Import a bank statement PDF into Sage Accounting: file formats, CSV layout and tie-out

You have bank or card statements as PDFs and the books are in Sage Accounting (formerly Sage Business Cloud Accounting). Maybe the bank feed doesn't reach back far enough, or the account was never connected. This guide covers what Sage Accounting can take, how to shape the file, and how to check every month before it goes in. It's about the cloud product, not Sage 50, which has its own import steps.

Sage publishes separate help sites by country. The pages cited here are from its UK and Canada knowledge bases; menus and options in your region may differ slightly, so check your own import screen.

Can Sage Accounting import a PDF statement directly?

Not through its own statement import, going by its help pages. The file types Sage lists are OFX, ASO, QIF, CSV, XLS and XLSX (Sage: supported file formats for bank statement imports), and its Canadian page adds BAI2 and CAMT053 (Sage: how to import bank statements). PDF isn't on either list.

For PDF-only statements, Sage points to AutoEntry, a separate Sage product you sign up for and connect to Sage Accounting. You upload the PDF there, and Sage says processing can take up to 4 hours before you export the transactions to a Sage bank account (Sage: import a bank statement using AutoEntry). We haven't checked AutoEntry's pricing. The other route is to convert the PDF to a CSV yourself: see how to convert a bank statement PDF to CSV.

Before you start

• Statement import works for checking (chequing), savings and credit card accounts. Sage says it doesn't support file imports for Cash in Hand, Loan, Other or foreign currency accounts (Sage; Sage: import bank statement).
• You can't import transactions dated before your Accounts Start Date (Sage). If your oldest statement is earlier than that, sort out the start date first.
• Sage's Canadian page says to import historical bank statements before you connect a bank feed (Sage).

Shape a CSV that Sage Accounting can read

Sage gives two CSV layouts and offers a template for each on the import screen (Sage: supported file formats):

• Three columns: Date, Description, Amount, in that order. Money in and money out both go in Amount, and payments out must be negative.
• Four columns: Date, Description, Money in, Money out, in that order. Payments in go in Money in, payments out in Money out.
• Dates: separated by slashes, as in 04/01/2021. When you upload, you pick the date format the file uses (Sage), and the Canadian troubleshooting list says all dates must use the same format (Sage).
• Description: can't be blank, and each one must be on a single line, so watch for line breaks copied from a PDF.
• Amounts: numbers only, so remove currency symbols.
• Extra columns: allowed, but each header must match one of the names Sage lists, such as Reference, Payee name or Cheque number. A column with any other header, like a running balance, should be deleted first.
• Size: Sage gives a 250 MB maximum for OFX and QIF files and says an OFX file with several accounts only imports the first one. We didn't find a CSV size or row limit on the pages we read, so one statement-month per file is the safe choice. For XLS or XLSX files only the first tab is read (Sage).

1. Tie out each month before you import

A clean import doesn't show that every transaction on the statement made it into the file. Check each statement-month first:

1. Opening balance + deposits − withdrawals = closing balance, using the figures printed on the statement, to the cent.
2. Compare your totals with the statement's summary box (total deposits, total withdrawals) so you know which side is short if it misses.
3. Chain the months: each closing balance equals the next statement's opening balance.
4. Spot-check the first and last days of the period and the largest few items against the PDF.

The full method, with a worked example, is in check a bank statement PDF is complete before you import it. Our free tie-out checker runs in your browser and shows the row where a CSV stops balancing.

2. How far back the bank feed reaches

Sage's Canadian bank feeds page says you can download transactions from the last 90 days, that this varies by bank, and that for anything older you import your bank statement or enter the transactions by hand before connecting the feed (Sage: how to set up bank feeds). When you connect, you enter a Start Date for downloaded transactions; Sage suggests the day after your last bank reconciliation. Months before that have to come from your statements.

3. Avoid duplicates

• The pages we read don't say that a statement import skips lines a bank feed already brought in, so don't rely on that. Import only the months before the feed's first transaction, and end the last file the day before it.
• Sage says to finish any statement import you've started before you set up a feed, to avoid duplicate transactions (Sage).
• Imported lines carry an Imported label next to bank feed transactions, so you can tell them apart (Sage).
• If you use AutoEntry, Sage says its export calendar shows the dates of transactions already exported in blue (Sage).

4. Import the file

1. Go to Banking and find the account. Sage's UK page says Actions → Import statement; its Canadian page says the dropdown arrow beside Connect to bank → Import statement (Sage; Sage).
2. Upload the file and select the date format it uses.
3. In the verification step, Sage shows a sample transaction and asks whether it's money coming into or going out of the account, then applies your answer to the rest (Sage). Look at the sample carefully: getting this wrong flips every line.
4. Review the transactions, fix errors, then confirm the import. Sage keeps your choices for the next import and offers an option to import without review (Sage). Leave review on while you catch up.

Import months oldest first, one month per file, and process the incoming transactions (match, create or transfer) before the next one.

5. Reconcile each month to its statement

• Open the account in Banking, select Reconcile, enter the Statement Date and the Statement End Balance (the closing balance on the statement), then Apply (Sage: reconcile your bank account).
• Tick each transaction that matches the statement. Sage says to finish only when all transactions are reconciled, the reconciled balance matches the target balance and the difference is zero. The same process applies to credit cards (Sage).
• If the difference isn't zero after a month you tied out, a line is missing, doubled or has the wrong sign, most often from the money in/out choice in step 4.

Using LedgerReady files in Sage Accounting

• Plain CSV: it has five columns: Date (YYYY-MM-DD), Description, Amount (one signed column), Running Balance and Category. The first three are Sage's three-column layout in the right order, with payments out negative. Before importing, delete Running Balance and Category (neither is a header Sage lists), and change the dates to a slash format such as MM/DD/YYYY, then pick that format at upload. We haven't tested this file in Sage Accounting.
• Xero CSV: its columns are *Date, *Amount, Payee, Description, Reference, which isn't the order or header names Sage asks for. Use the plain CSV instead.
• QBO file: Sage doesn't list .qbo. Our .qbo file is OFX-based, but we haven't tested it in Sage Accounting, so use the plain CSV.
• For card statements, Sage's pages don't say which sign a card CSV should use; the money in/out question in the verification step is where it's decided. Import one month first and check that purchases come in as money out and payments as money in. See credit card statement PDF to CSV for the sign rules.

Other formats compared: QBO vs CSV vs OFX. Using Wave, Zoho Books or FreshBooks instead? See Wave, Zoho Books or FreshBooks.

Where LedgerReady fits

If you'd rather not convert and check each month yourself, LedgerReady turns digital statement PDFs into a QBO file, a Xero CSV, a plain CSV and a tie-out sheet showing every month matches its opening and closing balance. It costs $15 per statement-month, and we aim to deliver within 12 hours. Tie-out guarantee: if the output doesn't reconcile to the statement's opening and closing balances and we can't fix it, you don't pay for that statement.

Bank menus change; labels here were accurate to our knowledge in Oct 2026, so check your bank's help pages if something differs.