Importing a bank or letting agent statement
Turn a CSV file from your bank or agent into payments in a few minutes, without typing them in, and without adding anything twice.
Get the file
You need your statement as a CSV file: a plain table of dates, descriptions and amounts. Nearly every bank and letting agent offers one.
- Your bank: sign in on the bank's website (not the app, which often can't do it), open the account, and look for “Download”, “Export” or “Statements”. Choose CSV, and the dates you want, such as 6 April to 5 April for a whole tax year.
- Your letting agent: ask for your landlord statement “as a CSV or Excel file”. If it comes as Excel, open it and use Save As, then CSV.
- PDF only? A PDF can't be read. Ask for CSV, or add the payments with Add a payment instead.
Agent statement or bank statement? If an agent collects the rent, use their statement where you can. Your bank only sees the rent after their fees are taken off; the agent's statement shows the full rent and each fee, which is what your tax return needs.
A file can be up to 2 MB and 2,000 lines. For more, download a few months at a time.
Step by step
- On Money in and out, press Upload a statement.
- Choose the CSV file. If every line is for one property, pick it under “Which property is it for?”; if not, leave it, and choose for each line in the next step. Press Upload and check. Nothing is added yet.
- Which column is which? We guess from the file and remember your choice for next time. Check the date, the description and the amount. If your bank puts money in and money out in two columns, set those and leave “Amount (in and out in one column)” as None. Press Update the lines after a change.
- Untick anything that isn't about your properties: your own shopping, transfers between your accounts, money you paid in to top up the account.
- Pick a category and a property for each line (see below). Choose Whole portfolio for costs that aren't for one property, like your accountant or your landlord association.
- Press Add ticked lines. You'll go to the tax year of the newest line, with a note of how many were added.
Lines marked Already in your log have the same date, amount and description as a payment you've already got, and are skipped. So it's safe to upload overlapping files: a statement for April to June, then one for June to September, adds June only once.
The check page is kept for an hour. If you leave it longer, upload the file again.
Choosing categories
The category decides where a payment goes on your statement, and whether it counts for tax. We guess it from words in the description, and after your first upload, from what you chose last time for the same description. So the second month's upload is mostly done for you. Check every guess before you add.
| On your statement | Category |
|---|---|
| Rent from a tenant or agent | Rent received |
| Agent's commission, tenant-find fee, inventory | Letting agent and management fees |
| Mortgage payment on an interest-only mortgage | Mortgage interest and fees |
| Mortgage payment on a repayment mortgage | Split it: see below |
| Plumber, boiler repair, decorating between tenants | Repairs and maintenance |
| New kitchen, extension, loft conversion | Improvements (adding value) |
| A new fridge or sofa replacing an old one | Replacing furniture and appliances |
| Gas safety, electrical report, EPC | Safety certificates |
Repair or improvement? Putting something back as it was, with today's equivalent, is a repair and counts against this year's tax. Making the property better than it was, or adding something new, is an improvement: it doesn't reduce income tax, but keep the receipt, because it reduces capital gains tax when you sell.
Lines that need care
Repayment mortgage payments
Each payment is part interest, which counts for tax, and part capital, which doesn't, so recording the whole payment as interest overstates your costs. The simplest fix: untick the mortgage lines, then use Add a payment twice, with figures from your lender's annual statement: the year's interest under Mortgage interest and fees, and the capital under Mortgage capital repaid.
Lenders' statements often run January to December, not 6 April to 5 April. Ask your lender for the interest paid in the tax year; most will send it on request. If the split is the same each month, you can instead add the two parts once with “Repeat” set to every month.
Rent paid net of fees
If your bank shows £720 from the agent for a £850 rent with £130 of fees taken off, recording £720 as rent understates both your rent and your costs. Use the agent's statement instead. Or untick that line and use Add a payment twice: £850 as Rent received and £130 as Letting agent and management fees.
A rental account that's also your own
Every personal line has to be unticked by hand. If you can, keep a separate bank account for the rentals: uploads become quick, and your accountant will thank you.
Deposits
A tenant's deposit isn't rent: it's theirs and goes into a protection scheme. Untick it. If you keep some at the end of a tenancy to pay for damage, record that part as Other income.
Lines marked “No amount” or “No date we could read”
Check the column choices first. If the file uses commas for pence (like 1.234,56), it was saved with European settings: save it again with UK settings, or add those lines by hand.
If something went wrong
Every upload can be undone in one go. On Money in and out, under Recent uploads, press Undo this upload. It removes every payment that file added, including any you've changed since, and leaves the ones you typed in yourself. Then upload it again.
To fix just one line, tap it in Money in and out to open it, then change it or delete it.