Bank import

Simon imports your bank statements from a PDF downloaded from your bank or a CSV of transactions. In both cases, the goal is the same: create the account’s transactions, then make them available for reconciliation.

PDF or CSV?

Both formats lead to the same result, but they don’t quite serve the same needs.

The PDF is the bank’s official statement. Simon reads its pages, extracts the transactions and checks the consistency of the balances. It is the format to favor when the statement must serve as supporting evidence: it preserves the bank’s presentation and the period balances, which makes it possible to prove a complete period.

The CSV is an export of transactions from your banking portal. It is convenient when you want to quickly import many lines, or when the bank’s PDF is hard to work with. On the other hand, each bank has its own format, and the balance is not always present — Simon will then ask you for the opening or closing balance to verify the period.

In short: PDF to justify, CSV to go fast.

Preparing the file

A file must correspond to a single account and to a clear period. If you have several accounts, prepare one file per account. For a CSV export, retrieve if possible the transaction date, the label, the amount (or two columns, debit and credit) and the balance when the bank provides it.

Importing

When importing a PDF, Simon treats the statement as a complete bank document: reading the pages, extracting the transactions, checking the balances.

For a CSV, it first identifies the useful columns, then shows a preview of the first lines before recording anything. Take this opportunity to check that the dates are correctly interpreted, that debits and credits are in the right direction, that the amounts match the original file, and that the statement is associated with the correct account. If several accounts exist in the file, Simon asks you which one to use.

After the import

Once the statement is validated, the transactions are ready for reconciliation.

If a FEC has already imported bank entries over the same period, Simon avoids duplicates when dates, amounts and accounts match: the statement then enriches the existing data, notably with the bank labels.