Bank Statement to Xero

Xero pulls most statements through a bank feed, and when the feed works you should use it - it is the bank's own data. The manual import exists for the gaps: an account with no feed, a period the feed missed, a closed account, or a bank that only ever hands you a PDF.

Use the feed first, this second

This is worth saying plainly even though it sends some people away: if your bank has a working feed into Xero, that is more reliable than any conversion, including this one. A feed cannot mistype a column. Import a converted file when there is no feed to use, not instead of one.

What to download here

Use the Download for QuickBooks button. The name says QuickBooks because that is the tool people search for, but the file itself is the plain three-column layout both accept: date, description, amount, no balance column, no currency symbols. Xero's statement import maps those three onto its own fields during the upload.

Dates decide whether the import is right

Xero asks you to confirm the date format while importing, and that answer has to match the file rather than your habit. The table above tells you which order was detected in your statement, and the settings panel lets you override it if the detection got it wrong. Check the first row after importing: if a payment landed in the wrong month, the date format is the reason.

Can I import a statement with no running balance?

Yes - Xero's manual import does not require the balance column, and this page drops it from that download anyway. What you lose is the arithmetic check: with no balance printed on the statement, there is nothing for the page to verify the rows against, and it will tell you so instead of implying the numbers were confirmed.

Related

Bank Statement to QuickBooks · Bank Statement to CSV · Bank Statement to Excel