Help / Importing Transactions

Importing from a CSV file

LedgerBear imports transactions from CSV (comma-separated-values) files. Almost every bank, credit card, and brokerage lets you download your history as a CSV — usually under "Download transactions", "Export", or "Statements" in the bank's online portal.

This page walks through the import wizard from start to finish. Each step has its own follow-up page if you want more detail.

Before you start

  • Download a CSV from your bank. Any column layout will work — LedgerBear maps columns in the wizard.
  • Make sure the account exists in LedgerBear (see Setting up your first account).

Step 1: Open the import wizard

  1. Click the account in the sidebar to open it.
  2. On the Transactions tab, click the Import button in the top right.

A dialog opens titled Import Transactions.

Step 2: Choose a file

  • Drag the CSV onto the drop zone, or click to open a file picker.
  • Only .csv files are accepted.
  • Click Next to parse the file and continue.

If LedgerBear can't find any column headers in the file, it shows an error. Double-check that the file actually is CSV and that the first row contains column names.

Step 3: Map the columns

You'll see a preview of the first several rows of your CSV with a dropdown above each column. Use the dropdowns to tell LedgerBear which column is the Date, which is the Payee, and so on. See Column mapping in detail for the full list of fields and the three ways to specify amounts.

LedgerBear guesses sensible mappings the first time, based on common column names. For subsequent imports to the same account, it remembers what you picked and pre-fills them — so once a bank is set up, this step is usually just a glance to confirm.

Step 4: Pick import options

Below the column preview, an Import Options box has two settings:

  • How should duplicates be handled? Either leave existing transactions unchanged or overwrite them with the incoming data. See Duplicate handling and reverse amounts.
  • Reverse amounts — flip the sign on every amount, useful for certain banks.

Step 5: Review the summary

An Import Summary box at the bottom tells you, in plain English, how many transactions will be imported and how many (if any) will be updated as duplicates. The Import button only lights up if there's actually something to do.

Step 6: Click Import

The dialog closes, the transactions appear in the table, and any matching rules fire automatically to assign categories and payees.

If something goes wrong

Because importing doesn't delete anything (it only adds or updates), it's reasonably safe to experiment. If an import produces bad data, you can:

  • Re-import with different column mappings and "Update" duplicate handling to overwrite the bad values.
  • Select the bad rows in the transactions table and bulk-delete them.

When in doubt, try a small file (a few weeks of history) first to make sure the mappings are right before importing a full year.