Importing your bank statements

Importing statements is how your transaction data gets into keel. Upload CSV or PDF bank statements, map columns if your bank's format isn't recognised, and keel categorises everything automatically — asking for your input only where it's unsure.

How it works

Supported formats

CSV exports from 17 UK bank formats are detected automatically, and PDF statements from several banks are read using AI. If your bank isn't recognised, you can still import via a quick column-mapping step. See Supported banks and file formats for the full list and how mapping works.

The import wizard

1. Upload. Drag and drop or pick files — up to 10 CSV or PDF files per import session. Each file is checked immediately so you know whether keel recognises the format.

2. Review your files. Each file appears as a card showing the detected format. Assign each file to an account (you can create new accounts inline). If keel doesn't recognise the format, a column mapping screen appears so you can tell keel which columns are which — see Supported banks and file formats.

3. Processing. A progress bar and elapsed timer show keel reading and categorising your transactions — no fake percentages, just honest status messages. Most imports finish within a minute. A "Continue to review" link appears once every file has finished importing, so nothing gets lost.

4. Done. You'll see what was added — for example "192 transactions added" — with a breakdown of what was categorised automatically versus what needs your input. If the import covers more than 3 months of history, older transactions are queued and categorised automatically in the background while you review the recent ones.

Your first import for an account

The first time you import for a new account, keel shows a review screen walking you through how it categorised everything: money coming in, money moving between accounts, and money going out. Every merchant gets an explicit confirmation from you — even the ones keel is confident about. This is keel showing you its work, and every correction makes it smarter for next time. See After your first import for the full walkthrough.

The review adapts to the account type:

Current accounts get the standard review — income, transfers and expenses, with a "Finish import" button that stays active only once every merchant has been confirmed.

Savings accounts get three sections: interest earned, deposits and withdrawals, and anomalies (anything that doesn't fit the first two). Interest and transfers confirm at the section level with one tap. A summary at the top shows your total savings growth for the period. If some items marked as transfers weren't actually transfers, a "Some aren't transfers?" option lets you tick just those — they move to your review queue to be categorised after the import.

Credit cards get five sections: payments received (classified as transfers so they don't double-count as spending), your spending, credits and refunds, and interest and charges. Annual fees, balance transfers and cashback are detected and classified automatically. For refunds from merchants keel already knows, it suggests "Offset against {category}" as a one-tap action.

Business accounts show a personal-merchant picker before the import. Business statements exist in keel to catch personal spending hiding in business accounts — so on every business import, you tick the merchants that are personal. Consumer brands (Tesco, Amazon, Starbucks) and merchants you've previously marked personal are pre-selected. Dates show the day of the week (for example "Sat 26 Apr") because weekday versus weekend is a useful clue for ambiguous merchants like coffee shops. Ticked merchants are imported as personal spending and pulled into your household reports; everything else imports as business expenses, kept out of household reports. If a statement genuinely has no personal lines, use "None of these are personal — import all as business".

Confidence and suggestions

When a section mixes confident and uncertain categorisations, it splits into two groups:

• Needs your judgement — keel isn't sure, so it shows its reasoning plus 2–3 tappable category suggestions. Tap one to confirm, or browse the full category list.
• Quick confirmations — keel is confident; you confirm with one tap or correct it.

Blue education cards appear inline to explain concepts like refunds or why credit card payments are shown as transfers.

Things handled automatically

• Returned direct debits — payments that bounced and came back are paired up and shown in their own section. They don't count as spending or income (the net effect is zero), but they're visible so the numbers reconcile.
• Pot transfers — Monzo Pot transfers are money moving within the same account, so keel strips them before they reach your reports — see Pots, Spaces and Pockets.
• Running balance — if your statement includes a balance column (most UK banks do), keel captures it row by row. This powers accurate balance displays and overdraft detection without needing a credit report. If you're mapping columns manually, an optional "Account balance" field is offered.
• Statement metadata from PDFs — when a PDF shows a statement date or billing cycle day, keel records it on the account. Interest rates (APR for credit cards, AER for savings) are updated from the latest statement.

Good to know

• Re-uploading the same file won't create duplicates — keel detects transactions already in your account and skips them. Genuinely identical lines on a single statement (like a repeated foreign-transaction fee) are kept, not collapsed. See Duplicate transactions.
• Only active accounts appear in the import account picker. To import into an archived account, reactivate it first from the Accounts screen.
• PDF extraction starts as soon as files are uploaded — you can change which account a PDF belongs to at any time without restarting it. For most PDFs, keel reads the bank name from inside the statement and picks the matching account automatically; if you have two accounts at the same bank, you pick manually.
• Long multi-page PDFs are retried automatically with more room if the first read runs out of space. If a few rows still can't be read, the summary says so honestly rather than quietly dropping them.
• You can mix CSV and PDF files in one session, each assigned to a different account.
• Made a mistake on the first-import review? A brief undo bar appears after each action so you can take it back.
• After every import, your partner sees a one-line note in their inbox about what came in. You don't see one for your own imports — you were just there.

FAQ

Can I upload statements from multiple banks at once? Yes — up to 10 files per import session, each assigned to a different account.

What if my bank isn't supported? Use the column mapping screen to tell keel which columns are Date, Merchant and Amount. keel remembers the mapping for next time. See Supported banks and file formats.

Will uploading the same file twice create duplicates? No. keel detects duplicates and skips them.

My statement had two identical charges on the same day — did keel keep both? Yes. Identical lines within a single statement are both kept; keel only skips lines that match transactions already in your account.

I saw a review screen after my first import — will I see it again? Yes, for a while. The first-import review appears multiple times per account type over your first several weeks of imports, so the trust-building can stick. After three reviews for a given account type, you graduate to the standard review queue. New account types (your first credit card, your first savings account) start the cycle over, and the very first import on any new account always gets a review.

Why does keel ask me to confirm merchants it already looks confident about? On the first-import review, every merchant needs an explicit tap — even the confident ones. keel is showing you its work, and you're either agreeing or correcting it. Each correction makes keel smarter on your next import. After you graduate, you only review the merchants keel is unsure about.

When I get a refund, why doesn't keel know what category to use? For credit card refunds, keel always asks you to confirm — even when it knows the merchant. If you've imported the merchant before, "Offset against {category}" is one tap. Refunds reduce the original category's spending rather than counting as income, so your reports show what you actually spent. See Refunds and returns.

My upload failed with an error — what does it mean? keel shows a plain-English message rather than a technical error. If it says something went wrong on keel's end, that's a temporary problem on our side — not anything you did. We're alerted automatically when it happens, your data isn't changed, and trying again in a few minutes usually works. If it says keel couldn't read the statement clearly, the file is likely an unusual or scanned format — uploading a CSV export instead is the reliable fix, and you can always send the file to us through feedback and we'll take a look.