How to format a CSV file to upload a bank statement

This article explains how to download and format a CSV file in order to upload a bank statement to your FreeAgent account. It also explains how to download and use a CSV file template.

If your bank doesn’t support OFX or QIF bank statement formats when downloading a bank statement from your online banking, you’ll need to download a CSV file instead and format it before you can upload it into FreeAgent.

You’ll need to have level 6 access or above to your FreeAgent account to upload a CSV file into FreeAgent.

Download a CSV file

You can either download a CSV file from your bank’s online banking and format it using the structure outlined below or download and populate this CSV file template.

To use the CSV file template, open it in your preferred spreadsheet software and populate the data. When you're finished, download or export it as a CSV file and upload it into FreeAgent.

Format a CSV file

To create a basic CSV file to upload to FreeAgent, you’ll need to include three columns in the following order and format them as described below:

• Column A - date: use the date format dd/mm/yyyy
• Column B - amount: formatted as 'number' to 2 decimal places. This column includes all bank transactions, money paid in and out of the business bank account. Transactions for money paid out should have minus signs (-) in front of them.
• Column C - description: include the invoice reference or a brief description.

Check the CSV file

Once you’ve created a CSV file in the format outlined above, check:

• you haven’t included a header row
• the date format is dd/mm/yyyy
• you've used a single column for the transaction amounts (column B) that contains both money paid out and money paid in
• there are no commas in your amounts or description columns
• you haven't included any quote marks (")
• each description is on a single line with no carriage returns
• the file is saved with the extension .csv (not .xls or .xlsx)

Once you’ve confirmed all of the above, you’re ready to upload your CSV file into FreeAgent.