How to import a PDF bank statement into Xero

Xero's article on importing a PDF bank statement, checked on 16 October 2026, sets out these conditions:

• PDF imports are available only to Xero organisations in the United States and Canada, and not on the Xero Ledger plan.
• You need the administrator, standard + bank accounts, or cashbook client user role.
• The file must be in English, 35 MB or less, at most 100 pages, at least 200 DPI, scanned straight, and not password-protected.
• It must be a debit or credit statement, and each bank account needs its own file.

Xero lists banks whose statements it has validated and says other banks' statements can be imported but accuracy may vary. If you qualify, try it: in Accounting → Bank accounts, open the account's menu, choose Import a Statement, upload the PDF, review the transactions (clearing any you do not want) and choose Complete import. Xero excludes transactions it recognises as duplicates of earlier imports.

If you are in the UK, Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere, if your statement is scanned at an angle, locked, or not in English, or if Xero reports errors on some lines, use the CSV route below.

1. Open the PDF bank statement to Xero CSV page, which preselects the Xero layout, and upload the statement. Text PDFs, scans and phone photos all work.
2. Read the rows on the page. The tool checks that opening balance plus money in minus money out equals the closing balance, and that each printed running balance follows from the row before.
3. Compare the row count and a few transactions with the statement. Balance checks catch missing or misread amounts; they cannot catch a wrong date or description.
4. Download the CSV.

The Xero layout has five columns: Date, Amount, Payee, Description and Reference. Dates are DD/MM/YYYY. Amount is signed: money out is negative, money in positive, with a decimal point and no currency symbols or thousands separators. The statement's narration goes into Description. Payee and Reference stay blank, because inventing a contact name could create unwanted contacts in your books.

If you converted several statements together, each gets its own CSV and they download as a ZIP. Import each into the matching account and currency. A locked PDF can be opened with your own password in the browser before conversion; see password-protected statements.

These steps follow Xero's CSV import instructions.

1. Go to Accounting → Bank accounts.
2. On the account you are importing into, open the menu and choose Import a Statement.
3. Upload the CSV and continue.
4. Map the columns if Xero asks: Date to Xero's date field, Amount to its amount field and Description to description. Payee and Reference are empty, so it does not matter whether you map them.
5. Set the date format to day/month/year.
6. Check the preview: one payment should be negative, one deposit positive, and the dates should fall in the statement period. Then complete the import.

After importing, reconcile the new statement lines against transactions in Xero as usual. Sonomir's Xero CSV follows Xero's published rules and is checked by automated tests, but a real import into a Xero organisation has not yet been recorded, so the free fictional sample is worth trying in a demo company first.

• Dates land in the wrong month, or some are rejected. The date format was set to month/day. Re-import with day/month/year. Do not edit the amounts to compensate.
• Payments show as money received. Check the column mapping: Amount must map to the transaction amount, not a debit or credit column. Never map a balance column.
• Duplicates after importing. The same dates were already imported, or arrived through a bank feed. Delete the duplicate statement lines and import non-overlapping periods.
• The converter refuses the Xero CSV because of unclear dates. Some statements print dates without a year or in an ambiguous order. Use the full transaction CSV to find the unclear date; the preset is refused before you are charged.
• Foreign-currency accounts. Import each currency into its own Xero account. The converter does not calculate exchange rates or merge balances across currencies.

Xero's own PDF import is included in eligible plans. A bank's CSV or OFX download is free.

Here, the first two pages a day are read and checked free. A statement that fits inside them pays $0.10 (2 credits) for the CSV, once per result, and that one purchase covers every CSV layout, including Xero, QuickBooks Online and YNAB. For longer statements, each further page is $0.25 at the $5-pack rate, and all downloads are then included. The smallest pack is $3, credits never expire, and there is no subscription. If you import statements for many clients every week, a subscription converter may be cheaper per page.

For a whole year of client statements, see getting a year of statements ready for your accountant. For the format differences, see QBO vs QFX vs OFX vs QIF.