- “No header row found”: usually it isn’t a transaction export but, for example, a bank statement or another list. Check whether the file has columns for date and amount.
- File too large: the import accepts up to 5 MB and 20,000 transactions. Export shorter periods if needed.
- Wrong special characters: shouldn’t happen thanks to encoding detection. If it does, don’t open the file in a spreadsheet and save it again beforehand; use the original export.
- Excel file instead of CSV: files in .xlsx format aren’t read. Choose CSV in online banking.
How it works in Ausgabentracker
You find the CSV import under Accounts → Transactions (“Import CSV”) and under Settings → Bank connection. It’s part of the bank connection and included from the Plus plan. You don’t need a connection to the bank for it.
- Automatic recognition, with manual mapping if needed
- Duplicates are recognised, also against fetched transactions
- The file is only read, not kept
Frequently asked questions
Which banks are supported? The import isn’t tied to particular banks; it recognises the columns of the export. Typical German exports, for example from Sparkassen, Volksbanken, DKB or comdirect, contain the necessary date and amount columns. If recognition doesn’t work, you assign the columns yourself once.
Can I import several accounts? Yes. You import each file into the matching account in Ausgabentracker. The column mapping is saved per account.
What happens if I import the same file twice? Nothing bad: transactions that already exist are recognised and skipped. The preview shows you beforehand how many are new.
Do I need the bank connection for this? No. The CSV import works without a connection to the bank, but it’s part of the feature set from the Plus plan.