Upload a bank or credit card statement in .csv format

SystemSystem Posts: 412 admin

imageUpload a bank or credit card statement in .csv format

The easiest way to get transactions into Wave is to connect your bank account for automated updates. Sometimes, however, this may not be possible. You may prefer not to connect your bank or you may...

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edited November 26, 2018 in Help Center Discussion
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  • BadMechanicBadMechanic Member Posts: 1

    What column names should be used for the CSV? Can you provide an example of a properly formatted CSV?

  • SamdSamd Member Posts: 552 ✭✭✭

    Hey @BadMechanic! The upload really only recognizes three columns; date, description, and amount. The date column must be in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY for example it would be put in as 05/23/2017. Special characters such as #, &, $, * will cause an issue and we recommend removing these from your document.

    Please adjust your data to fit these parameters and the CSV upload should work. You can also take a look at this guide to ensure you are meeting the requirements: What to do if Wave can't read your statement in CSV format.

    edited December 7, 2018
  • geobeckgeobeck Member Posts: 3

    I exported a bunch of transactions I had accidentally entered in my Personal account in order to upload them to the right business. It appears that a CSV exported by Wave cannot be imported as-is. If the upload system only recognizes three columns (as Samd states below), why does the exported CSV have 23 columns?!

  • pancaj21pancaj21 Member Posts: 1

    Downloaded CSV file but not able not able to import it.
    If you can provide template for CSV, i can provide that in that template

  • SamdSamd Member Posts: 552 ✭✭✭

    @geobeck my apologies about that - that is an issue when exporting data with Wave. It's something we're working on getting fixed, so that it conforms to how we would upload data as well. The reason the two are different at this point is when uploading a bank statement to Transactions, it is supposed to be fairly bare-bones data which you will then categorize within Wave in order to do your bookkeeping.

    The data export is quite literal though in that it exports all of the data tied to each transaction, which covers all the categories, and other data that Wave isn't able to read when receiving CSVs. I'm going to submit your feedback to our Product Team.

    @pancaj21 I'll send you a DM with an attached CSV template, so keep an eye out!

  • jdaniellewehuntjdaniellewehunt Member Posts: 2

    My monthly bank statements dont start on the first and end on the last day. Theyre about a week early. How do I set it up to accept the dates from my statement dates instead of having to go in and deal with the mess of shifting dates?

  • ErikErik Member Posts: 194 admin

    @jdaniellewehunt the dates on the statement itself shouldn't prevent you from uploading them into Wave. If this is not what you are referring to, please let me know so that we can take another look!

  • ScottShusterScottShuster Member Posts: 6

    I have been uploading .csvs into Wave all morning with no problem...all of a sudden one of them does not appear after uploading. That is, I confirm the dates column, the credits column, the descriptions column -- all as usual -- then click 'upload' -- and the screen just reverts to the 'upload a statement' initial page, where I would again click to select the file to upload from my computer. Any idea what could be causing this to occur?

  • ScottShusterScottShuster Member Posts: 6

    Update: I shortened the FILE NAME and it worked - ! :)

    @ScottShuster said:
    I have been uploading .csvs into Wave all morning with no problem...all of a sudden one of them does not appear after uploading. That is, I confirm the dates column, the credits column, the descriptions column -- all as usual -- then click 'upload' -- and the screen just reverts to the 'upload a statement' initial page, where I would again click to select the file to upload from my computer. Any idea what could be causing this to occur?

    Update: I shortened the FILE NAME and it worked - ! :)

  • SandeepadalalSandeepadalal Member Posts: 3

    .csv template provided by you is not working.

  • ShyaamShyaam Member Posts: 1

    Does anyone have a sample CSV file?

  • erikaspeirserikaspeirs Member Posts: 2

    For some reason two months worth of statements never automatically uploaded from my bank to my wave account, so I manually uploaded them as csv files. When I did so, both times all of the transactions came into wave as deposits though they were a mix of withdrawals and deposits, and even when I categorized the transactions as expenses, they still show as deposits but with a (-) negative but still in green when they should be in red. This has now made my accounts look like I have way more money than I really do...please help!

  • icefeatherwindicefeatherwind Member Posts: 7

    I found that when I was uploading a CSV (formatted in the template) to my credit card, all the withdrawals are switched to become deposits, and visa versa. This doesn't happen uploading to an asset account. To fix this, I had to edit the transactions in Excel in the CSV by doing a new column with the formula =-B3 to switch each transaction from positive to negative and visa versa. Then I uploaded and it came in correctly. I guess Wave is getting confused because a liability account is a "negative" account, so then it goes "negative negative makes a positive" for withdrawals??! Not sure, but switching the sign seemed to work for me anyway.

  • normanwsnormanws Member Posts: 2

    I have converted my bank pdfs to a .csv file. But I keep getting a date error message, even though I have put the date in the correct format. I cannot determine what is wrong. and why my csv's won't load.

  • ryanwilsonperkinryanwilsonperkin Member Posts: 18 admin

    @erikaspeirs is it possible that your CSV file only had a single column with money amounts in it, rather than a credits and debits column? This can often be the case with some banks which choose to represent these values only with + and - amounts. If this is the case, you'll want to recreate these negative income transactions as expense transactions instead (which will cause them to show as red, and correct your accounts. You can do this by creating new expense transactions with the same values as those incorrect income transactions, but without the negative sign. Let me know if that works for you!

  • ryanwilsonperkinryanwilsonperkin Member Posts: 18 admin

    @normanws it sounds like we might have been sending back the wrong error message to you, a problem our development team has recently been looking into. Can you let me know if you're still experiencing this issue. If so, it's possible that there are some other fields in your CSV file that are incorrect and our system might accidentally be assuming that it's the date that was wrong. There are some recommendations in our guide What to do if Wave can't read your statement in csv format that might be of help to you.

  • HerbertHerbert Member Posts: 1

    Hi there,
    automatic uploads from my bank isn't working now for more than a month. So trying to upload via csv file download. Tried everything but nothing is working even not when using your standard template. Always receiving the same error "CSV file must contain Date-Description-Amount" column which is the case. I'm from Europe, so maybe a cell configuration is NOK (don't believe this anymore because I tried all). It would be good if it could give me which column is incorrect/missing allthough in the template many cells can't be changed and must be filled in as is which I've done.

    Cheriooo

  • digitalhumandigitalhuman Member Posts: 1

    Hi there,

    nothing works - no import as type of csv.
    I tried all following:

    Date;Description;Deposits;Withdrawals
    2018-01-01;Test;12;12
    -> same with 3 columns
    Date;Description;Amount
    2018-01-01;Test;12

    1. manual created csv like this (see above, just posted before that list-style wouldn't break)
    2. take your template, save it as csv and try to import this - not working
    3. tried full csv with all bank values in the format of:
      date;description;amount
      amount;description;date
      Date;Description;Amount

    I think there is really a big bug in the csv processor in your software because nothing works.
    Basically it should work to upload an empty csv and then the error message should say "Valid File - Uploading of empty files not possible" or kind of that.

    Greetings,
    digitalhuman

    edited January 25, 2019
  • ShaunShaun Member Posts: 2

    Not sure why wave hasn't addressed this issue, everyone seems to be having a problem with it. I figured out a way for it to work for me. I manually entered transactions in to a google spreadsheet, with 3 columns: AMOUNT DESCRIPTION DATE
    The date format was having an issue uploading and I switched it by going to:
    FORMAT>NUMBER>MORE FORMATS>MORE DATE AND TIME FORMATS
    and I used this format: 08-05-1930
    it was originally on this format: 08/05/1930
    *Side note, I was entering expenses and I should have made all the numbers negative instead of positive so there ended up being a lot of cleaning up afterwards.

    Hope this helps somebody.

  • CharlotteCharlotte Member Posts: 671 admin

    @Shaun thank you so much for taking the time to share your findings.

    In my experience. it's sometimes helpful to copy the CSV from Excel into Google Sheets and redownload as a CSV. It seems roundabout, but it's effective for cleaning up any invisible characters that may be causing the upload to fail.

    If we can assist you with anything else, please don't hesitate to reply.

  • yaelpookyaelpook Member Posts: 3

    Hi, I have not been able to connect to by bank for about 2 weeks now. I have also tried uploading statements in every possible format still with no luck. I have even tried doing your last suggestion of copying the CVS to Google Sheets and re-downloading as a CVS yet I still get the same error message of "Something went wrong with your file upload. Try confirming that the file type is an accepted file type."

    Any help or suggestions would be great as this leaves me in quite the pickle!

  • ZoeCZoeC Member Posts: 388 admin

    Hey @yaelpook, first off I am sorry to hear that you are having some difficulty getting your statements into Wave! Another route that you may be interested in hearing about is Wave Connect, a recent feature we have added. Wave Connect is a Google Sheets integration that helps you:

    • Download your invoice, customer, product, and report data from Wave.
    • Upload invoice, customer, product, and transaction data onto Wave

    To learn more about this integration, including how to set it up, I recommend visiting this Help Center article on the topic

  • JoFJoF Member Posts: 3

    so it's not working, not csv, not ofx ...

  • Ryan_WRyan_W Member Posts: 452 ✭✭✭

    @JoF have you tried using the Wave Connect add-on for Google Sheets? If not, you'll find that it's a pretty useful tool; if you haven't already, check out Zoe's post above to get more details for setting it up!

  • AynsleyAynsley Member Posts: 2

    Hi, I am also one of the people with the same problem. I have being unable to connect to by bank for just over a month. I have also tried uploading statements in every possible format still with no luck. I have even tried doing your last suggestion of copying the CVS to Google Sheets and re-downloading as a CVS yet I still get the same error message of "Something went wrong with your file upload. Try confirming that the file type is an accepted file type." I have also tried the wave connect option suggested and I get this response " Bank Transaction Upload not available:
    This Wave Business uses an earlier version of Wave's accounting software, that is not compatible with this Bank Transaction Upload feature.
    We apologize for the inconvenience, and are working to update your Wave business to the latest version of our accounting software as soon as possible.
    You can still upload Bank Transactions in Wave by visiting the Transaction page and clicking Upload Bank Statement in the top-right corner of the page."
    So what the heck do I do now. 31 March is the end of the financial year and I need to be able to sort out my accounts
    Please advise

  • ZoeCZoeC Member Posts: 388 admin

    Hey @Aynsley, thanks for reaching out. I am sorry to hear that you are having some trouble getting your transactions into Wave.

    It sounds like our Wave Connect feature may not be working for you due to your account still working off of our older accounting software. Once your account is updated, this feature will allow you to import transactions. I do not currently have an ETA on when that will be but I can say it will be soon :smile:

    Going back to your CSV file, this upload is quite picky. The upload really only recognizes three columns; date, description, and amount. The date column must be in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY for example it would be put in as 04/01/2019. Special characters such as #, &, $, * will cause an issue and we recommend removing these from your document.

    Additionally, files with more than 100 rows tend to not upload. If your file has more than 100 rows, can you try breaking it into smaller files, each with no more than 100 rows, and upload each individually? I hope this helps! :smile:

  • DanielSpencerDanielSpencer Member Posts: 3

    Yeah I'm getting the same. Can't upload a CSV

  • AynsleyAynsley Member Posts: 2

    Thanks for responding - No it hasnt helped. I am still not having any luck up loading a bank statement here is my last attempt using a CSV format for my credit card transactions - so whats wrong with this file format and why wont it upload????
    02/13/2019 COMPUTER FOOD AUK 29.99
    02/13/2019 NEW WORLD KERIKERI KERIKERI 137.78
    02/13/2019 EUROVINTAGE LTD AUCKLAND 178.47
    02/13/2019 PETERS OF KENSINGTON ALEXANDRIA 35.00 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 36.81
    02/13/2019 OFFSHORE SERVICE MARGINS 0.77

    What is the reason for my account not being able to automatically upload as it has done for the last year?
    When is soon regarding my account upgrade
    Please advise as getting pretty frustrated
    Thanks Aynsley

  • Ute11Ute11 Member Posts: 4

    Same issue here:
    "Something went wrong with your file upload. Try confirming that the file type is an accepted file type."
    I have done the following:

    • converted date into DD-MM-YYYY as well as DD/MM/YYYY
    • Saved as txt file and changed to comma-delimited and then reloaded into Excel to save as CSV
    • Renamed with short file name
    • Saved as CSV UTF-8
    • Saved as Google sheet as a comma-delimited csv file
    • only having a few items in the file

    I get the same message every time!

    You must have an error log file that explains exactly why these files are failing.
    Looking forward to a speedy resolution. Thanks!

  • JordanDJordanD Member Posts: 515 ✭✭✭

    @Aynsley @Ute11 CSV uploads are really difficult for us to troubleshoot without seeing the actual document as there may be small details effecting the upload. I'm happy to further assist, so could you send me a DM with the actual CSV document for me to take a look at? Once I have the document, I can see what I can do to help.

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